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Aussie senator gives speech the world needs to hear

On April 1st, Australian Senator Ralph Babet gave a speech that got some social media attention for good reason. He explained to all those willing to listen that there is no freedom apart from God. Here is what he said:

“I'm regularly criticized for being overtly Christian. I'm told to keep my faith private, to leave it at the door of this chamber and to speak as though God is irrelevant and truth is negotiable. I just will not do that. I'm not merely a man with opinions. I'm a man under authority, and that authority is the authority of Christ and his church. That changes everything.

“Christianity is not a lifestyle. It's not a cultural accessory. It is a total claim on the human person – on the mind, on the conscience, and on the soul. Here's the reality that my critics refuse to admit: every single person in this chamber serves a doctrine of some sort. Some serve God; others serve Marxist ideology. Some serve the State or maybe even public opinion, but no one is really neutral. So, when I'm told to leave my faith behind, what I'm really being told is: 'Abandon your authority and submit to ours instead.'

“No, I will not do that. I'll not trade eternal truth for political convenience. I won't bow to the false religion of relativism.

“What we are really dealing with here is not the absence of religion but the rise of a new one. It's a creed without God, a morality without foundation. It's a system that demands obedience and calls it tolerance. Let's just be clear: the claim that religion has no place in politics is itself a dogma – an exclusive claim, a coercive claim. The question is not whether beliefs shape this place. They already do. We know that. The question is: which truth will govern us?

“When God is pushed aside, it is not neutrality that replaces Him; it is power. The most oppressive regimes in history did not honor Christ; they rejected Christ. What followed was not freedom. It was control, it was persecution, and it was suffering on an industrial scale. Don't tell me that taking God out of society makes it safer. It just makes it worse.

“Let's speak plainly about what Christianity actually claims. What does it claim? It claims that Jesus Christ is God, that He rose from the dead, and that He established a charge of authority to teach truth in every single age. Just look at the King that we proclaim. He's not a tyrant. He's not a conqueror. He's a king that was crowned with thorns, a King who went on to forgive His executioners, a King who laid down His life for His enemies. Do you know what? That is strength. That is power rightly ordered. That is the model that Christianity calls us to follow. It's not weakness and it's not chaos. It's discipline, strength, and order towards truth and the good.

“Christianity also destroys the modern obsession with moral superiority, because no man earns salvation and no one stands above another. We are all in need of mercy and in need of grace, which means that there is no room for the smugness, the posturing and the endless virtue-signaling that now dominate public life. From that humility comes order, from that order comes justice, and from that justice comes peace.

“I ask you again: what kind of society does that produce? It sounds remarkably like the one that we all claim to want. Let's just be clear again: I'm not going to dilute my faith. I'm not going to pretend that truth is negotiable. I'm not going to speak as though Christ is optional. I serve a higher Authority than this chamber, than this place, and that Authority does not, and will never, change with the polls. A nation that rejects Christ does not become freer. It simply finds a new master; that's all. Some of you in this place don't serve the right master. I won't name names, but you know who you are.”

That’s a message desperately needed in the political sphere. And it did get some social media coverage on Facebook. Unfortunately, the very same day he delivered this speech, the senator also chose to release an April Fool’s Day prank about aliens being real… which is what the mainstream media covered instead.

While this has to be one of the strongest, clearest Christian presentations delivered by a politician in recent memory, Babet isn’t the ideal messenger. He’s gotten in some trouble through the years for his tweets, particularly two years back when he used the N-word to enthusiastically endorse an Andrew Tate post. Then, when he was called on that, he followed it up with this:

“In my house, we say . We are sick of you woke ass clowns. Cry more. Write an article. Tweet about me. No one cares what you think.”

Where Babet went wrong here is on the very point his 2026 speech corrects. You can’t find the truth by bouncing off a lie; as he demonstrated, you won’t end up in the right place by simply doing the opposite of what the woke folk want you to do.

That’s because, as Luther noted, there’s more than one way you can fall off a horse. To simply swing away from an error on one side is to put yourself in danger of falling for a completely different and opposite error. Instead, we need to do as the Senator – at his best – encouraged: rather than reacting against evil, we need to actively look to the Lord and His Word to find out what’s true and good and right.

Top picture is a screenshot of the senator's speech, from his YouTube channel and is displayed under fair use.

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Alberta introduces law to restrict euthanasia

On March 18, Alberta Justice Minister Mickey Amery rose in the Alberta legislature to introduce Bill 18, the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act. “It is my hope that if Bill 18 is passed, it will set an example for the rest of Canada, because hope should always be easier to access than death.” With this bill, Alberta is set to become the first Canadian jurisdiction to formally restrict euthanasia in Canada. This is big news and a massive win for pro-life advocacy in Canada. While the media, government bodies, and legislators have signaled concerns about euthanasia, there has been little appetite to reverse course. Until now. What does Alberta’s Safeguards Bill do? The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act restricts euthanasia in many ways. First, Bill 18 will prohibit doctors from murdering any of their patients who are not nearing natural death. Euthanasia was initially legalized only for those whose natural death was “reasonably foreseeable,” but it was also legalized for non-terminal conditions in 2021. Alberta’s bill turns back the clock and clarifies that Medically-Assisted Death (MAD) will only be available for people with a prognosis of natural death within 12 months. Second, Bill 18 will prohibit euthanasia for people with mental illness as their only underlying condition. As of right now, euthanasia for mental illness is scheduled to become legal across Canada on March 17, 2027, although this expansion has been delayed a couple of times and there is a federal bill right now that proposes to scrap this expansion entirely. Alberta’s legislation means that no matter what the federal government does about euthanasia for mental illness, it will not be offered in Alberta. Third, the Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act bans healthcare providers from initiating a conversation about euthanasia or advertising euthanasia in medical facilities. If assisted suicide is offered or advertised in hospitals, patients may feel pressured or encouraged to consider it. If passed, Bill 18 would allow health professionals to talk about euthanasia only if the patient brings it up first. Fourth, this legislation would codify conscience rights into law. It allows medical professionals not to provide euthanasia, assess a patient’s eligibility for euthanasia, or refer a patient to a euthanasia provider against their conscience. Bill 18 would also protect healthcare facilities’ freedom to opt out of providing or participating in euthanasia. This is increasingly an issue for faith-based institutions that want to provide care without murdering their patients. Fifth, this proposal would establish better oversight over euthanasia. Although euthanasia is still an exception to murder in Canada’s Criminal Code, governments have implemented very little oversight to ensure that existing rules are followed. Bill 18 will establish better oversight, review euthanasia deaths, and impose professional penalties for failure to follow criminal or provincial regulations. Sixth, the bill cracks down on “doctor shopping.” Right now, if a person is refused euthanasia by one doctor, they seek out another doctor who will approve their request. For example, in 2024, a woman who was refused euthanasia by her doctors in Alberta was later approved for euthanasia by a doctor in British Columbia. Bill 18 will prohibit doctors from referring a patient to a doctor in another province. Those are the biggest changes Alberta is proposing, though the legislation contains even more restrictions on medical assistance in dying. How can you respond? This legislation is the most pro-life legislation introduced by a sitting government since Brian Mulroney’s failed abortion bill over 35 years ago. While the bill is very likely to pass in Alberta’s majority government, it is still a good idea to send a note to your MLA urging him or her to support this legislation if you live in Alberta. You can also thank the Premier and the Minister of Justice for their leadership on this issue. Those who live outside Alberta should also reach out to their MPP/MLA, health minister, and premier to ask them to introduce similar legislation. Bill 18 only applies in Alberta. But every suffering person deserves these safeguards against euthanasia, no matter their postal code. Proverbs 24:11 counsels us to “Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.” While Reformed Christians shouldn’t rest until euthanasia is outlawed entirely, Alberta’s Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act will certainly rescue many and try to hold back many more. Top photo is, from left to right, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, Justice Minister Mickey Amery, and an Ontario doctor who also spoke, as they announce to reporters Bill 18’s euthanasia restrictions. Photo is by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta and used with the government’s permission....

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Hundreds of Reformed Christians gathered on Parliament Hill to protest Bill C-9

Last week, ARPA Canada hosted a rally on Parliament Hill calling on the federal government to halt Bill C-9, the Combatting Hate Act. Despite cold temperatures and blustery winds, approximately 400–450 people gathered on the Hill to show their concern about the legislation. Supporters travelled from across Ontario to take part, including more than 200 people who came from Southern Ontario by coach bus. With the help of local ARPA chapters, four coach buses were organized to bring supporters to Ottawa and back in a single day. For many participants, this made it possible to attend the rally who otherwise would not have been able to make the trip. We were thankful to have Rev. Joel Dykstra, Mr. Rod Taylor of the Christian Heritage Party, and Christine Van Geyn of the Canadian Constitution Foundation as guest speakers. The rally also drew the attention of federal lawmakers. At least thirteen Members of Parliament attended the event. Eleven MPs stood together on the podium when MP Jacob Mantle and MP Andrew Lawton spoke to those gathered. Planning for the event began in January, long before it was clear when Parliament would be addressing Bill C-9. Providentially, the rally took place during the same week that the House of Commons voted to end debate on the bill and move it forward in the legislative process. The bill will now return to the House for third reading, and a vote is expected on March 23 or 24. This brief delay provides Canadians with additional time to engage with their Members of Parliament about the legislation. We encourage everyone to contact their federal MP, whether by email or phone call. Information and action steps are available here. Our primary concern with Bill C-9 relates to an amendment during the committee stage. While the bill, as originally introduced, raised fewer concerns than previous hate-speech bills, a Justice Committee amendment removed the “good faith religious defense” from the Criminal Code. This defense had previously provided protection for those expressing sincerely held religious beliefs. Without that safeguard, there is concern that Christians and others could face greater legal risk for expressing biblical perspectives on moral and identity-related issues. Even beyond potential prosecutions, such legislation can create a “chilling effect,” where individuals choose to remain silent rather than risk legal consequences. For Christians, the concern is not merely political but principled. Scripture calls believers to love their neighbors while also speaking truth faithfully and with humility. The ability to express those convictions openly remains an important part of living out that calling in public life. Picture graciously supplied by ARPA Canada....

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Saturday Selections – Mar. 14, 2026

Tips on telling what's real and what's AI-generated These tips have an expiry date, what with the way AI-videos are getting harder and harder to spot, but they are certainly helpful right now. 5 ways AI is impacting our kids Kids are embracing AI – it has become their go-to for answers. AI is shaping their worldview – they are getting fed answers that are the sum average of what the world believes.  Our kids are experimenting with virtual companions – kids who have had a hard time fitting in (and that describes most of us at some point or other) used to turn to books, or maybe solitary hobbies to check out. But at some point even the most introverted would feel the need for companionship and make an effort, and hopefully find it, maybe in their family, neighbors, or church. But now kids can make friends with an AI that will always be agreeable. One study says 75% of teens are using AI companions regularly, and 20% are using them for some sort of romantic interactions. Kids are using AI to bypass learning, having it do assignments for them. Our kids aren't questioning the ethics of AI, and need our guidance to do so. Why euthanasia feels intuitive... "Having been raised in this society, my instincts intuitively accept euthanasia. I do not want others to make my decisions for me and I do not wish to become dependent upon them. In fact, I would feel a significant degree of guilt were I to need others to care for me, to be inconvenienced on my behalf, or to have them put their own dreams on hold in order to ensure my provision. There is an abhorrent way in which it all just makes sense, in which my instincts accept it as good, or as acceptable, at least. Of course, I utterly reject euthanasia. I support efforts to outlaw it on a national level and efforts to counsel against it on a personal level. But I still get it." The one life dream that makes a girl blush The pressure is such that what was ordinary and typical not so long ago, is a secret to be shared only with your most trusted... 5 myths about Hell The topic of Hell has been showing up in a lot of our social media a lot more this last half year after Christian commentator (and former actor) Kirk Cameron publicly questioned whether Hell was eternal. Mark Jones tackles 5 common myths about Hell, including that one. For more, Real Talk did a great podcast on Hell with Dr. den Hollander. The butterfly that shouldn't exist (10 min) Creation testifies to its Creator – if you know any skeptics, share this video with them and ask them what it shows. This is only a ten-minute dive into just one of the critters God has crafted, and it leaves any viewer with no excuse but to know there is a God above, and He is a Genius! ...

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Saturday Selections – Mar. 7, 2026

CNN's upcoming hit piece on Christian Nationalism "Christian Nationalism" is defined all sorts of different ways. Some claim it's just white nationalism wearing a Christian face. Others insist it is a badly mistaken, top-down form of evangelism that wants to use the State to somehow force people to become Christian. And others identifying with the term argue it's about advocating for our nation to submit to the Lord. These are radically different definitions... so what is it then? There is more consistency when we listen to the way non-Christians are describing it – Christian Nationalists are those who think God is Sovereign over His people and all people, and His Word is authoritative to Christians but should be so for everyone else too. And if that's the definition then, as Allie Beth Stuckey notes in this video, we're all Christian Nationalists now. Brace yourself for the AI Tsunami  They're replacing AI programmers with AI – it's writing its own updates! So what kind of work will remain? “Lean into what’s hardest to replace. . . . Relationships and trust built over years. Work that requires physical presence. Roles with licensed accountability: roles where someone still has to sign off, take legal responsibility, stand in a courtroom.” This 16-year-old doesn't think Australia's social-media ban for 15 and under will work He has three reasons and I'll share two: The government blew it, banning social media accounts for kids, but that doesn't really limit their access. This is a parent's job, not the government's. The second is an explanation for the first – any government action is going to be a big brute force swing at things, and when you have millions of kids looking for a way around it, they'll find a way, and already have. What's needed here is for parents to take up the very responsibility that God has entrusted to them in raising up their children. But does that mean there is no role for the government? How can parents stand, as individual pairings, against the pull of the algorithms? Especially when their children's friends are under the influence already? As a fellow who thinks that government is most often arrogantly inserting itself where God never intended for it to go, I have to say I have sympathies here for government involvement. Parents do need help. But as this article highlights, the Australian government tried, and largely muffed it. Might that be because it is indeed a parenting role, and the government is ill suited for it? So whence comes help? God did also give us the Church, and there is certainly room for more involvement in parenting – in the nurturing of it and accountability for it (Titus 2) – on that front. The 12 Holocausts of 2025 Abortion, the leading cause of death in 2025, killed 10 million more than all causes of death combined. And the dehumanization of the unborn is built on 4 deadly forms of discrimination we all need to know.  We're drinking a lot less?  In Ps. 104:15, the psalmist speak to how God makes the wine that gladdens the heart. In moderation, a cold beer or a brown cow on ice can be a wonderful thing. But with the general lack of moderation in our culture, it's probably very good news that the world's top alcohol companies have lost almost a trillion dollars in stock valuation over the last 4 years. A tree becomes a cross This 12-minute Oscar-nominated short film took 200 volunteers six years to make. Why all that work and devotion? Because they had something to say – this was a specifically Christian effort to tell a story of undeserved love that has more than an echo of the Gospel in it. John MacArthur picture by IslandsEnd and used under a CC BY 3.0 license....

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 14, 2026

Reformed and Dangerous's Mortification of Sin Reformer John Owen returns... with reverb. (And you can get the shirt here.) The mysterious power of male sexuality Tim Challies on how male sexuality – often portrayed as purely problem by the world and even Christians – was originally made good by God, and does indeed have a powerful good purpose. The truth about Tumbler Ridge When a killer murdered 8 people, injured 25 more, and then murdered himself in the small northern BC town of Tumbler Ridge this past week, the media was quick to make points about guns, but not about the elephant in the room – that the killer was a man who claimed to be a woman. We can call it mentally ill, but we shouldn't lose sight of it simply being wicked, and it is a wicked society that reinforces this. As Samuel Sey noted, "A society that encourages trans people to not value the bodies that God gave them shouldn’t expect them to value the bodies that God gave to others." There is something going on here with trans-identifying shooters becoming increasingly common, and again, Samuel Sey says what few others are willing to notice: “A 2022 Quebec study reveals that transgender youth are the most likely group to support violent radicalization. When we encourage people to identify as victims, vengeance and violence are inevitable.” Rev. Jim Witteveen is another who is noticing. He has noticed that the evolution of transvestism from pathology to a lifestyle that must be always honored (even when you've murdered 9) shows "the entire worldview of modern psychiatry is built on shifting sand. There is no stability to it. It has no foundation in reality." The necessary gift of dependence The author writes as someone who is wheelchair bound, struggling with his dependence on others, but realizing that all of us are, always and forever, entirely dependent on God. And we are, even in our dependence, still used by Him to help others. How to guide your children through the Digital Age The algorithm is shaping your kids. You can help them resist by: teaching them to ask "what message is this digital media trying to communicate?" Help them spot the worldview being pushed. reclaiming the silence in your own life and showing them how it can be done. We don't need constant distraction. helping them see through the online identity trap. You are not how many followers you have. Parents need to model it, if we're going to pass it on. Making complementarianism work... This gent offers up quite a good quick overview of headship in marriage. ...

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When reporting both sides is bias disguised

When Alberta's government began, last year, to respond to the problem of sexually-explicit materials on public school library shelves, it might have seemed to some that the media coverage was fair. After all, both sides were given space to have their say. So, for example, when CBC ran the headline, "Alberta bans school library books it deems sexually explicit," it stated as fact that the government was banning books – how's that for politically-charged terminology? – but they did include, in a smaller sub-head, that the "Education minister says province's new standards aren't about banning books." Not quite equal time, but... fair-ish, right? In CBC reporter Emily Williams' piece "The Handmaid's Tale among more than 200 books to be pulled at Edmonton public schools" she shared the public schools' objection: "As a result of the ministerial order, several excellent books will be removed from our shelves this fall." But Williams also included Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides' response that his government wasn't trying to ban The Handmaid's Tale, but was instead trying to get sexually-explicit sexual content off public school shelves. So, both sides, right? Well, as Christian journalist Ted Byfield noted, there's not just two sides to the story. And one of the sides the media didn't report on here is telling, and much more important than what they focused on. Williams' article included the list of the more than 200 books the Edmonton Public School (EPS) system said they were going to have to pull of their shelves to comply with the government's mandate. This wasn't a list the government made; this was the list the EPS made and then used to characterize the government's efforts as book banning – going after famed and problematic classics like Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged and, yes, The Handmaid's Tale. Still, EPS's list was there, available for anyone interested to peruse. And isn't that what reporters do? Peruse, investigate, uncover? Well, some perusing was done, but almost exclusively in one direction. CBC and other outlets reported on the aforementioned famous books that made the government look like book banners. But what reporters didn't do is look into how much filth there actually was on the list. The press didn't look for books that'd confirm the need for winnowing. They didn't question why the public schools were being so negligent as to expose our children to pornography. They didn't highlight the outrageous examples of available comics that had pages of nudity, graphically depicted oral sex, showed a child being stripped for abuse, and showed another being sexually humiliated. Those details were made available by the Minister of Education, but they didn't show up in any of mainstream media accounts I read. So I did some of the work they wouldn't, checking up on the list's first 25 books as they were presented alphabetically. I discovered that 15 were clearly and wildly inappropriate. These were all books that, had they been read aloud or shown at a public school board meeting, would likely have gotten the presenting parent booted. The 15 books were: 9 books from Kanoko Sakurakoji’s Black Bird manga series Kentarō Miura’s graphic novel Berserk, Vol. 3 Talia Hibbert’s Act Your Age, Eve Brown Neil Gaiman‘s American Gods Bret Easton Ellis’s American Psycho Daria Snadowsky‘s Anatomy of a boyfriend Emily Henry‘s Beach Read 15 out of 25 amounts to 60%. And that's just the titles that were clearly crazy, with secular reviewers describing them as "rapey" and "sexually obsessed." The other 10 weren't necessarily good either; it was just that in my research it wasn't as clear that they were so blaringly bad. The mainstream media made this about the 5 or 6 "classics" at risk. I don’t know if that 60% rate would have held up, but if so, then that would have amounted to more than 100 obscene books – 60% of 226 works out to 135– being pushed on kids via the province's public school libraries. Where were the "Edmonton Public Schools own up to being porn-peddlers" headlines? While Christians should attempt to be fair – reporting on others as we would want to be covered ourselves (Matt. 7:12) – Reformed Perspective doesn't pretend to be unbiased. We have our bias firmly in place: the Earth is the Lord's, and everything in it. And with that bias comes a different sort of way of looking at the world, where teachers and schools entrusted with acting in loco parentis – acting in the place of parents – should, like a parent, be eager to protect the children in their care. That was the story here. And that was the story that was almost entirely missed by the mainstream media....

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 7, 2026

Is the Church the true Israel? It's R.C. Sproul vs. John MacArthur in the epic rap battle that they surely must have had at one of those Ligonier conferences back in the day... But who would build the roads? One of the justifications for our ever expanding government is the notion, "If the government doesn't do it, who will?" That was the justification for the takeover of everything from education to healthcare, garbage pickup to mail delivery, and so much more. I live in a city in which garbage pickup is done by private enterprise, which I couldn't have imagined anyone but the government doing... until I saw it being done better by a business. So this article, about how some roads were built long ago by private citizens, is an exercise in imagination – who knows how small we might be able to shrink our inefficient government if only we started considering what might well be possible without them? Dying to give Aaron Renn with why parents should financially bless their children now, and not wait until after the funeral: "A dollar at 25 can change a destiny. A dollar at 55 barely moves the needle." That's true, but of course there is some middle path that needs to sought here – too much help too early might amount to spoiling your 20-year-old's drive. Too little help, when it was yours to offer, might mean they are stopped from achieving what they otherwise might have been able to do with your help. 4 sermons many churches won't preach Worth noting, even if you go to a conservative church where these will be heard, because the pressure to shut up about these still exists even there – the world presses in. 20 US Democratic presidential contenders are asked whether a man can become a woman... ...and guess how many said "no"? It's getting to a point in the US where the Left doesn't want to stand too strongly for trans ideology. But they also won't speak against it. Only one was willing, and even he still wanted parents to be allowed to poison their kids with cross-gender hormones that – he himself acknowledges – won't transition anyone. The GOP is certainly not God's Own Party, but it's not a bit of slander to say the Democrats are indeed the Devil's very own, and this is just one more example. Is morality subjective? Lying is wrong, but if there is a Nazi soldier at your door asking whether you are hiding Jews, lying can be right. So does that mean morality is subjective? The Christian knows that's not so – we aren't lying just for kicks, but because we are acting out of love for our neighbor. God's Law is still the objective standard for our actions. But even the moral relativist will get tripped up here. Their case for subjectivism just doesn't stand. ...

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Court rules that Emergencies Act against “Freedom Convoy” was unlawful

Four years ago, in February 2022, Canada’s federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since it was enacted back in 1988, granting itself extraordinary power to break up the truckers’ convoy that assembled in Ottawa and elsewhere to protest Covid policies. By invoking the Act, the government received the power to prohibit citizens from assembling, as well as freeze bank accounts of those involved in the protests, and even ban and freeze crowdfunding, among other measures. In January of this year, the country’s Federal Court of Appeal made a unanimous decision, agreeing with the lower court ruling from 2024, that the government had not been legally justified to making use of the Emergencies Act. The court ruled that the protests “fell well short of a threat to national security.” The court also found there simply wasn’t sufficient evidence to back up the government’s claim that the convoy posed a threat of serious violence. “When all these legal and factual considerations are taken into account, we fail to see how the could ‘reasonably believe’ that a threat to national security existed at the time the decision to invoke the Act was made.” This decision is a good example of why civil governments need checks and balances on themselves, given our sinful human condition, and particularly a check on the age-old thirst for more power. The legislative and executive branches require the accountability and safeguards that are supposed to come from the Constitution, through the oversight of the judicial branch. For Christians, obeying the Romans 13 command to “be subject to the governing authorities” isn’t as simple as submitting to whatever the Prime Minister or Governor General orders in a given moment. In this case, it was the Prime Minister and Governor General that were acting illegally, and not the private citizens – the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Constitution Foundation, among others – who successfully challenged them in court....

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Two Covid convictions against Pastor Koopman vacated

Four years after the fact, two of more than 20 Covid-era convictions against Rev. John Koopman, pastor of the Chilliwack Free Reformed Church, have now been vacated, which is to say, undone. Pastor Koopman was charged for taking part in worship services in 2020 and 2021, at a time when the province’s Health Officer imposed a complete ban on in-person worship services, even while bars, gyms, and other secular establishments were allowed to stay open. The Chilliwack Free Reformed Church opened their doors for worship, while complying with all of the other public health orders such as social distancing and masking. The church then joined a couple of other churches in launching a constitutional challenge to the Health Order. They were represented in court by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), as they reported it, another issue at play was religious discrimination: “Pastor Koopman and other pastors then submitted an accommodation request to the BC Provincial Health Office to gather for in-person services, but their request received no response for several weeks. At the same time, Dr. Henry’s office had been responding within one or two days to accommodation requests from Orthodox Synagogues, permitting them to gather indoors.” The lower court dismissed the churches’ challenge in March of 2021 in part, the JCCF reports, because the churches had just been allowed to gather outdoors. Meanwhile the charges against the pastors and the churches continued on. They faced $40,000 in fines. Many of these charges were later dropped or reduced, but Pastor Koopman was convicted of others, most recently as of Feb. 2025. Now two of those convictions have been vacated but based on technicalities, rather than a real assessment of what happened. As the JCCF noted: “While the correction resolved a technical error in the court record, it did not address the broader constitutional concerns raised about the ban on in-person worship services and the unequal treatment of faith communities during lockdowns.” Pastor Koopman was also grateful for the Crown’s acknowledgement of error: “Dr. Henry and the government should carefully evaluate their entire approach, for this is only one of many errors which were made, the greatest of which is the restriction of the public worship of our God.”...

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 10, 2026

The Mutation Myth: what Evolution doesn't want you to know (8 minutes) We’re told random mutations drive evolution– mutations are supposed to be "the engine behind every new trait and species on Earth." Turns out, though, that what the science shows again and again is mutations don't build life, they break it down! Interestingly, breaking things down can sometimes help an organism, in much the way that stripping the seats out of your car can make it more fuel-efficient. But this kind of breaking things down doesn't show how new molecular machines could be built. This is from Discovery Science, an Intelligent Design think tank. They aren't creationist, or even specifically Christian. So all they are showing here are the scientific shortcomings of Evolution, and if you want more of that, be sure to check out their Science Uprising series. There are good and bad reasons to leave a church ....and it might just be the reason you are thinking you should leave is an indication of why God wants you to stay. The case for sexfulness in marriage This is a longer article on an seldom-discussed topic, because it is PG-rated (but only to the same degree as the Song of Songs is). How many dominos do we go back in Indigenous land claims? John Carpay offers a basically secular take in the linked article about Indigenous land claims, so I'll offer up a biblical passage that has some application (and there are certainly others). Matthew 7:1-2 says it is justice to have the measure by which we judge others applied to ourselves. In the land acknowledgments stated before university classes and municipal meetings, there's sometimes a reference to tribes who have been here "from time immemorial" or some such phrase. The point of that claim is that the European settlers took it relatively recently from Indigenous tribes who had been there previously forever. But Indigenous tribes moved, and caused other tribes to move on. So the Indigenous group that might have had land taken from them by the settlers, did the same to whoever lived there before them – the dominoes go back way more than just the one block. So, if the last must be returned, then why just to the most recent tribe who themselves were takers too? And if that standard is thought unreasonable because of how hard it would be to work out, then let's apply this new "workability standard" to the situation today too. US abortions rose more than 20% after Roe vs. Wade In 2022 the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision, which had legalized abortion the US for the past previous 50 years, was overturned. But the overturned decision didn't actually protect the unborn – it just made it legal for the individual states to start doing so. Some started. But the Trump administration has allowed Joe Biden-era "abortion by mail" prescriptions to continue, and this kind of abortion has exploded since 2022. The end result? Abortions have risen from an average of 80,000/month in 2022, to 98,000/month in 2025. This highlights how it isn't just a legal ruling we need to save the unborn, and not even a somewhat sympathetic government, as the American pro-life movement has in the Trump administration. What's been largely missing from the abortion debate is an explicitly Christian witness that explains why we need to protect unborn children everywhere, not simply in some states. We need to challenge our culture, teaching them that while they have no explanation for anyone's worth God has given us value by making us in His Image (Gen. 9:6). Like in every aspect of life, what we need here is the Gospel. And without it, even an inconceivable legal win will do very little all on its own. California shows what a minimum wage hike can do to the poorest Governments across the Western world have implemented laws requiring a certain minimum hourly wage that employers must pay. The notion behind these laws is to prevent business owners from exploiting their workers. But what these laws presume is that the government knows what's best for everyone. What this video shows is, when the government pretends to know far more than they ever could, they cause all sorts of harms. And it just doesn't matter if that's not at all what they intended. ...

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Explicit books being pulled from government school libraries in Alberta

In the wake of a government order that made waves around the world in 2025, the two largest school divisions in Alberta reported in early 2026 that they have started pulling books with sexually explicit images. According to CTV, the Edmonton Public School Board reported that they have removed 34 titles while the Calgary Board of Education said that 44 titles have been removed from shelves in their schools. Sadly, even the Edmonton Catholic School Division reported that they had to remove six books. Last summer, a Ministerial Order was introduced, requiring school boards to develop standards around what materials are deemed suitable for school libraries. This was the result of a consultation with the public, including 77,395 responses to an online survey. As a result of the order, the Edmonton Public School Board identified over 200 titles as having to be pulled because of the government’s sexually explicit content policy, and their list included well-known, often-discussed classics like 1984 and Brave New World. This resulted in a public outcry that was covered by media outlets around the world. Premier Danielle Smith turned to X and Facebook to respond: “I’m going to be more explicit than usual so there is no misunderstanding this policy: 1. Get graphic pornographic images out of school libraries. 2. Leave the classics on the shelves. 3. We all know the difference between the items in 1 and 2. Let’s not play any more games in implementing this policy for our kids.” The provincial government did then amend its order to target only visual depictions of explicit sexual activity. It has been known for many years now that graphic sexual content is being pushed in public school libraries, along with children’s sections of public libraries, in towns and cities across the country. This has been going on even while our secular culture is grappling with the consequences of hypersexualization of youth. Even the Quebec government, known for pushing a radical secular worldview, recently published a report about “hypersexualization” that noted: “the huge amount of sexual content that is publicly available generates a distorted understanding of gender relationships, beginning at a very early age.” They added: “hypersexualization can lead to precocious sexual behaviour among young people. Fascinated by the images they see on television and the Internet, they sometimes adopt behaviours borrowed from adult sexuality without having the maturity required to deal with the situations that may result.” In spite of the obvious harm, Alberta is the only government in Canada that has had the courage to take action, and even their decision continues to allow sexually explicit content in the reach of the province’s vulnerable youth. God is being loving to us in giving us the gift of sexuality, while placing safeguards around sex: a committed lifelong relationship of marriage between a man and a woman. As a fence around a swimming pool allows a family to enjoy the pool safely, so God’s safeguards around sex allow sex to be a blessing, first for married couples, but indirectly for the flourishing of children and all society. Top photo supplied by the Alberta Government and used with permission. ...

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 3, 2026

A pastor's review of the animated movie David I'm very hesitant about any film depictions of Jesus, wondering if they violate the principle of God's Second Commandment not to make any graven images of Him (Ex. 20:4). Then there is also the practical consideration that whenever someone does depict Jesus, they always manage to mess things up. But what about film depictions of other biblical stories? The Second Commandment doesn't apply then. But there would still be a need for reverence in treating God's Holy Bible as the sacred text it is. Too often, though, how it's treated is as some first draft that needs to be improved on – and as this pastor highlights, in the new animated David, that's what's happened again. We have smartphones so why memorize Scripture? "The Word of God must enter the mind and heart to bring life, health, and fruit. As long as it stays external to us, whether in print or digital form, it can do us no good. That we now have such easy access to massive books doesn’t change that fact at all. An unused Bible app on the phone is the same as a closed and dusty Bible on the shelf..." Matthew’s genealogy isn’t missing a name—it’s making a claim (10-minute read) Matthew's genealogy in his opening chapter traces the line of Jesus from Abraham through three sets of 14. But it gives just 41 names. The math is wrong? No indeed. This is a longer read, but another one of those instances where it can be fun to really dig into a familiar passage to figure out more of what God is presenting us here. Why all the frenzy over Christian Nationalism? Awful used to mean, "full of awe" and literally can now mean non-literally, so words can be hard to nail down, with ever-shifting meanings. But in some cases it is up to us to stand by the definition that God has set. Much of our cultural battle is over the dictionary, involving attempts to undermine what God has declared. So, for example, "gay marriage" simply isn't a thing, and not because we are taking issue with how the word "gay" has changed over time. No, the issue is that God gets to define what marriage is, and no one else, and He has so defined it as to preclude pairings of two men or two women. So too, with the term "Christian Nationalism." All sorts of folks identify with the term, complicating our discussion of it, so a good first step in having any sort of intelligent discussion is to start with God's definition. And here, again, one part of the term has room to wiggle and change but not the other. So if a group of racists want to describe themselves as "Christian Nationalists" we should say, "No, you are not, because God has so defined 'Christian' as to preclude any pairing with 'racist"' (Gen. 1-2, Gal. 3:28). That's what we should do, instead of taking these people seriously. Doing so would save us all a lot of time, and allow the discussion to focus in on where it needs to be: on how we can encourage one another to speak God's Name boldly in the public square, and how we can better present His Truth to a nation in desperate need of Him. Your wife is Beauty: The Song’s response to male sexual distortion This is an article for Christian counselors helping men addicted to pornography who, consequently, don't find their wife as attractive as before. The counsel offered is of benefit to any and all: "I have relatives who live in Colorado Springs. Every day they wake up in the shadow of Pike’s Peak, which is a beautiful mountain vista. Every time I visit, it takes my breath away. But, if I were to guess, many people in Colorado Springs do not appreciate this view because it has become too normal and mundane to them. It is only by starting to look at and appreciate the unique beauty of that particular view that we can be formed in this way. Your counselee’s wife is beautiful. If he has not reckoned it to be so, he has missed something that is very true right in front of him. So, have him look." Rivers and Robots' Provider Don't know this group, but really enjoyed this video, which their fans around the world helped them create. ...

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