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Saturday Selections – Aug 22, 2026

Why can Modern Art be so ugly?

If you tell me that Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring is your favorite painting, and I prefer a landscape scene of the Rockies by an artist I can't even name, we might agree that our tastes differ, and that's just fine.

But while there is an element of taste to anything artistic, it isn't purely taste. God speaks of beauty and ugliness, and if He has declared some things so, then they are really are so, no matter our tastes. We recognizes intuitively too that beauty has bounds – we might disagree whether a a vase of flowers or an ice sculpture would make the best table centerpiece, but we all know that featuring a pile of dog poo would just be gross.

So why then, is there some popular art that many of us intuitively know to be ugly, but which garners such high praise from the world? Jonathan Pageau argues here that it is the ungodly ideology behind it that grabs people, and while he is speaking more to the artists who make it, it might explain why people buy it too.

Ten-story caves, zero good explanations: the Longyou Grottoes Mystery

In 1992 a few Chinese rice farmers decided to drain a "fish pond" only to discover a mysterious, man-made 10-story cave carved into the rock hundreds or thousands of years ago. Why was it made? No one knows. This is just fun. And written by a Christian with a keen sense of curiosity.

Prof uses trick to catch 32 out of 35 students cheating with AI 

This is newsworthy, not for how clever the prof was, but for the common mistake the students made – they didn't even read what they got AI to write for them. Funny, yes, but how many of us are double-checking (or, rather checking for the first time) the sources of whatever AI-report we've generated?

Canadian family claims their grandmother was euthanized against her wishes

I'm going to predict that no one is going to be held accountable.

That's because, for doctors to continue doling out death, they can't fear that if they make a mistake they'll be held liable for murder. Killing someone against their wishes is supposed to still be understood as murder in Canada, but it won't be in this case. If it was, then you'd find far fewer doctors willing to take up this murderous task and risk the possibility of jail time should one of their murders be done a little too hurried or not quite according to procedure. That's why it won't be.

But might that fear be a way to fight our culture of death even with the horrific laws we currently have? We must continue calling out MAiD for what the murder it is – we can't let any strategizing silence our truth-telling.

But even as we shout God's truth, we can still demand that the state live up to its own "human autonomy is all" worldview, which says that murder is killing people who don't want to die, and MAiD is killing them when they do. We can demand they prosecute medical personal who kill the unwilling! And we can pray that such demands throws the spectre of jail-time over the whole bloody industry.

250 years later: Canada, America, and the gift of difference (10-minute read)

Mark Carney managed to make the last election about America rather than his own government's failings. And Canadians, united in their disgust for Trump's repeated "51st state" jokes, "elbowed up" to the voting booths and cast their ballot against a US president who wasn't even on the ballot. We can blame Trump for his horrible timing, and his even more terrible sense of humor (if it even was a joke – with him, how can you know?) but Canadians should also recognize they got played – Carney pointed to the threat without to have us overlook the threat within.

So how can Canadians avoid getting manipulated this way again? By recognizing that America has vices and virtues. To counter a sweeping anti-American bigotry – and let's remember that God condemns bigotry (Acts 10:34-35) – we need to exercise our biblical worldview, and discern, not between what is Canadian and what is American, but between what God finds condemnable and what He finds praiseworthy.

Talk, don’t listen, to yourself

In the linked article Justin Taylor shares a great excerpt by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the importance of preaching truth to yourself. After all, no one preaches to you more than yourself, and if you're preaching yourself lies, at some point you might starting believing you.

 

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17 Alberta babies survived an abortion and were left to die
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Saturday Selections – Aug 15, 2026

You need to be bored (6 minutes) A psychologist did experiments where people had to sit in a room for 15 minutes with nothing to do. They could sit t...
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Saturday Selections – Aug 8, 2026

Old books – and old comedy skits – can help us see better C.S. Lewis encouraged the reading of old books, because, while times past had their own...
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Sophie Cunningham is tearing down transgender lies, but only God’s people can offer up His Truth
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Saturday Selections – Aug 1, 2026

Here I am Three gents, singing up a storm, with lyrics based on Genesis 22:10-13 – this is a foot-stomping hand-clapping delight! The delightful duty of married sex "God commanding a husband and wife to have sex is like a master commanding his servants to throw a party out of his own larder, using the best wine and best dishes. It’s like a boss commanding his employees to give themselves a raise and a paid vacation to Bali...." "Here you have been commanded, as man and woman, to engage regularly in something that God designed to give you moments of literal ecstasy and unifying, self-forgetful delight. Of all the hobbies you could engage in together — tennis, chess, movies — this is the only hobby you’ve been told not to neglect." A liturgy with a pause – for the killing The Anglican Church of Canada has given out a liturgy to be performed during medically assisted murders. How compassionate. Did BC really just defund SOGI 123?  That's what the Conservative Party was saying, but that isn't quite what happened. As ARPA Canada writes, they did cut funding, but the work already done is already in place. Meet the ad expert who inspired today's anti-population propaganda (10 min. read) God says children are a blessing, but for more than two centuries now, we've had influential figures and forces insisting that more children will kill the planet. This is the story of how that lie was pushed, and an explanation of why it was always shortsighted. This is a longer read, but there is a lot of great history and insight offered up in this article. Maybe the earth is flat? Or, how the Bible helps us address runaway skepticism There are a lot of people pushing lies in the world, whether that's: our public educational system saying, by their silence, that God is irrelevant to anything and everything worth learning evolutionists saying God's fingerprints are not evident in the world all around us government, doctors, and psychologists saying God did not make us male and female, and, in fact, you determine your gender, and you can go from one to the other our judicial systems saying life doesn't begin at conception the UN and others pushing overpopulation hysteria COVID's many government, media, and medical figures making statements with certainty they later revised without apology the 215 bodies reported as buried at a Kamloops residential school With so many "experts" lying to us, how can we know who or what to believe? It's almost enough to have a guy wondering if his crazy conspiracy-spouting friend might have a point. So how can we find the truth of the matter – any matter? In the video below Jeff Durbin gives an answer as to how we can know that the earth is not flat, and here's the principles he touches on: God says that truth can be established on the testimony of two or three eyewitnesses (Deut. 19:15) We have to contend with whatever Scripture has to say on the matter. We can't treat the Bible as irrelevant, or an afterthought, to be refashioned to fit with whatever conclusions we've already come to To expand on these two points a bit, Mark 14:57-59 makes clear that the witnesses do also have to be credible. We can discount witnesses who out themselves with contradictory testimony, including testimony that conflicts with God's Word (2 Peter 2:1-3). Now, if you've met a Christian who holds to a flat earth, he's going to tell you he agrees with these two points. What his mistrust is based on is: not trusting the (mostly) secular experts who discredit themselves by also, for example, speaking of a universe billion of years old... which conflicts with what God tells us in His Word trusting the Bible as being authoritative even when the experts say otherwise So two points follow: We sometimes make the mistake of thinking that a discredited witness proves the opposite, and it isn't so. Would that liars were so reliably consistent, but, sadly, no one is perfect, and that's true even of the liars. So we can't find the truth by just bouncing off the liars, and here that'd mean that even though NASA pushes evolution that does not prove that everything they've said – like the earth being round – is just one more lie in an ongoing never-ending series of lies. What it does mean is, if an issue needs to be settled and is worth investigating then we'll want to find more reliable witnesses to rely on. Which is what we have here in the video below. Sola Scriptura is not the same as Solo Scriptura – the first speaks to the Bible being our authoritative guide, and the second speaks to my interpretation of Scripture being my guide – what the flat earth folk have gotten wrong is how we should read Scripture, and they could benefit from a good Bible study with others that brings up passages that are metaphorical, historical, and even hyperbolic. ...

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Liberal party support highest among boomers

More than any other age group, boomers overwhelmingly support the Liberal Party. A July 2026 poll conducted by Abacus Data asked 4,200 Canadian adults which party they would likely vote for if an election were held that day. 52% of voters who were age 60 and older supported the Liberals, versus 32% voicing support for the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, among all other voting age groups – ages 18 to 29, 30 to 44, and 45 to 59 – support was almost dead even between the Liberals and Conservatives. Why the difference? One possibility was offered up by National Post columnist Amy Hamm, who suggested that seniors are more heavily influenced by left-leaning TV broadcasters such as CBC News than younger age groups, who tend to get news from a wider variety of sources, with a broader ranges of political perspectives. Hamm wrote about the CBC: “Citizens should expect our national broadcaster to engage in nonpartisan news reporting. In years long past, the CBC arguably did… These days, the CBC frames Prime Minister Carney’s failures as successes, and Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as an angry parliamentary jester.” While it can be hard to judge what outlets are trustworthy, Christians have the wisdom from the Lord’s Word to guide our thinking and to test our sources for the wrong biases. Scripture tells us, too, to hear out multiple sources before making judgments, because, as Solomon reminds us, “The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him” (Prov. 18:17)....

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Saturday Selections – July 25, 2026

When they mock the Bible, question the question One of my friend's university professors had, as a clear goal – if I recall right, he even stated it to his class – to convince his conservative Christian students to stop believing in a literal 6-day creation. His tactics involved undermining their trust in the Bible's accuracy, scientifically-speaking. So, in one of his tests he asked students to explain why the Bible only applied the word "barren" to women. After all, we know today that men are as responsible for infertility as women. The answer he wanted students to give? That back in biblical times, they just didn't know better, so they presumed that it was only and always women who were the cause and never men. Thankfully, in our more modern scientific age we, of course, know better than the Bible writers did. That, then, was an example of why we shouldn't trust the Bible over science. My friend found this compelling – though she still believed Jesus was her Savior, the professor's question seemed to convince her that when it came to origins, we should go with the millions of years over the Bible's six-day account. But what if we questioned the question? His students presumed the question was fair, but the prof had an agenda, so why would we simply take his word for it? Does the Bible only speak of women as being barren? And if so, might there be a reason for that, other than that the Bible is unreliable? How might we approach this question if we weren't trying to undermine the Bible? Well, we might ask at least three questions: 1. Do we think the human authors of the Bible were idiots? The question presumes that in OT times, people didn't know men could be responsible for infertility. But these were farmers, raising stock, so they would have known about bulls and rams that couldn't breed. We also read about eunuchs – males made deliberately infertile. Or what of Ruth, whose had no children by her first husband, Mahlon, but had a child, Obed, when she married Boaz? Do we think nobody knew that males could be infertile? 2. If the Bible does only use it with women, why might that be? There are only about a half dozen women in the Bible specifically described as barren, or not able to have children: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth, and Manoah's wife. Then of these six, half – Sarah, Rachel, and Hannah – were in polygamous marriages where their husbands had at least one other wife who was able to have children. So in three of these six we know the man is fertile. Of the other three marriages, is it possible that the woman was infertile and the man was fertile? It could be, couldn't it? So, then, one possible answer to the prof's question – an answer that doesn't concede the Bible's reliability – is that these women might have been described as barren because they were barren. 3. Is the prof's question even true? Does the Bible only describe women as barren? There is at least one instance in which the Bible speaks of males as among those who won't be barren. In Deut. 7:14 Israel is told that if they keep God's commands in this new land “You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle" (NASB). The professor's question wasn't fair and instead of answering it straight up, his students should have challenged the premises. And as this video below highlights, there's other instances too, where Christians really need to question the question. Seventeen babies born alive — and then left to die in Alberta "Seventeen babies were born alive in Alberta following labour-induced late-term abortions in 2025 and left to die..... As a columnist more than 25 years ago, Danielle Smith called such second- and third-trimester abortions a 'horrific practice,' describing how 'nurses used to induce labour then withhold fluids from the baby until it died.'” But now they are happening under her government. Social media pushes pornography on children within minutes, report finds "Social media is now one of the primary pipelines to porn addiction for both children and young adults." 3 thoughts on how to choose your career John Newton, and Tim Keller had this trio of questions: Affinity: Do you enjoy it? Ability: Do others think you can do the job well? Opportunity: Is there an open door? Transgenderism - why we need Logic 101 in our schools "Would you rather have a live son or a dead daughter?" Parents around the world, wondering and confused about whether they should let their daughters "transition," got hit with this question. But was the only way to keep their daughter alive to allow the doctor to put her on experimental drugs to derail her puberty? Did they have to let the surgeon remove her healthy breasts? Dead, or drugged and disfigured? Were there any other possibilities? A false dichotomy is when someone presents an either/or situation when there are actually more than just two choices. Here it's being used to push people in one direction, by highlighting the only other possibility as even more unattractive. But it can show up in other ways. Rick, an abortion advocate, thinks pro-lifers can only speak up for the unborn if they're willing to adopt the children. Shut up, or adopt, he says, those are the only two options. But if someone attacked Rick, would he only expect people to come to his aid if they were also willing to provide food and housing for him? Nope – he'd be happy for any help, even if it didn't come with room and board. Beethoven's wig is very big (Symphony #5) Our school's music teacher had my youngest listening to selections from Beethoven's Wig, a clever musical group who sings lyrics set to the classical music you already know. If you liked this one, be sure to check out their Beep beep beep, also known as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. ...

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Ontario’s “conservative” gov’t opposes bill that would have banned gambling ads

Ontario is awash in new gamblers. As ARPA Canada reported earlier this year: “A recent study found that since iGaming Ontario was introduced, total monthly wagers increased by 654% between April 2022 and August 2025, and the number of active player accounts rose 239%. Calls to Ontario’s mental health and addictions helpline rose at an accelerated annual rate (7% above the previous trend) after iGaming Ontario was introduced in 2022. The highest increase in calls was among young men aged 15 to 24.” The province’s iGaming Ontario reported that in the 2024-25 fiscal year, it oversaw $82.7 billion in total wagers. That amounts to an average of $5,000 being bet, and $180 being lost, by every man, woman, and child in the province. How much revenue does the government get out of this? It’s surprisingly low: a little over $181 million, with the rest going to the private gaming operators. That means the government is overseeing an enormous expansion of gambling, but making only a smidge over $11 per man, woman, and child from it. These iGaming Ontario numbers don’t even account for the billions more spent on the government’s own Ontario Lottery and Gaming. While it’s hard to know just how much is being gambled through its lotteries and other offerings, what is clear is how much it contributes to government coffers: $2.25 billion in 2024-25, or $140 from every man, woman, and child. Earlier this year, billionaire investor Warren Buffett characterized sports gambling as a tax that the rich like because “they don’t have to pay it.” Why don’t they have to pay? Because it is an entirely voluntary tax – if you don’t want to give the government your money, you can simply choose not to gamble. That’s why he also agreed that it was “a tax on stupidity.” But, of course, some people have a hard time not gambling. Various estimates put the number of problem gamblers at 1.1 to 11 percent of Ontarians, or between 160,000 and 1.6 million Ontarians getting hurt by a product their government is pushing on them. As Buffett put it: “I don’t like things that make a sucker out of people. I particularly don’t like them when the government sponsors them. I don’t think the function of the government is to play its people for suckers.” So when a bill was proposed, earlier this year, to ban gambling advertising in Ontario, it was a reason to celebrate. Gambling advertising has gotten inescapable – as ARPA Canada shared, “one analysis in 2024 estimated that Canadian viewers of live sports broadcasts were exposed to 2.8 references to sports betting per minute” (emphasis added). This bill wasn’t going to undo all the damage being done, but it was certainly a step in the right direction. And, all the more remarkably, the bill was being proposed by four members of Ontario’s opposition Liberals. Things are bad indeed when even the Liberals see a need to rein things in. But the ostensibly “conservative” government said no. While they offered up reasons to oppose the Liberals’ bill, what the Conservatives didn’t do was propose an alternative to it – they spoke of the need for moving “thoughtfully and methodically” but in the meantime Ontarians are left with the destructive status quo. What’s wrong with gambling can perhaps be best understood in contrast to other ways we can make money. Gamblers make bets that, should they win, are covered by those who bet the other way and lost – your gain only comes via others’ pain. Meanwhile, if you make money any other legal way, your wealth will come by benefiting others. Whether you are a housepainter or an accountant, the money that you thankfully receive comes from others who are thankful too for what they’ve gotten from you in exchange. Your gain is also their gain. God calls us to love our neighbor, not exploit him, so wealth gained at our neighbor’s expense is an unacceptable way to take in money. More could be said, but for those who think gambling is harmless entertainment I’ll offer up just one more objection. Even if you’ve got your gambling under control, every bet you make is that little bit more motivation for the government to keep at this… to the great harm of many, who aren’t in control of their gambling. If you love your neighbor, you should be lobbying the government to stop pushing, and just simply stop running, such a destructive enterprise....

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Saturday Selections – July 11, 2026

If only Steve Jobs had pitched it this way back in 2007... Back in 2007, if Steve Jobs had pitched the iPhone for everything it helps us do, would w...
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Nearly 60% of violent crime cases now being stayed or withdrawn
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Saturday Selections – July 4, 2026

Lady Pastrix says we need a "Third Testament" If you have liberal Christian family or friends, this is worth sharing. They need to understand that if...
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More homeowners facing insolvency

Canadians have long been struggling with personal debt, but Scott Terrio, a manager at Hoyes, Michalos Licensed Insolvency Trustees told The Hub that ...
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Saturday Selections – June 27, 2026

Envy is a sin. Wealth isn't. If you could make everyone twice as wealthy, would you do it? This is an odd fellow, making a great point about how poverty, not income inequality, is a problem. And secular fellow that he is, he's making that point without even factoring in the 10th Commandment. God cares about the plight of the poor, but nowhere does He condemn Abraham or Solomon for being rich. Envy is a sin. Being rich is not. Poverty is a problem, and one that can only be addressed by trying to "raise the floor" – raising the level of prosperity shared by the lowest income-earners. But concerns expressed about income inequality are simply envy disguised as virtue, and used as a justification for trying to pull down the ceiling – income inequality can be effectively addressed by kneecapping the wealthy to make them less so. Why non-experts can still fruitfully question the "experts" Philosopher J. Budziszewski, author of Pandemic of Lunacy: How to Think Clearly When Everyone Around You Seems Crazy, explains why it is that non-scientific sorts like us can still ask some pretty good, very important questions of the experts. UK report says thousands of girls were systematically raped while the gov't ignored it over optics If you haven't already heard about the rape-gangs in the UK this is going to be even more of a shocker. Authorities in the UK government knew about rape gangs operating in their country, but turned a blind eye to it, because the gangs were made up of Asian immigrants – police and others didn't want to seem racist. The figure that will leap out is the report of 250,000 victims, so it's worth noting that this is an estimate without a lot of firm grounds. But that doesn't mean it is wrong either, or overblown. It could be higher even. But it should be understood as a guess and not a fact. What is a fact is that authorities knew, and chose not to act. Ontario "conservative" gov't opposes opposition bill that would have banned gambling ads "A recent study found that since iGaming Ontario was introduced, total monthly wagers increased by 654% between April 2022 and August 2025, and the number of active player accounts rose 239%. Calls to Ontario’s mental health and addictions helpline rose at an accelerated annual rate (7% above previous trend) after iGaming Ontario was introduced in 2022. The highest increase in calls was among young men aged 15 to 24." It's probably safe to say that not a lot of this newsletter's readership votes for the NDP or Liberals. So it's all the more frustrating that it is the Conservatives who are doing this to our neighbors. And then, when the opposition proposed a way to rein in this runaway train of destruction, the government said no. Sure, they offered up some reasons to oppose the bill, but they didn't propose an alternative to it, making it evident they are fine with the status quo. What's wrong with gambling can perhaps be best understood in contrast with how others seek to become rich. Gamblers make bets that, should they win, are covered by those who bet the other way and lost – your gain is done at the expense of their pain. Meanwhile, if you get money any other (legal) way, your wealth will come to you only by benefiting others. Whether you are a housepainter, an author, or a server, the money that you can be thankful for comes from others who are thankful too, for what they've gotten from you in exchange. Your gain is their gain too. In addition, even if you are a good gambler, the odds are always stacked in favor of the gambling establishment – the government is making huge amounts of money from this, and that has to come from somewhere. So gambling is, over time, going to be a net loser, so even if you weren't hurting others to get your money, you are still making bad use of the "talents" God has entrusted to you. More could be said, but I'll offer up just one more – even if you've got your gambling under control, every bet you make is that little bit more motivation for the government to keep at this... to the great harm of many, who aren't in control of their gambling. If you love your neighbor, you should be lobbying the government to stop pushing, and just simply stop running, such a destructive enterprise. A sea of orange took over Kansas City  You don't have to like soccer to appreciate the intermix of cultures brought about by the World Cup this month. Whether it's Japanese fans cleaning up the stadium afterwards, or this sea of orange-clad Dutch fans, there's been so much to love off the field. This linguistic collapse of late-stage civilization "Take this introduction from a Herald-Sun article during the week: 'Prison authorities were warned not to transfer a transgender murderer to a women’s prison amid warnings they would sexually assault another prisoner if moved.' "A transgender murderer? It’s the sort of phrase that makes English quietly weep in a corner." This article might be inspiration for a great English class assignment... in a Christian school – try and write an assignment in the most politically correct fashion possible, to highlight the insanity. (In a public school they'd assign the same task to encourage sensitivity.) Lost & Found - Running home A quick toe-tapping rhyme based on Psalm 51. ...

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Are you still able?

It used to be different, not all that long ago. Carrie is a teen who always had the kind of contagious smile that would get her friends smiling right back, no matter their mood. She used to shoot hoops with her younger sister after dinner. She enjoyed heart-to-heart chats with her mom while doing her hair. And she treasured many of the devotionals that her dad read to her by the glow of her small bedside lamp. George, a mechanic and all-around handyman, has always counted himself blessed to be married to his wife of 26 years. He was the kind of dad who’d get down on the ground to play with his kids. While three of his kids have moved out, his two youngest children still live at home. George has served as a deacon in his church, where his love of tinkering was a help not only to his own family but to some of the older couples in his ward. Liz’s life changed after losing her husband eight years ago. But she did an amazing job doting on all five of her children, her 23 grandchildren, and the seven great-grandchildren. She’d always make it out for every one of their milestones to give out hugs, and to remind her growing clan of God’s goodness and love. Then, not right away, but over the weeks and months and years, things changed. Carrie’s sister, mom, and grandparents now don’t see much of Carrie. OK, they see her, but not her eyes. Carrie is mostly head down, scrolling on her phone and messaging with people they don’t even know. Her mom has a hard time remembering when they last shared a good chat, or when she last saw her daughter’s beautiful smile. Dad’s devotionals were replaced by someone Carrie follows on Instagram who posts short reflections… which Carrie reads when she has time. George’s wife knows that her husband is still committed to their marriage. But she is having a hard time competing with the attention he gives to his various YouTube subscriptions. His ward doesn’t see him much outside of church, and he seems to spend more time watching clips about fixing cars than actually fixing them. And lately his scale seems to be out by at least 10 pounds. Instead of dropping by with a card, Grandma Liz now sends a WhatsApp message when her children and grandchildren celebrate a birthday. She has become very hesitant to head out her front door. It’s all the nightly news she’s been watching, which is making the world look like an ever-scarier place. Even when she makes a grocery trip, she stays out for as short a time as possible. Carrie, George, and Liz all go to the same church, and share this in common too: they have all slowly become dominated by their screens. None of them think it’s a real problem, but, if pressed, they will agree that they spend more time on their screens than they did a couple of years ago. But isn’t that just life today? Increased screen time may well be one of the biggest changes our world has experienced in the past half-century, with one estimate putting the global average for daily Internet usage at 6 hours and 38 minutes. The correlation between screen time and anxiety, mental health challenges, and weight gain is well-known now. What isn’t so well documented, or discussed in church, is the impact that screens are having on our pace as we “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:1-2). Putting screens in their place When Reformed Perspective did a deep dive into this topic last spring, we promoted The Tech-Wise Family by Andy Crouch. Crouch correctly shifts the focus from whether a particular type of technology can or can’t be allowed, to instead how these technologies can be put in their proper place, so that priorities like family, friends, and faith remain priorities. But how is this going for you? Screen time, like money and sex, has become a sensitive topic – okay to talk about in generalities, but don’t get personal! We’re all quick to be defensive and shut down the discussion if anyone dares raise the topic of our own usage. That’s why we challenged our readers to a 10-day screen fast in the last issue. The goal of such a fast isn’t to eradicate screens from our lives. But don’t we all see wisdom in implementing a reset? Let’s test it out, to determine just how reliant we are on our devices, and what sort of impact this dependence may be having on our relationships, including with our LORD. Last month our Assistant Editor Marty VanDriel gathered a group and gave the challenge a go, and you can read about how their screen fast went. Now we’re issuing the challenge again because some generous supporters have presented us with quite the offer. For every person that commits to, and completes, a ten-day screen fast from July 21 to 30 they will donate $100, split between two charities (Word & Deed and Reformed Perspective). They will give up to $20,000! Could you do it? Do you have what it takes to put your screens aside for 10 days? (The screen challenge allows exceptions for necessary activities, like your job and making a phone call.) It may be hard to do this by yourself, so would you consider asking some of your family, friends, and siblings in the LORD to join you? If you can get a group of 10 together, that can serve as a great accountability and encouragement. Plus, it will lead to $1,000 going to two very good causes. And if you don’t think screens are much of a challenge for you, we encourage you to ask your loved ones if they think you should give this screen fast a try. This challenge isn’t so much about saying no to screens as it is about saying yes to other priorities. That’s why we’ve put together 35 ideas for fun, productive, and meaningful activities you can challenge yourself to do during these 10 days. Enjoy some time travel Can you remember not having your phone in your pocket, or not hearing the ping of a new message on your tablet? Although we think screens are essential, we have the power to make necessary changes in our lives. A screen fast can serve as an important reminder to yourself that you don’t have to keep living the way you have. Instead of scrolling, Carrie can shoot some hoops with her sister again. George can go for a walk with his wife, and drop by the home of the young man in his ward who hasn’t been coming to church much lately. And Liz can write a card and deliver it in person to her granddaughter. Yes, you can ignore this screen fast, and hope that your family members and friends don’t bring it up either. But before you brush it aside and reach for your phone, consider for a moment what you want your legacy to be at your funeral. Which Carrie, George, and Liz do you want to be? The one before the screen addiction, or the one after?...

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Saturday Selections – June 20, 2026

Calvin vs Arminius: the predestination rock battle Though they never met in real life, what if John Calvin and Jacob Arminius would have gone head to head.... with a driving rock rhythm backing them? Thanks to AI, now we can know! What Christians need to know about Islam and the Quran (10 minute read) Muslims' sacred text has mistakes: "the Quran includes Mary in the Trinity (5:72–75; 116) and also confuses her with Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron (19:27–28)." Inside the climate cult: former climate activist Lucy Biggers Lucy Biggers helped get plastic straws banned, she interviewed Greta Thunberg, she pushed the Green New Deal, and she got 100 million views. I don't know if the former climate activist is now Christian but this interview highlights how secular ideology can blind people to reality – it can stop them from asking obvious questions. A time to dance? There's an old revealing joke about why Dutch Reformed folk are against premarital sex: "Because it might lead to dancing." Such was the opposition to dancing, more so in decades past, and still to a degree today. And not without reason. What reason? Well, a lot of the dancing done then and now is, in a word, sleazy. Dance programs on TV feature men and women in revealing outfits, and trying out moves that are sexually charged – bedroom material put out for public consumption. So no wonder that some good godly Reformed parents and grandparents didn't want the next generation engaged in these kinds of contortions. But is that what dancing has to be? No, it really doesn't. The Bible speaks specifically of how dancing can be done in God-honoring ways (2 Sam. 6:14, Ps. 149:3, Ps. 150:4, Eccl. 3:4). So there are both dances to avoid, and dances to embrace. And one good reason to dance is to teach young people rules of etiquette, like how a gentleman would approach the opposite sex and ask for a dance, and how a young lady might say yes to most such initial requests, but also feel very welcome to say no to a second. This would require some education and coaching – every kid is born knowing how to wag their booty – so if we're going to do this right and refined, they'll need to be taught. 5 myths about C.S. Lewis Even when these myths get it wrong about Lewis, they are still interesting, like that he never read a newspaper because if anything important happened someone was bound to tell him. Turns out not to be true, but it did still highlight how Lewis wasn't a reactionary – very unlike today's hot take culture, he responded to trends that went back centuries, not seconds. Something changed in 2010, and don't we all know it? There might be some hype to this – this is one man's testimony and should be taken as that – but doesn't it match with your own experience? Don't you, as an adult, feel stupider than you used to, more distractible than you used to, less able to concentrate on the sermon than you used to be? It's worth noting too, that he attributes to evolution what we can attribute to God's intent – that we learn relationally. I didn't post this to promote RP's July 13-22 screen-fast, but I can't help but mention it now. It's an opportunity to put away the tech for 10 days, if only to be able to assess its impact on you and your family. ...

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Saturday Selections – June 13, 2026

Brandon Lake's That's Who I Praise Here's a whole bunch of people having a whole bunch of fun praising God! I, Smartphone Nearly 80 years ago economist Leonard Read made the point that the central planning necessary for socialism to succeed is beyond anyone. No one can possibly know enough to be able to understand what everyone is capable of, and interested in producing, and then plan for what everyone wants and needs. He made his point with an essay called I, Pencil, about how even something as simple as a pencil is beyond the abilities of any one person to make and produce – as he put it, no one on earth knows how to make a pencil. So how then do pencils get produced... and without government planning? By everyone acting in their own self-interests, and in accord with God's law not to steal. The way this can, miraculously, produce what we want and need, and for prices far below what any government production would output, is sometimes credited to "the invisible hand" of the Free Market. But we know Whose hand it is, and, again, we know Who to attribute miracles to. In this new take on Read's I, Pencil essay, Lawerence Reed makes the same point about the production of something we take for granted today – the smartphone. Even among Christians, support for suicide is growing (10 min. read) That's both sad, but means we have yet another reason to argue against euthanasia with overtly Christian, God-glorifying arguments. What budding apologists can learn from Charlie Kirk "Let me offer a ten-second overview to this piece: If I were asked what the best books or resources are available for the eager young Christian apologist, I would simply point them to any number of excellent videos of the late Charlie Kirk interacting with often hostile and pugilistic critics, atheists and others." "Happy wife, happy life?" or, how passivity can destroy marriage Headship can be twisted two very different directions, and the one we most often hear warnings about is the domineering husband who treats his wife like his own personal slave. I'm sure that's a warning worth sounding, but in my denomination, at least in this generation, the opposite error seems the more likely. In response to domineering men of the past, many a male – and this is among those who believe in male headship – will let his wife's wishes dominate family life. It's sacrificial leadership with an emphasis on the sacrificial, even to the exclusion of the leadership. This bird is super cool Think you should be praising God more? Then watch the cool birds He made and it'll just happen. (Its head just stays stock still - crazy!) ...

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Saturday Selections – June 6, 2026

When a famous apologist dismisses the Bible... William Lane Craig is such an acclaimed apologist that many a conservative Christian has heard him pra...
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Saturday Selections – May 30, 2026

When John MacArthur visited a philosophy class In this clip John MacArthur starts off sounding quite arrogant – he says he sees everything clearly....
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“Transition” victims decry conversion therapy law
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Saturday Selections – May 23, 2026

"Bury the workmen" by Covie, featuring Lance Thompson For some encouragement check out this new group – or maybe just new to me – singing about h...
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BC midwives allowed to now kill pre-born babies

On May 5th, the British Columbia government decided to celebrate International Midwives Day by authorizing midwives to participate in something antithetical to their purpose: aborting pre-born children. For millennia, midwives have helped women during one of the most difficult and vulnerable times of their lives. And in eras where childbirth was a potentially lethal process (many mothers and pre-born children died during or soon after birth due to medical complications or infections), midwives did their best to preserve the life of both the mother and the child. Today, although there are only 500 midwives in British Columbia, they still assist with about 30% of births in the province. But rather than only helping with delivering new life, as of April 1st, midwives in British Columbia can participate in delivering death to a pre-born child. With this policy change, midwives will now be permitted to prescribe the abortion pill Mifegymiso, also called RU 486. According to the government’s press release, midwives in Quebec and Saskatchewan are already allowed. The government claims that, “by allowing midwives to prescribe Mifegymiso, the Province is improving midwife-led abortion care and increasing access to safe, confidential and timely services closer to home.” “Midwife-led abortion care” – now that’s an oxymoron if ever there was one. And here’s another self-contradicting statement from the government’s press release: “These measures build on ongoing investments to ensure women and gender‑diverse people have access to compassionate, equitable and comprehensive care at every stage of life.” Care at every stage of life… except the first nine months. Canadians need to call out this abuse of language. Care at every stage of life cannot include abortion because murder is not a form of caring. Abortion ignores the life and rights of the pre-born child. It sloughs off the God-given responsibilities of the mother. For 57 years, the needle on abortion has only ever moved in the wrong direction. Abortion in therapeutic settings was legalized in the 1969 Criminal Code reform. That law was struck down entirely in the Morgentaler decision of 1988, leaving Canada without any law on abortion. British Columbia passed its first abortion bubble zone in 1996, and most provinces have followed suit. Health Canada approved the abortion pill in 2015. By 2017, Health Canada removed several safeguards around the abortion pill’s use. Every single province covered the cost of these abortion pills by 2019. And now midwives in three provinces can prescribe the abortion pill themselves. Canada needs to reverse course, and we need to help. Find a pro-life organization – like WeNeedALaw.ca – to learn how you can get involved in pro-life activism today....

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Saturday Selections – May 16, 2026

Athanasius vs. Arius, the rap battle Athanasius offers up a hard-rocking right.... "I've never seen a problem so solvable!" – parents hold the key to their kids' literacy Between a fifth and a third of Canadian adults struggle with basic literacy – the reading level that allows you to fill out a job application. So what's to be done? The head of Indigo Canada wants parents to keep their kids away from screens. Making the case for a 6-day creation to seminary students Creation Ministry International – the folks behind Creation.com, one of the world's top creationist websites – is crafting a video course specifically intended for seminary students. They want to reach the next generation of pastors to challenge and encourage them to trust God's Word from the very first chapter of the Bible. Why do 60% of US youth say they prefer socialism? ...because they've forgotten the lessons learned from the past. And because the Church isn't teaching them the same lessons from God's Word. Ben Sasse shows us the difference between dying with dignity and “death with dignity” Ben Sasse is dying publicly, to the glory of our God, using the little time he has left to speak of the comfort he has in his Redeemer. And as James Wood put it: "In a culture that kills to avoid hardship and hides death to avoid reckoning, a man dying well on high-profile platforms is a subtly radical act. He is, without quite saying so, making an argument for life – for its dignity, its giftedness, its meaning even at the last." Do we have it worse than our parents and grandparents? John Stossel notes that in the 1950s homes were smaller, cars were a lot less nice, and we didn't live nearly as long. It is important for Christians to be able to count our blessings – one of the sins of Israel was forgetting how God had blessed them (Ps. 106:7,13,21-22) – and it is one of the tricks of the Devil to have us be ungrateful. Being grateful doesn't mean we have to view the present with rose-colored glasses and go all Pollyanna on today's problems. Inflation has made food more expensive. Homes are more expensive than they were 10 years ago. But let's not let ingratitude blind us to how God continues to provide for us and our church communities too. ...

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Opposing rainbow crosswalk results in human rights trial

Ronald Reagan once shared a quip about the difference between his country and the totalitarian USSR. “Two Soviets… were talking to each other. And one of them asked, ‘What’s the difference between the Soviet Constitution and the United States Constitution?’ And the other one said, ‘That’s easy. The Soviet Constitution guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of gathering. The American Constitution guarantees freedom after speech and freedom after gathering.” Here in Canada, we still have freedom of speech, but, it seems, no guarantee of freedom after speech. An Alberta woman is facing a two-week hearing before the Alberta Human Rights Commission for distributing flyers opposing the Town of Westlock’s plan to paint a rainbow crosswalk. Benita Pedersen created the flyers in June of 2023, in an effort to encourage other citizens to reach out to their elected officials and oppose the crosswalk. “Based on my personal experiences in interacting with parents and children, I have learned that the practice of ‘gender affirmation’ harms kids more than it helps,” she explained to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF). “When I composed the flyer, one of my objectives was to warn parents about the potential consequences of children pursuing the pathway of transgenderism.” She added that the way to solve problems is “by having open conversation.” Others disagree, and human rights commissions make it easy to shut down speech they don’t like. In this case, fellow citizen Laurie Hodge took offense and filed a human rights, stating that the flyer discriminated on the basis of gender, gender identity, and gender expression. Hodge has since become a member of the Westlock Town Council. The wheels of “justice” turn slowly. In October of 2025, the Director of the Alberta HRC referred the complaint to the province’s human rights tribunal, finding that there was a sufficient basis to proceed with the hearing. Human rights commissions and tribunals were under the public eye 15 years ago, in light of complaints against high-profile figures like Ezra Levant, Mark Steyn, and against Maclean’s magazine. Complaints were made on the basis of hurt feelings. Even if there was no conviction, the process of responding to a complaint – involving tens of thousands of dollars in legal bills and years of hassle – was itself a punishment. The passage of a private member’s bill in 2012 to reform the Canadian Human Rights Act seemed to settle the commissions down. But the recent decision from the BC Human Rights Tribunal to fine school trustee Barry Neufeld $750,000 for speaking against “sexual orientation and gender identity” (SOGI), as well as this case in Alberta, suggest that the sleeping giants are awaking. Let’s not be caught sleeping ourselves. ARPA Canada took a lead in responding to the challenges 15 years ago, and continues to speak out today. We care so deeply about freedom of speech and expression not because our opinions are so important, but because God’s truth is. We love our neighbors, so we want and need to be free to share what God says is best for them and everyone. Find Pedersen's flyer at the end of the human rights complaint shared here....

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Saturday Selections – May 9, 2026

Morality is just preferences? In this exchange Andrew Wilson fully embraces the "devil's advocate" role, adopting his opponent's worldview fully, only to then drive it into the ditch. This isn't a "gotcha" moment (okay, maybe a bit of one) so much as, what other response can she have? Elders are competent to counsel Christians underestimate the wisdom God has given us in His Word. Christians also overestimate the wisdom of the world. We think we need to turn to the "experts" in matters of counsel, even though these are the folks who say that boys can become girls, sex before marriage is fine, homosexuality is just another lifestyle (and doesn't lead to incontinence), and life doesn't begin until you are born. Pop music seems to be getting sadder each year An analysis of the Billboard Hot 100 had "heartbreak" songs doubling from 30 percent in 2015 to 58 percent in 2025. As this article notes, that doesn't mean there isn't upbeat music being made – it's that what's moody is more popular these days. The dying advice of Ben Sasse Ben Sasse was welcomed onto 60 Minutes because he is a former US senator and he is dying and very willing to talk about it. And that includes sharing where, or rather with Who, his hope is found. Jonathon Van Maren shares his dying advice, well worth hearing: "He wishes he had honored the Sabbath more. He didn’t skip church but was consistently tempted to excuse work in the afternoon. 'I wish I’d treated the Lord’s Day differently over the course of my life.' He added that he wishes he had guarded better against 'digital intrusions into the Sabbath.' "Family dinnertime should be prioritized. 'Dinnertime is precious,' he said. 'Man, lock up your devices and keep them away from the table and prioritize that time.' "....People should live in 'thick communities'—especially, if possible, near family. 'Family compounds,' Sasse said. 'Like, have more cousins and figure out how to live thick with them. There are so many times when we optimize around things that are not nearly as important as family thickness. Boy, I wish we lived down the block from my folks.' If he had more time, he said, he would be brainstorming how to create a family compound with his own children and their families." 5 myths about Heaven A couple of the big ones tackled are that Heaven is our home where will live forever more, and nothing we do here on earth really matters because it will all be forgotten. For more, Real Talk did a great podcast on Heaven with Dr. den Hollander. Crowder's Grave robber Can a dead man respond to God's call? No, he needs to first be made alive! ...

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