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News

Saturday Selections – Sept. 16, 2023

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles...

The terrific trunk! (8 min)

"The elephant's truck is the Swiss Army Knife of the animal kingdom..."

Chinese economy won't surpass US?

Experts have long been predicting that China's economy would pass (or had already passed) the United States' economy very soon. But now Bloomberg has published a forecast that says if China surpasses the US it will only be briefly before sinking below soon after.

But why would a nation 3 to 4 times the US in population not grow past them economically? This article only gives the barest explanation, but God's Word tells us more. China's economy is more centrally planned than the US, and such top-down planning presumes leaders have an omniscience that only God actually possesses. Communism (and socialism too) is also predicated on villainizing the rich and while China's economy isn't as strictly communist as it was, the government still has little respect for private property. So, we see here the sins of arrogance, envy, and theft. Add to that China's decades-long and only just ended One-Child Policy, which treated children as a curse and not as the blessing they are, and you have the explanation for their coming demographic crisis: a married couple will have two sets of parents and four sets of grandparents, but no aunts or uncles, cousins or siblings, to help them with their care. In the workforce there are also fewer and fewer young people to support the aging population. While the US has its own sins plaguing it in these same areas, China is going to do worse because they are embracing their sins even more fervently.

Imagine then, what blessings a country might experience if they turned back to God?

We didn't force anyone to be vaccinated - Justin Trudeau

Maybe it's not surprising that the pro-choice Trudeau can't admit that he forced others to do with their bodies as he demanded. And he's not the only world leader to resort to doublespeak.

Language learning app Duolingo normalizing LGBT

As Jonathon Van Maren reports, the popular app that helps kids learn any language they want is deliberately inserting LGBT characters into their stories and sentences.

Is Christian nationalism Christian?

Do we want our nation to be un-Christian? Was our nation better when it was more Christian? Does "Christian nationalism" mean using the government to impose Christianity on an unwilling populace? How is this term "Christian nationalism" being used by different groups? John Stonestreet has some questions, provides a few answers, and has an upcoming online presentation this Sept. 26th where he hopes to get help providing more.

Philadelphia's soda tax 5 years later

Should North Americans drink less soda? Quite likely. More to the point, should the government make it so? And does God's Word have anything to say about it?

The video below is by a libertarian, not a Christian, so it only presents some of the problems. The Bible's teaching on favoritism (Lev. 19:15) would bar us from penalizing one producer over another. It would also dissuade us from issuing taxes that target the poor (Is. 10:1-2, Prov. 28:3). And Samuel's warning against kings (1 Samuel 8:10-18) would have us leery of a government that thinks there are no limits to what it can involve itself in, even to what choice of beverage we make. A biblical understanding of Man's fallen nature, and his fallibility, also point us in the direction of much smaller, more limited government, recognizing that no one can competently micromanage thousands or millions of other people's lives.

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News

Saturday Selections – Sept. 9, 2023

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... Can AI ever become conscious? (10 min) As computers become more powerful, will they ever become...
Christian education, News

How’s this for a graduate profile?

Marcus Schroeder had 4 minutes to call his city to repentance. The 19-year-old was ready. **** As parents, teachers, and students, we put a lot of e...
News

Saturday Selections – Sept. 2, 2023

Cessationist trailer Click below for the trailer of a great new documentary that takes on "cessationism," the belief that the miraculous gifts of the...
News

John Calvin: Florida state attorney?

John Calvin showed up at a press conference in Florida earlier this month, as Governor Ron DeSantis introduced the state’s newest state attorney, An...
News

Saturday Selections – Aug 26, 2023

Click on the titles below for the linked articles and videos. Canadians pay more to government than for housing, food, and clothing combined Over the last 60 years the cost of clothing is 7 times higher, food 9 times, and housing is 19 times higher.  But the biggest increase of all has been taxes, 28 times higher than they were in 1961. Samuel warned the Israelites that a king would demand 10% of their goods – what the Lord Himself required! Canadians are paying more than 4 times that to their government. PM's cross-country vacation is hypocritical... but, more importantly, instructive News media will often hype political hypocrisy to get outraged readers to click thru. But instead of blowing a gasket, Christians should recognize hypocrisy for the insight it offers. God tells us that our actions can give lie to our words - someone might "profess to know God, but they deny him by their works" (Titus 1:16a). Our actions speak louder than our words. So when someone is hypocritical, it's actually instructive, with their actions telling us what they really believe. Canada's prime minister has called climate change an "existential threat" – a threat to our very existence. Yet this past month Justin Trudeau flew his family across the country for a vacation in BC. All that carbon... simply for pleasure. Then he'll head 5,500 kilometers the other way for a 3-day retreat with all of his cabinet in Prince Edward Island where they will discuss, among other things, climate change. That's a lot more carbon for meetings that could have been held right there in Ottawa... if carbon emissions needed to be a consideration. The PM is big on climate politics, and it certainly plays well at the polls, but his actions tell us that he really doesn't think climate change is that big of a deal. It certainly isn't important enough to get him to change his lifestyle. The tawdry and creepy origins of Barbie Barbie was modeled after a German doll known for her double entendres. But this article's most significant paragraph highlights a different sort of influence Barbie may have had: "Where young girls used to care for baby dolls, presumably projecting themselves as a wife and mother, far more girls today envision themselves one day being fiercely independent, fashionable, and seemingly successful like Barbie..." Manitoba residential school excavation turns up no bodies Claims two years ago of a mass grave at a residential school in Kamloops started a period of national mourning. No digging has been done there, but in a Manitoba residential school where digging just finished, no bodies were found. Does that mean nothing happened at these schools? No. But claims do need to be substantiated - as Mark Penninga wrote, the truth matters. As a Christian I went down the AI rabbit hole... ...and here are 12 things he discovered. Story of a deaf tennis championship comeback Haven't seen this yet, but the trailer caught my kid's attention. Subpar production values, but the educational aspect – getting some understanding of what it is like to be deaf – might still make this a good one for the family. It comes to theaters in September. ...

News

Saturday Selections – Aug 19, 2023

Click on the titles below to head to the linked articles. What grandma's chili recipe tells us about the trustworthiness of the Bible We don't have the original manuscripts of the Bible, so how do we know that what we have is accurate? Todd Friel explains by way of this really helpful analogy. Using the climate change scare to promote abortion As author Tom Harris shows here, climate catastrophists have long been telling us that children are a curse on the planet, and not the blessing that God declares them to be (Ps. 127:3). That their solution is clearly wrong also gives us reason to suspect their diagnostic abilities. Canadian offered death as a "treatment option" for her mental health crisis  She came looking for help, was told none was to be had, and was offered "medical assistance in dying" instead. Evolution is "settled science"? Really? Which theory of evolution? "Darwinian evolution assumes much of what it needs to be explained. For instance, consider the origin of light-sensitive cells that rearranged to become the first eye, or the blood vessels that became the first placenta. How did these things originate? According to one University of Indiana biologist, 'we still do not have a good answer. The classic idea of gradual change, one happy accident at a time,' he says, 'has so far fallen flat.'"  Pastoring in a pandemic: of grey hair and glory "I am not against those who decided to defy the government. They were, I believe, seeking to honor God. Many times I wanted to just say enough is enough. But I hope those (in America) who promoted their faithfulness can also appreciate that there was another type of faithfulness happening that was perhaps even more challenging in certain respects..." How has John Calvin influenced WORLD magazine? In this 2009 clip, former WORLD editor Marvin Olasky explains how John Calvin influenced his Christian news magazine. What he says about WORLD is, in large part, what we aspire to here at RP too. ...

News

500 days later: Covid protestors still locked up without trial or bail

Although Covid and the truckers' convoy have been relegated to a part of our memories that many would prefer to keep locked up and left alone, there are unresolved issues. Few Canadians realize that there are four Canadians who are still locked up and being held without a trial and without bail on charges of “conspiracy to commit murder” in connection with protests at the Coutts border crossing in Alberta. It has been well over 500 days since Chris Lysak, Chris Carbert, Anthony (Tony) Olienick, and Jerry Morin were arrested, yet no trial has taken place. The denial of bail to the four is particularly unusual. “These are political prisoners, pure and simple” shared trucker Gord Magill in an opinion piece for Newsweek. “They are being denied basic rights due to even the most violent of criminals because they are on the wrong side of the Trudeau government. They are being used as a fig leaf, the last shred of Trudeau's legitimacy for invoking The Emergencies Act and for the massive overreach of freezing bank accounts and seizing assets that it incurred.” So how can Christians evaluate a situation like this? We might have our sympathies and opinions, but there is a lot here we just don’t know and aren’t really in a position to evaluate. For example, we don’t know if Magill’s claims are true. We also don’t know if these four are guilty or innocent of the crimes they are charged with. But we can hear Solomon’s warning in Ecclesiastes 8:11 that “when the sentence for a crime is not quickly carried out, people’s hearts are filled with schemes to do wrong.” If these men are innocent, that they’ve spent more than a year in jail is outrageous. And if they are guilty, this delay in justice will only foster mischief....

News

Saturday Selections – Aug 12, 2023

Vehicular instinct (2 min) SplendourBog was a Christian folk group back in the late 90s. This thank-you to Dad for his automotive advice, along with their tribute to the Coquihalla, were big fan favorites. Is Creation a secondary issue? The opening chapters of Genesis explain why we die, why there is brokenesss in the world, why we have a sin nature, and why Jesus had to come and die for us. So Creation is, in fact, a primary issue! CRC Synod 2023: disguised gains The CRC Synod is done for the year, and this quick overview hits both the high and low lights. The government can't be your friend The UK government appointed a "Minster for Loneliness" back in 2017, and now a US senator is proposing they do something similar. But as John Stonestreet writes: "It is a very modern belief...that all problems can be solved through the proper application of technique and the effective use of technology. This illusion only contributes to the expansion of state power. After all, who else can be trusted to properly apply the technologies that promise to solve our problems? Under this illusion, there is less and less room to look to God for help. Consequently, there is less and less concern for how He created the universe, including human beings, to function in the first place. If there’s no real motivation to seek out our intended design, there’s even less reason to seek out the Designer, and on and on it goes." Hottest day in 125,000 years? Reports that this past July 4 was the hottest day ever for the last 125,000 years presume an evolutionary time scale. But evolution also presumes that in the more distant past the world was much hotter still. So why do they care? And, as this secular take asks, how really do they know? "The idea that we know the global temperature today is absurd in itself. But the idea that we actually know what it was on a given day 100 years ago, or 1000 years ago, never mind thousands of years ago is sheer fraud." The easiest trick shots ever Are your kids looking for a challenge? These "easy" trick shots might serve as inspiration for some pretty cool contests inside and outside. ...

News

Court case to challenge Quebec’s ban on “overt prayer” in school
News

Canada's highest court declines churches' appeal over Covid restrictions
News

Saturday Selections – Aug 5, 2023

Unintended consequences In socialist states like the USSR, the government's central planning failed because people are complicated and to correctly p...
News

Saturday Selections – July 29, 2023

The scaremongers are wrong (7 min) While no one in this video is professedly Christian, the battle is over whether we're going to understand Man as t...
News

Saturday Selections – July 22, 2023

What would you say to the claim porn improves relationships? Porn has become so pervasive that some will now, without shame, discuss their viewing of it, and even defend it as a good thing. For Christians, though, there is no debate: Jesus said watching pornography is adultery (Matt 5:28), and, going back further still to the 10th Commandment, God prohibits coveting your neighbor's wife. And there are also practical objections, as detailed in the video below. Homeschooling boys One reason boys might be falling behind girls at school: "How long can you sit still, be quiet, and pay attention? We find no difference on that parameter comparing a 40-year-old woman with a 40-year-old man. But when we compare a 6-year-old girl with a 6-year-old boy, we find that the average 6-year-old boy can sit still, be quiet, and pay attention for only about half as long as the average 6-year-old girl. He may be sitting still and being quiet, but he is not paying attention." Does the Church need to lead on smartphones? As more research shows that smartphones are a trigger for all sorts of serious problems for teens, parents face the problem of how to act. No smartphones until 16 might sound nice, but if one family implements this policy on their own, it only means that their kids will be frozen out of the conversations their classmates are having online. That's not that helpful. So, should the government step in? That has downsides too, as Bonnie Kristian shares. So who can help? Might the local congregation be able to rally families to work together? 10 roadtrip conversation starters Your kidlets are in the back dozing and you have miles to go before you arrive at your vacation destination - it's a chance for some meaningful conversation with your better half. Here's 10 questions to kick things off. Correcting the actual misinformation about gender ideology It seemed that in times past, when the media mislead us it was because they were giving only half the story. It was a lie of omission, certainly, but the facts they did share were actually facts. Today, they seem willing to just lie. No, humans aren't 99% chimp By one measure, humans share 60% of our DNA with bananas. But no one thinks that makes us 60% fruity. So why the fixation the stat that we share 99% of the DNA of chimps... especially since it isn't even true? A boomwhacker brawl Just some Dutch guys making music... and channeling the Three Stooges. ...

News

Peace, peace? Will the CRC be lulled into losing their way?

Is there a spiritual war going on behind the scenes in the Christian Reformed Church? Oh yes, says member Phil Reinders, in a June 5 column in the Christian Courier, published just before this year’s synod. “…the Church is being played. We are unaware of a larger battle going on, one not against flesh and blood, but against the powers and principalities. …there is a spirit of the age that is binding and blinding the church…” Those familiar with the CRC will recall that 2022’s synod formally adopted a “Human Sexuality Report” reaffirming homosexuality as sinful. This year’s synod has confirmed it yet again. However, after taking these two steps forward, the denomination’s Calvin University took one big step back, granting every faculty member who filed a “gravamen” – a formal statement of disagreement – with Synod’s decision, their approval for continued employment. Synod 2023 pushed to 2024 a decision that might have challenged the university’s decision. So Phil Reinders’ warning might have us respond with a hearty “Amen,” and “Preach it brother!” Can’t the CRC leadership see that freeing erring university professors to continue influencing the next generation is a good way to turn this recent victory into a long-term defeat? But sadly, Reinders isn’t cautioning against a CRC slide into sexual lawlessness. Nope, he is worried about how making big of sexual orthodoxy might cause division in the church. “Our best witness to the world won’t be a particular stance on sexual ethics, whatever your position might be. At any time, but certainly in this moment of fracture and antagonism, the church’s best witness is a practiced unity in the body of Christ…” He cites Scripture passages such as James 3:17-18 and Ephesians 4:3 which praise peace and peacemakers. He’s preaching unity. Above all. What God has said about what is good and best for everyone when it comes to sexuality, and being created male and female, and husbands’ and wives’ roles in marriage, all of that doesn’t matter. Not if it disrupts unity. For those of us on the outside looking in, it’s worth considering how an appeal for unity – which God Himself encourages us towards – can be used to oppose God. When anything, even the best of things like love, unity, and truth, are presented as the ultimate good, they become not a means to worship God, but a replacement for Him – this is unity as an idol. Just consider what this sort of unity would look like. CRC members are being asked to tolerate those who differ and we know what it would look like on the one side: practicing homosexuals being elevated to positions as elders and deacons and pastors, couples getting “married” in the church, and their relationships celebrated. Tolerance would mean homosexuals being loud and proud about their sexuality inside their local congregations. Anything else wouldn’t respect who they are. And what of those on the other side? What of those convinced that God condemns homosexuality, and that gay “marriages” are two people dangerously committing themselves to ongoing rebellion against their Maker for as long as they both shall live? Will the orthodox side be tolerated if they speak their piece during the “any objections” part of the ceremony? Will they be tolerated if they won’t stop pleading for their homosexual friends to repent and turn back to the God Who knows what is the very best for them? No. We know better. They’ll be told to be respectful. Be loving. And be quiet. Jeremiah warned against those who preached “peace, peace when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14, 8:11). Sometimes battles are unavoidable. The unity on offer here is only a trick that will be used to silence God’s truth about sexuality in the CRC… just as our culture most desperately needs to hear that truth from the church. And Phil Reinders is either preaching this impossible unity in ignorance, or, like he said, “the Church is being played.”...

News

Saturday Selections – July 15, 2023

Dr. Van Dam talking creation with ICR (41 min) Reformed Perspective contributor, author, and professor Dr. Cornelis Van Dam recently did a guest appearance on the Institute for Creation Research's In the Beginning podcast. Wildfires got you worried about a coming climate apocalypse? (10-min read) Then the first graph in this article will be encouraging! MrBeast video shows the self-serving nature of democracy when it is unrestrained by Christianity George W. Bush tried to export democracy to the Middle East, seemingly seeing it as a good all in itself. But Christians need to understand that democracy only worked as well as it has because it's been tried in countries that were largely Christian. A godless mob will elect godless rule. Comparing COVID-era deaths across countries While I've forgotten a lot of the "Science" presented during COVID, one thing that's stuck was the many predictions of how terribly Sweden would do, since it wasn't locking down like the rest of the world. Now the BBC is reporting on "average death rates from March 2020 to February 2023 compared with the five years before." The table below doesn't count deaths attributed specifically to COVID, but instead compares all the deaths in a year to the rate at which death was happening the five years before. And by that measure Sweden did spectacularly, and better than all but one of the ten countries considered. It is, of course, an apples to oranges comparison as no two countries have the same demographics, living arrangements, and lifestyles. But it is still the very opposite of what was predicted. WWII German pro-euthanasia film was banned then; might have won an Oscar today "Those who advance euthanasia and doctor-assisted suicide laws... should have to demonstrate just how their arguments differ from Nazi propaganda. If they cannot or will not, it is more evidence that this movement, expanding rapidly around the world, should be stopped." Roe vs. Wade: one year later Great satiric video showing what pro-choicers are really saying, if only we remove the varnish. ...

News

Saturday Selections – July 8, 2023

Prove it David Crowder, a little more up-tempo than usual... and now with monster trucks! What were the "waters above"? Four creationist possibilities are on offer here. Dutch king's slavery apology falls short The King of the Netherlands recently offered an apology for his country's role in the slave trade. But "for an apology to be any good, it must be accompanied by sincere efforts at restitution, as well as the resolve to not offend again." The former is practically impossible, but the latter is quite do-able. However the Dutch continue victimizing Africans by funding the murder of their unborn citizens. An open secret: social contagion is driving the astronomic rise in teen gender dysphoria (10-min read) The explosion of gender confusion shows it this is a social contagion – it can be caught. But that's an inconvenient fact to those busy spreading the contagion Organ donations and "presumed consent" "In a spiraling culture of death, Canadian jurisdictions disregard bodily autonomy by opting in residents by default." These beetles are da bomb! A former evolutionary professor Dr. Jobe Martin, explores a bug that makes chemicals that explode! How did it evolve this ability when an error could blow itself up? ...

News

A Big Win for Free Speech from the US Supreme Court
News

Brain surgery in the womb!

“Look, it’s not brain surgery” is a saying for a reason. Brain surgery is a delicate task that needs a lot of experience to do successfully. Whi...
News

Saturday Selections – July 1, 2023

Got some bored kids? Are your kids are looking for some summer holiday inspiration? These Dude Perfect juniors are doing amazing trick shots that mig...
News

Alberta and BC champion very different responses to drug use
News

Saturday Selections – June 24, 2023

A seed that walks? Absolutely awn-some! (5 min) These seeds can walk and dig themselves into the ground! Psychology's culpability in the transgender movement The transgender movement's devilish overreach – trying to force us to say boys can be girls and girls can be boys – clarifies for us what Paul meant when he said the wisdom of the world is foolishness in the sight of God (1 Cor. 3:19). "Experts" can be delusional. We're in freefall because we've never had it so good (10-minute read) Prosperity is blamed here as a key culprit for our culture's ongoing decline in civility. Good diagnosis, but this secular article offers no hope. However, there is hope. Some 300 years ago. Cotton Mather explained that: "Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother." If the good times have our nation turning from our good God, then the solution is to urge them to repentance. Most US teens are watching porn regularly This is a must-read for parents, which has help to offer. The Synod of Dort and the Sabbath (10-minute read) Today many evangelicals might argue that there are 9 Commandments and not 10. However, in the article linked above Dr. Bredenhof weighs in on how the Synod of Dort made the case for 10, and Pastor Wilson offers a very different defense in his 11 Theses on the Glory of the Lord's Day. How do Canada's 2001 climate predictions measure up? (11 min) Today's Canadian government is increasing the cost of energy based on dire predictions of what will happen to the climate if they don't. But how good is the government at prognostication? Are they prophets or pretenders? In the video below, John Robson takes a look back at Canada's 2001 climate predictions and asks, if they got it wrong then, why should we trust that they are reliable today? ...

News

2023 wildfires an exception to three decades of declining fires

As millions of Canadians and Americans have been exposed to the smoke from Canadian forest fires already this year, along with a steady stream of media coverage, they would be forgiven for coming to a similar conclusion as Prime Minister Trudeau, who recently tweeted “We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change.” But as Dr. Ross McKitrick, professor of environmental economics at the University of Guelph, explained in the Financial Post, Trudeau’s statement is wrong twice over. Pointing to publicly-available data from the Wildland Fire Information System, McKitrick said that wildfires have in fact been getting less frequent in Canada over the past 30 years. “The annual number of fires grew from 1959 to 1990, peaking in 1989 at just over 12,000 that year, and has been trending down since. From 2017 to 2021 (the most recent interval available), there were about 5,500 fires per year, half the average from 1987 to 1991.” The same is true for the amount of area burned, which also peaked 30 years ago at 7.6 million hectares, far above the current average of 2.4 million. McKitrick also pointed to global data which shows a similar decline in wildfires in recent decades. One reason why fires are getting so much attention this year is because 5.29 million hectares have already burned in 2023, and we are still relatively early in the season. Another reason why fires are getting more attention is because they seem to be getting more dangerous, spreading quickly and threatening entire towns. Is it due to global warming? McKitrick offers another explanation, quoting from forestry experts Stefan Doerr and Cristina Santin: “ aggressive fire suppression policies over much of the 20th century have removed fire from ecosystems where it has been a fundamental part of the landscape rejuvenation cycle…. We cannot completely remove fire from the landscape…That is the misconception that led to the ‘100 per cent fire suppression’ policies in the U.S. and elsewhere that have made things worse in many cases.” In the past government agencies, and even private land owners, have used “prescribed burns” – deliberately lit and managed fires – to burn away undergrowth. When done with some regularity these are lower temperature fires, clearing the ground but without burning the trees down. 100 per cent fire suppression policies do away with these burns, and as McKitrick explained, “this has led to a buildup of fuel in the form of woody debris leading to the risk of more explosive and unstoppable fires.” God has entrusted us with stewardship of His creation (Genesis 1:28) and part of stewardship requires an accurate understanding of this creation, including the importance of fires for healthy forests. Picture is of fires near Hope, BC earlier this year (edb3_16 / iStockphoto.com)....

News

RP's 2023 Summer Photo Contest: a different perspective on God's World

Last year we invited you to show us how you were enjoying God this summer. This time we’d like to put a twist to the same idea. We’re calling our theme “A Different Perspective on God’s World.” So please explore God’s creation, his flowers and forests, the Heavens that declare His glory, and the people He has put here, and then put a unique spin on the presentation. Maybe that means a closeup, or shot from high up above. Maybe it means a different perspective on a topic, like trying to take a photo of oxygen or sound. Might it involve an artistic use of Black and White? Perhaps… but that’s up for you to decide.  We hope this theme will inspire, but we’re not trying to use it to limit your creativity. So take your picture and then send it along with a caption of one or two sentences highlighting how this is a different angle on God’s world. So get out there and start clicking! Categories: Children and youth (under 18) Adults (18+) Rules: Maximum 3 entries per person Must be an original photo, taken this year Include a line to explain how the photo relates to the theme (max. 100 words) Provide permission to RP to publish your photo online and/or in print if selected Include the name of the photographer and photo title, and for the under 18 entries, the photographer's age. Prizes: Winner and runner-up for both categories will be printed in Reformed Perspective • Winner of each category will receive a $100 gift certificate to ChristianBooks.com; runner-up will receive a $75 gift certificate. Deadline: Send your photo (high-resolution) to [email protected] before Aug 15, 2023 ...

News

Dodgers honor drag queen “nuns”

CORRECTION: The original title for this article was "Dodgers honor drag queen 'nuns' in front of empty stadium" was true, as videos showed that when the nuns were honored before the game, very few people were in attendance. But it turns out, they showed up afterwards, so we've edited the article to reflect that.   **** In May, the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team extended an invitation to the "Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence," a self-proclaimed queer and drag order of nuns, to receive the team’s Community Hero Award. This “order” is defined by what it mocks: the Roman Catholic Church. Conservative Christian groups voiced strong objections, which prompted the Dodgers to rescind their invitation.  This, then, sparked controversy among progressive groups. The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence released a statement asserting that their organization is based on love, acceptance, and celebrating human diversity. But their performances contradict this claim.  For example, each year, they organize an Easter event that includes a "hunky Jesus and foxy Mary" contest. Drag queens dress in skimpy outfits, imitating Jesus and even simulating crucifixion, with another drag queen pole dancing on the "Jesus" figure. The event also features a character called "Fesus," hatched from an egg, who claims to be the alpha and omega. Fesus mockingly proclaims:  "I was born 30 seconds ago, yet I was created with no beginning, no middle, and no end. Sent from the heavens to slay and take away the sins of the world."  Due to pressure from progressive factions, the Dodgers organization ultimately reversed its decision, issuing a Twitter statement that expressed apologies to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and their friends and family. And they re-invited the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence to a pride night event on June 16 where they received an award from the Dodgers for their work in the community. In the face of such open hostility, how can Christians respond? 1. Remain steadfast  The Dodgers organization appears very concerned with pleasing people. However, as Christians, our focus must be on faithfully following God's commands (Galations 1:10). The Bible forewarns us about facing persecution and being judged, as expressed in 1 Corinthians 4:3-4, where Paul affirms,  "But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me."  When we stand firm in the truth revealed in God's Word, we should expect judgment and slander. Yet, we should adopt Paul's attitude toward such judgment, recognizing that our ultimate accountability lies with God alone. 2. Educate our children  The Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort, all provide a solid understanding of what we believe and why we believe it. And so too does Pastor Chris Gordon’s New Reformation Cathechism on Human Sexuality. While catechizing can present challenges, it is an immensely rewarding endeavor. And if we won’t catechize our children ourselves, then they will be catechised by the world. 3. Consider boycotts  Recent examples, such as Target and Bud Light, garnered backlash for endorsing woke ideologies. According to a report by Fox, Target and Bud Light suffered a combined loss of $28 billion, with even larger figures expected since then. So boycotts can sometimes send a message. 4. Pray for those who oppose us In the famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus instructs us:  "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:43-44).  Jesus commands us to love and pray for the progressive movement. Loving them does not imply tolerating their beliefs, but rather sharing the truth with grace. Let us make it a practice to pray specifically for the LGBT community this pride month. Pray that they would come to repentance and turn from the path that leads to destruction. Create a list of individuals you know or organizations that support this lifestyle and commit to praying for them daily throughout the month. Noah Faber is a member of Cascade Christian Reformed Church in Maryville, Washington. Picture was taken by Ringo Chiu / Shutterstock.com. ...

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