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More of Reformed Perspective!

Apologetics 101

What Truth sounds like: sometimes calm isn’t appropriate

Some years back, Justin Trudeau made it a requirement that all Liberal MPs had to support abortion. MP Lawrence MacAulay had, to that point, been known as pro-life, but he indicated, via a series of tweets, that he would follow his party leader Justin Trudeau's new requirement for his MPs. MacAulay wrote:

"I'd like to clarify my comments to The Guardian the other day. I am personally pro-life, and have long held these beliefs; however I accept and understand the party position regarding a woman's right to choose. Despite my personal beliefs, I understand that I will have to vote the party position should this issue ever come up in the House of Commons."

Broadly speaking, there are two sides of the abortion debate:

  1. those who know it is a baby and recognize that this is a life and death situation
  2. those who don't understand (or at least claim not to understand) that abortion ends the life of a precious human being

But there is a third group. This group is made up of those who know it is a child, know it is a life and death situation, and knowingly advocate for death.

This is the group Lawrence MacAulay joined. He called himself "personally pro-life," so he understands a life is involved. And yet, knowing what he knows, MacAulay pledged support for the murder of 100,000 Canadian children each year. This is the most indefensible of all positions – the most outrageous stand of all.

So how should we respond when someone in public office takes such an outrageous position? We can write about them to the local paper, and we can write to them via an email or letter, and when we do, we should then be civil…but we should not be calm!

Calm isn't appropriate

We communicate things in how we say them, just as much as by what we say. That's why when we sing to God, it should be with gusto – mouthing the words, even if they are wonderful words, sends a mixed message, or simply doesn't praise Him at all.

In the same way, a calm, quiet response to Lawrence MacAulay's betrayal wouldn't match up with what he'd done. The confusion he created certainly cost children their lives. Any woman who was considering abortion at the time who then heard this professedly pro-life MP agree to support abortion would have had to understand this as an acknowledgment that abortion isn’t really a life or death matter – it can’t be if he’s not even willing to take a stand. That's the implicit message he spread.

And in how we respond, there’ll be an implicit message sent in how we say what we say. So if someone is promoting the slaughter of the unborn, we can't talk to him like we would if he was proposing an increase in the GST by a per cent or two. (Sadly, if MacAulay had done that, he'd probably have gotten more heated responses than he ever got for his tweets.) This isn't about money, but about lives, so if our response doesn't have some heat in it, we're not doing it right.

Does that mean we should just go off on him? SHOULD WE TYPE OUR LETTER IN ALL CAPS? Should we call him every name in the book?

Of course not.

But we should use powerful words. We should use clear words even though we know they will offend. There is no getting around offending someone in this situation - people will get offended when you confront them about the blood on their hands. But we should not offend him with spurious insults, or with demeaning talk.

Here is the letter I wrote this MP at the time:

Dear MP Lawrence MacAulay,

As a pro-life citizen, I don’t appreciate your party leader's stance. But your recent tweets left me more disappointed in you than him. Justin Trudeau, at least, can pretend he doesn’t know better. But why are you personally pro-life?

Of course the answer to that is simple – you know it is a baby. So let’s look back at what you tweeted and insert in your own pro-life perspective. Here then, is what you really said:

"I'd like to clarify my comments to the Guardian the other day. I am personally against the killing of unborn babies and have long held these beliefs; however I accept and understand the party position regarding a women's right to choose to kill her unborn baby. Despite my personal belief against killing babies, I understand that I will have to vote to kill unborn babies – my party's position – should this issue ever come up in the House of Commons."

Being personally pro-life and yet politically pro-choice is the most damnable of all positions in the abortion debate. It means you know what is going on, but don’t have the courage to act. Please reconsider.

Jon Dykstra

If I were to have a second go at it, I would have started differently. "Don't appreciate" and "disappointed" aren't the sort of terms you use to tell someone to stop promoting mass murder – far too relaxed.

However, I'm not sharing this as an example of some perfect letter. There is no such thing, so that shouldn't be our standard. But it is worth reflecting on what we could improve on for next time.

While my beginning could have been better, I got the right tone in the second half. No euphemisms, nothing to minimize what he is doing. My tone matches my message – the words I use bring with them a brutal clarity: this is killing children – this is damnable.

Conclusion

Christians are too often too calm. We live in a crazy culture in which there is a right to murder unborn babies; murder is also being touted as a “treatment” for the elderly, sick, disabled, and maybe soon even the mentally ill; and adults and even children are being told they are the wrong gender and that the fix is to have healthy body parts mutilated. That is crazy!

But too often our tone and the word choices we use simply don't match the overall claim that we are making. Can we talk of being "disappointed" or not "appreciating" the actions of a man like Lawrence MacAulay and really expect to convince our fellow Canadians that 300 children a day are being slaughtered in our country? That's not the right vocabulary. Back in 2014, at this same time that MacAulay was issuing his tweets, three Mounties were murdered in Moncton, N.B., and the newspapers were filled with words like "heartbreaking," "horror" and "grief-stricken." Those are the kinds of words we use in the face of a travesty.

How we sound does matter. If we're going to convincingly communicate the truth of what's being done to the unborn, the elderly, and the gender-confused, we need to talk like we mean it. Instead of being "disappointed," we need to be "devastated." Instead of being "regretful," we should be "shocked."

A deeper problem might lie not in our vocabulary and how we talk, but in our hearts and how we feel. It is hard to speak about being outraged when we aren't actually outraged. Apathy is understandable in the face of an evil like abortion that is decades old, or even an evil like transgender mutilation, which is mostly happening to people we don’t even know. But apathy in the face of evil is also sinful. If we speak of being disappointed because that's all the passion we can muster, then we need more than a change of vocabulary – we need a change of heart.

Please forgive us our apathy, Lord. Please turn around those who love the shedding of blood. And please, Lord, save the children and adults who are being killed and mutilated!

A version of this article first appeared in the July/August 2014 issue.

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Pro-life - Abortion

Judges vs. justice: a history of abortion in Canadian courts
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News

Saturday Selections – Sept 6, 2025

Casting Crowns' "Nobody" 'Cause I'm just a nobody trying to tell everybody All about Somebody who saved my soul Ever since You rescued me, You gave...
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In a Nutshell

Tidbits – September 2025

Ping Pong by Jay Adams “A soft answer turns away wrath. But a foolish word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1. Every time I read that Proverb,...
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Dating

8 reasons you should not have sex outside of marriage
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Parenting

J.C. Ryle on teaching our children to pray

In his book "Duties for Parents," J.C. Ryle encourages parents to take seriously the admonishment in Proverbs 22:6 to “Train up a child in the way he should go" because, as the verse continued, "when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Ryle explained that this promise applied both for good and for ill – early training would help the child right into adulthood, but bad habits fostered by parental neglect would also have a lasting impact. Now, this might seem an ominous verse, knowing that we parents are far from perfect. But God is not calling us to perfection here. He is, however, making it plain that He has given us an awesome and wonderful task, to be taken on with great seriousness. In the excerpt below from his book, Ryle urges parents to train their children to pray. **** Prayer is the very life-breath of true religion. It is one of the first evidences that a man is born again. When the Lord sent Ananias to Saul, He told Ananias: “Behold, he is praying” (Acts 9:11). Saul had begun to pray, and that was proof enough. Prayer is a key to spiritual growth. When there is lots of private communion with God, your soul will grow like the grass after rain; when there is little, all will be at a standstill – you will barely keep your soul alive. Show me a growing Christian, a strong Christian, a flourishing Christian, and I will show you one that speaks regularly with his Lord. He asks much, and he has much. He tells Jesus everything, and so he always knows how to act. Prayer is the mightiest engine God has placed in our hands. It is the best weapon to use in every difficulty, and the surest remedy in every trouble. It is the cry He has promised to always be listening for, even as a loving mother listens for the voice of her child. Prayer is the simplest means that man can use to come to God. It is within the reach of all of us – the sick, the aged, the infirm, the paralytic, the blind, the poor, the unlearned – everyone can pray. You don’t have to be academic or an intellectual to pray. So long as you have a tongue to tell God about the state of your soul, you can and you ought to pray. Those words, ” You do not have because you do not ask God” (James 4:2), will condemn many on the Day of Judgment. Parents, if you love your children, do all that lies in your power to train them up to a habit of prayer. Show them how to begin. Tell them what to say. Encourage them to persevere. Remind them if they become negligent and slack about it. This, remember, is the very first step in religion that a child can take themselves. Long before he can read, you can teach him to kneel by his mother’s side, and repeat the simple words of prayer and praise which she puts in his mouth. And as the first steps in any undertaking are always the most important, so is the manner in which your children’s prayers are prayed, a point which deserves your closest attention. Few seem to understand how much depends on this. We must beware of our children saying their prayers in haste, or carelessly, or irreverently. You must be cautious too, of leaving your children to say their prayers on their own, without you in the room. We must make certain they are actually saying their prayers. Surely if there’s any habit which your own hand and eye should be involved in forming, it is the habit of prayer. If you never hear your children pray yourself, then for any negligence on their part, you are much to blame. You are little wiser than the bird described in Job 39:14-16: For she abandons her eggs to the earth And warms them in the dust, And she forgets that a foot may crush them, Or that a wild beast may trample them. She treats her young cruelly, as if they were not hers; Though her labor be in vain, she is unconcerned; Prayer is, of all habits, the one which we remember the longest. Many a grey-headed man could tell you how his mother used to make him pray in the days of his childhood. He’ll have forgotten so many other things. The church where he was first taken to worship, the minister he first heard preach, the friends he used to play with – all may have been forgotten and left no mark behind. But you will often find it is far different with his first prayers. He will often be able to tell you where he knelt, and what he was taught to say, and even how his mother looked all the while. It will come up as fresh before his mind’s eye as if it was but yesterday. Reader, if you love your children, I charge you, do not let his early years pass without training him to pray. If you train your children in anything, then train them, at the very least, to make a habit of prayer. This is a modernized excerpt from J.C. Ryle’s article (and then book) “Duties of Parents” first published in 1888. This article was first published in Reformed Perspective in December 2018....

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News

Saturday Selections – Aug. 30, 2025

Great illustrations of the government's limits Big government presumes that its bureaucracy is omnicompetent, able to manage for its citizens the job market, healthcare, education, trash collection, and so much more. And in making much of its own capabilities, it diminishes its citizens – we must be incompetent if we need their active intervention in so much of our lives. So is the government omnicompetent? No, as this video demonstrates with three examples of government programs gone wrong. Were they to acknowledge their limitations, governments would then limit their own fiddling and allow more room for other sorts of "government" – including family government, Church government, and self-government – to take up more responsibility. China slaps tariff on Canadian canola after Canada imposed a tariff on Chinese EVs Canadians who want to "go green" will have to pay more to do it, since our government imposed a 100% tariff on cheap Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) last year. Does that tariff help Canadian EV production? Possibly... but only by hurting Canadian consumers in the pocketbook. And now China has hit Canadian canola with a huge 78% tariff. Might that help China's canola producers? Maybe. But only by hurting Chinese canola consumers. When tariffs beget more tariffs, the only way to stop the cycle is for one country to step back and stop. And that isn't as defeatist as it is made out to be. It is, in fact, a defense of your country's consumers, who will no longer be forced to pay the jacked-up pricing our tariffs create. Yes, ending tariffs could hurt some Canadian producers – those who can't produce goods as inexpensively as countries abroad are able to – but ending tariffs will help our consumers, who will then get more bang for their buck. Ending tariffs will also help any of our producers who use imported products. And, in this case, ending tariffs could have helped our country's canola producers escape a punitive payback by the Chinese government. Media gives big coverage to study that says climate change will cost trillions... ... but didn't give big coverage when the same study started getting questioned. Court backs Calvin U over prof fired for officiating a gay "marriage" A same-sex "marriage" is two people committing, for life, to live in rebellion against God. They are doing so to their own harm, and quite possibly their eternal destruction, should they keep to that commitment. How could this professing Christian have been confused about whether or not he should officiate such a ceremony? It'd be akin to officiating a ceremony where a pair of anorexics made a solemn vow not to eat again – why would anyone do that to them? It's good news, then, to hear that Calvin University took a stand, and the courts backed them. Trump (sort of) says, "The US should be more like Canada" Canada's federal election results have, historically, been beyond questioning. With a scrutineer from each of the major parties overlooking the ballot counts, there have been as many as four tallies to check against each other – the Elections Canada result, but then also the Liberal, Conservative, and NDP counts. But as we move to more mail-in ballots and, municipally, we bring in electronic voting, what we're left with is a system that requires more and more trust from the voters because there is less and less transparency. We have only to look south of the border to see how badly that can go. Now President Trump has made transparency an issue, with his demand for getting rid of electronic voting machines. The Prodigal - Josiah Queen Quite the peppy take on the Prodigal Son... ...

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Theology

I won't go with you: abandonment as an act of love

“You’re kicking someone out of your church?” It can be hard bringing friends into our churches – our music is slower, our benches are harder and our sermons are longer – but it gets harder still when a friend is brought the same Sunday an excommunication notice is read out. Excommunication is almost impossible to explain, because almost no other churches do it. It is a completely new thing to most people outside our Reformed churches, and on the surface it seems so harsh and uncaring. It seems mean. The biblical basis is clear enough, Matthew 18:15-18 speaks of excluding an unrepentant sinner, from the communion of the Church: “Let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector.” 2 Thessalonians 3:14 even gives a clear reason for this exclusion: “do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed.” But the biblical explanation isn’t very satisfying. Yes, that’s what it says, but can that be what it really means? It doesn’t seem to make sense. Wouldn’t it be better if this sinning brother kept coming to church, and kept hanging out with his Christian friends? How can God’s word act on his soul if we prevent him from even hearing it? This is the sort of thinking that has eliminated excommunication in most churches, and delayed and lengthened the process in many of our own churches. There is always the hope that as long as the sinning brother keeps attending, something might change. This hope for change seems to disappear once they have been excommunicated, and so the process is dragged out as long as possible. The pro-life explanation I never fully understood the rationale behind excommunication until a Lutheran, in my university pro-life group, explained it to me. She didn’t talk about excommunication though. Instead she talked about abandonment as an act of love. Our group was discussing what one of our members had gone through when her friend asked her to go with her to an abortion clinic. “What could I do? She’s my best friend, and she was going crazy. She needed me so I went with her.” “Did she know you were pro-life?” “I told her.” “She knew you were pro-life and she still asked you to help her get an abortion? Does she know what being pro-life means? Does she know you think abortion is murder?” “She needed me so she asked me. We’re best friends!” “Your friend asked you to help her murder her baby. Do you think she really understood what she was asking you to do? If she had really understood, do you think she would have asked you?” “But she did ask…what else could I do?” “You could have said no. You could have said, ‘You know I love you, you know we are best friends, but what you are doing is wrong, and I cannot help you do it. You know I would do anything for you, but I will not do this. If you are going to do this, you will have to do it alone.’ That would have given your friend – the friend who knows you love her dearly – something to think about. If you go with her, she’ll never understand how serious abortion is. After all, her pro-life friend went with her. But if you refuse to help her, if her best friend abandons her, then she might just be shocked into realizing just how serious this is. Abandoning her gives her more to think about than accompanying her ever could." Shock and shame An unrepentant sinner is often an ignorant sinner. He doesn’t see the need to repent and doesn’t think his particular sin is a big deal. That thought is confirmed when the church refuses to discipline him. There is no sharp break to snap the sinning brother back to his senses. Instead he’ll probably start attending less and less frequently, and start making more and more friends outside the church. Finally discipline becomes impossible because the man no longer has any friends left in the church. Excommunication at this point is incapable of shaming him, because he doesn’t care what the people in the church think. But if we act while the church is still the focal point in his life, then the unrepentant brother will see the people he loves, and the people who love him, telling him they will not walk down the wide path with him. Then the brother will be left alone with his thoughts, left alone to evaluate his path. And Lord willing he will then be forced to see the error of his ways. Excommunication does make sense, and we should thank God for it. First published in the November 2000 Reformed Perspective....

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Politics

What if everything was about God?

It struck me, just recently, that I’ve been regularly promising to praise God’s Name “among the nations.” This pledge, to talk about God outside of church, out in the world, with non-Christians, comes up again and again in the songs we sing each service (Ps. 18, 57, 108, etc.). And, just recently, God gave me an opportunity to talk about Him with more than a hundred thousand people, sharing His views on a local political issue. God made it happen This year our public library system asked voters to approve a roughly 66% increase in taxpayer funding. The way things work here, an official “voters’ guide” is sent out to everyone, and it includes both the reasons for and against every proposed levy. Who writes up those reasons? Whoever volunteers first. So, I recruited my wife Janice, and the two of us, along with one other gentleman from the area, became the three-person “Against Committee.” Why was I against more money for the library? It’s because our solidly Christian town has a very unchristian library. The local branch is run by people who put on big Pride Month displays, even in the children’s section. This Spring, I bumped into a neighbor by the picture books section, and as we were chatting, she started sifting through the shelves, looking for treasures. But what she kept discovering was one disgusting picture book after another. They were about sexual development, or pushed gender-confusion and other LGBT themes, and were intended for kids barely old enough to read. Neither of us knew what to do with her growing stack. I ended up checking them all out, not because I wanted them, but because, with no late fees being collected anymore, I could at least keep these out of circulation for a good long while. That’s all I was thinking at the time. But I still had those books on my desk when this voters’ guide opportunity popped up. Turns out, God had provided me just the ammunition I’d need for my write-up. What kind of win? While I wanted to focus on how the library was opposing God and what He’s said about gender and sex, the third person on our Against Committee wanted a focus on the money. Making it about the money could broaden the appeal to anyone in the county who cared about their pocketbook. Surely that was a bigger group than just the concerned Christians! Asking for a two-thirds increase is significant, so he had a point. It’s also a familiar point. When it comes to politics, Christians tend to bring forward fiscal issues, or other generally conservative points, rather than anything explicitly Christian. In this case, if more people care about money than God, isn’t the winning strategy obvious? The thing is, not all wins are wins. In 279 BC, King Pyrrhus of Epirus defeated the Romans at the Battle of Asculum, but at a devastating cost to his own army. Ever since then the term Pyrrhic victory has been used to describe a win that leaves the victor weaker than before. In Christians’ engagement with the world, we will, for the sake of some perceived short-term victory, overlook the long-term consequences that come with excluding God from the public square. We wonder why our culture is turning from God, but if, for strategic reasons, God’s own people won’t profess His Name in politics, who are we expecting will? Every square inch The world is the LORD’s, and consequently, the Devil is always and forever trying to get us to overlook, downplay, or deny that. In this library skirmish, the real issue wasn’t how much, but rather Who the library was opposing. So, what kind of win would it be if we had to shut up about our LORD to get it? If the Devil could choose to make us focus on either money or God, wouldn’t he choose money every time? The devil’s win is getting Christians to self-censor their praise and rob God of the glory that is His due. Thankfully, while the third member of our committee wanted money mentioned, he was happy to keep God central. After some back and forth, this is what we sent out to 140,000 eligible voters: Argument Against In the opening chapters of Genesis we learn that God made us male and female (Gen. 1:27) and sex is intended for marriage (Gen. 2:24). Our library system actively opposes these truths, and wants more money to do so. They oppose God in their teen section where Beyond Magenta shares an account of oral sex with a six-year-old. Despite this being brought to the library’s attention, they didn’t pull the book. That opposition is apparent even in the picture book section. Your preschooler can pull My Princess Boy off the shelf and ask you whether boys should wear dresses too. Being You: A First Conversation About Gender will teach them that “it’s okay to wonder: Am I a girl? Am I a boy? Am I both? Am I neither?” And Everybody is a Rainbow depicts naked genitalia. A $600,000 home currently pays about $155 a year to this system – the library wants to up that almost $100, to $252. We have increasing food, electricity, housing, and gas costs – that’s what we need our money for. We most certainly don’t need to give more money to a library that’s opposing God-given truths and sowing confusion, even among the littlest. The voters’ guide only allowed us 200 words, but the debate was also being had in the local paper. The paper published an article arguing for the increase, touting the library as somewhere safe to go. I got 300 words, in a letter to the editor, to share how God knows best what is best for us, and a library pushing transsexual confusion on little kids isn’t safe at all. Three kinds of objections Objections came in three sorts. Folks noted that, if it was about the money, borrowing from a library can save you a lot of money. That was a decent point, and it underscores the danger of what could have happened if we’d made this minor point our major one – we would have wasted all our energy on a matter that doesn’t matter. Another objection was along the lines of “Don’t force your God or your views on me.” But this objection applies better to their position than to ours. Christians don’t want to be forced to pay even more money to support views our Lord opposes. Meanwhile, the library and its supporters want to force us to cough up cash for their agenda. The irony was heavy. The third objection was over the definition of words like “safety,” “love,” and “gender,” and whose definition we were going to go with, the Left’s or God’s. A real win The vote went against us, and now we’ll have to hand over even more money to a library that’s shown it hates God. In the past that kind of result might have gotten me frustrated. This time I’m just grateful. God gave me an opportunity to praise His Name in public, and He made it easy for me. He put the committee sign-up sheet in front of my face, and so pre-arranged things to get my neighbor to track down the obscene picture books I could cite as horrible examples. Then He got a couple hundred words about Him sent out by a State that hates Him to over one hundred thousand voters who don’t normally hear about Him. It was a political campaign with the focus on God. Because everything is about God. And He is amazing....

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Internet

Screen-fast strictness – how tough is tough enough?
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Theology

Practicing the Sabbath: on living out the 4th Commandment
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News

Saturday Selections – Aug. 23, 2025

Distinguishing between Soft and Hard Christian Nationalism Because certain Reformed folk support a form of Christian Nationalism, others will be stro...
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Internet

Less screens = more life

What we learned by stepping away from our phones for 10 days ***** We were hoping for 200 to sign up. Turns out a lot of us were ready for this �...
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News

Saturday Selections – Aug. 16, 2025

Life's building blocks: everything, everywhere, all at once (1 minute) You can build some of the basic elements of a cell in a lab. But there's no process that can build them all together, which is what you need for life. In other words, even with a blueprint at the ready – scientists have cells they can observe – and refined materials and supercomputers and skilled geniuses, they not only can't make life in a lab, they demonstrate how it could never happen by accident out in the wild. The amazing ways fathers matter "Involved fathers made an especially big difference for girls’ mental health, with 10 times the number of female students being diagnosed with depression and risk of self-harm when they had disengaged or absent fathers." 6 ways that Christianity answers the "problem of pain" ... and also worth noting, the world doesn't have much of any answer at all. Should we ban smartphones from our schools?  Jonathan Haidt thinks so. Here are five key quotes from his book, The Anxious Generation... On "replacement theology" Rev. Witteveen on God's plan for Israel today... What's wrong with censorship Prov. 18:17 is known by some as the journalist's proverb, but its value extends to far beyond just reporters. It says: "The first to present his case seems right, until a second comes and questions him." This, in a nutshell, is the Christian case against censorship. What we know of fallen human nature means that we don't trust any one person or institution to have the necessary brilliance or character to always be right. The Christian case for free speech is also, essentially, the freedom to pursue God, and His Truth. All sorts of questions and skeptical arguments could be allowed in this pursuit.... though blasphemy need not be. We have good reason to be for free speech... but not without restriction. After all, God is our god, not free speech. ...

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Theology

The Lifelong Battle

I hate it. I love it. I’m held in its grip. Its power’s alarming. I feel myself slip. It draws me with offers Of quiet and rest, Of freedom from sorrow, Escape when I’m stressed. But it always leaves me So cold and alone, With shame and confusion – I reap what I’ve sown. And yet I keep going, Returning for more; A slave to behaviors I also abhor. The devil, he whispers, “Just do it once more; This time you’ll enjoy it Far more than before.” I’m weak, and I know it, And fighting is hard, For moment by moment I must be on guard. It is so much easier To give in to sin, To yield to temptation And let Satan win. But while sin allures me, I hear Jesus say, “Come, ask me for mercy, For help every day. I lift up the fallen, Forgive all your sin; I’ll strengthen and help you Again and again.” I hate it. I hate it. When ‘gainst God I sin. Oh Saviour, please help me The vict’ry to win....

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Assorted

Why I don’t have a bucket list

Admittedly, to get guilt tripped into a camping trip exposes character weakness on my part. When someone bounds up to you, excited as a kitten encountering his first ball of yarn, and says they have the best idea for a geology fieldtrip, spanning 3 days (“ooh, ooh, no let’s turn it into 4!”), 400 miles, and something like 8 piles of rocks, any person with their wits about them would laugh and say, “Y’all have fun now, I’ll be over here, sleeping in my own bed.” People who camp on purpose, non-ironically, are an utter mystery to me. The more I learn about camping, the more outrageous and certifiable it seems! Did you know that KOA (one of the largest campground empires in the United States and yes, there is such a thing as a campground empire) stands for Kampgrounds of America?? How are we not promoting illiteracy and the overall degradation of our dignity by paying these people to borrow their dirt so we can sleep on it? Did you further know that after you have paid to sleep on dirt out in “nature,” you still are required to either buy or pack in your own wood for building campfires? In the (wait for it...) woods? Yet for the longest time during the diabolical planning of this trip, whose chief stated end was to go and stare at rocks, I could not bring myself to say “no, absolutely not, life is too short.” Which leads me to the character flaw, and my grandmother. ***** In the same week that this trip was scheduled to take place, I received word that my grandmother, my dad’s 94-year-old mother, had suffered a severe stroke. As I write this, I await further word on her condition; things didn’t look good last night. So I have been contemplating my grandmother, someone I have always found to be remarkable and not, perhaps, for the usual reasons. My grandmother was the quintessential farmwife. She raised four children, kept a lovely home, and was known for feeding people well. In many ways, I didn’t truly get to know her until I got married at age 20 and we both discovered that I shared her love of beautiful dishes, and of tables set to appeal to the senses. It was something she was teased about a bit over the years, her large collections of glassware, full sets of tableware, antique bowls and coffee service, but it has captivated me since childhood. She gave me my first everyday serving bowls when my oldest was a toddler – the same ones she used when her kids were little, and then proceeded to gift me antique glassware for my birthday for the next nearly 20 years. The year the glassware stopped was the same year she stopped calling on my birthday; that was, perhaps, the first time a birthday ever made me feel my age. I was blessed with 2 beautiful, intelligent farming grandmothers growing up; my mom’s mom went to the Lord a couple of years ago, and I like to think there are flavors of each of these women’s influences in my own farmwife homemaking. My maternal grandmother was known for ingenuity with the food at hand, with using her abundant garden to set visually peaceful tables, with the sort of minimalism that employs only that which is meaningful. My paternal grandmother was known for overflowing tables (why serve one kind of meat when you could serve three?), and for leftovers that could feed an army, created with simple recipes that everyone loved, served with what I find to be an uncommon blend of elegance and utility. She had no shame in making her mashed potatoes from a box, and paper napkins were a blessing. No one ever left her table hungry. I asked her once to teach me how she cooked various meats, how her meals always taste so good. She shrugged and said, “just a little salt and pepper?” As a person tempted by gourmet magazines, it was an important lesson for me. ***** And this, obviously, leads me to the ill-fated camping trip (not obvious, you say? We should spend more time together). The thing that guilted me into agreeing to this grand adventure of curiosity and literally leaving no stone unturned was the feeling that good mothers, or for that matter, that really interesting people, are the sort who long to travel the world, to always be experiencing new things. They are the ones who cannot simply read about a volcano, they have to climb it! At sunrise! And then go glissading down it, trying all the while to avoid hidden frozen lakes (you think I am making this up. Friend, I couldn’t make this stuff up. I refer you to your friendly neighborhood internet browser to prove the point)! How could I be worth anything at all if my bucket list was not perpetually on the verge of overflow? What does the truth – that I don’t even have a bucket list– say about me, about my value as a mother, as a wife, as a Christian? My grandmother has run well. She has lived an extraordinary life, and why? Because her life has been marked by extraordinary faithfulness to the task at hand. She has steadily built the portion of the kingdom wall God put in front of her. The pitfall I fell into was to believe that true faithfulness had to look different than embracing the life God has given me – it had to look both more “normal” and more exciting. I gave room to the lie that setting a gracious table was inferior to seeing something new, to having an adventure outside my own home. I am kicking myself as I write this... how could I have been so daft as to think that kicking rocks was more full of glory than grilling fresh corn on the cob, that sleeping on dirt had more inherent value than putting clean sheets on my family’s beds? Sitting here in the morning light, having removed myself from the geology fieldtrip, the truth of what it means to live well shines brightly before me. Only what’s done for Christ will last....

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In a Nutshell

Tidbits – August 2025

Husbands, build up your wife R. Kent Hughes in Disciplines of a Godly Man, on Churchill at his very best: “Winston Churchill once attended a formal banquet in London, where the dignitaries were asked the question, ‘If you could not be who you are, who would you like to be?’ Naturally, everyone was curious as to what Churchill, who was seated next to his beloved Clemmie, would say. After all, Churchill would not be expected to say Julius Caesar or Napoleon. When it finally came Churchill’s turn, the old man, the last respondent to the question, rose and gave his answer. ‘If I could not be who I am, I would most like to be’ — here he paused to take his wife’s hand — ‘Lady Churchill’s second husband.’ The old boy made some points that night. But he also said it for everyone who has a good marriage.” One step to a balanced budget Billionaire Warren Buffet once proposed a one-point plan to ensure the United States would always have a balanced budget. It was a half-serious, half-genuine, 100-per-cent-genius suggestion. And it's equally applicable in Canada. "You just pass a law that says that any time there's a deficit of more than three percent of GDP, all sitting members of Congress are ineligible for re-election. Yeah, yeah, now you've got the incentives in the right place, right? ….If you guys can't get it done, we'll get some other guys to get it done. The only problem: the people who would have to pass such a law are the same people who would lose their jobs." Worst names In an old copy of Reader’s Digest, one letter writer noted that their relatives had gotten married in the Boring Baptist Church. It was a curious name. Might it have come about as a reaction to the seeker-sensitive marketing that has churches hyping that "We have a great band, a puppet ministry for the kids, and the very best coffee bar in town!" But no, this is simply what the folks in Boring, Oregon called one of the local Baptist churches. A bad name, to be certain, but better than what the congregations have to deal with in Falls, Virginia. Who wants to say they go to a Falls church? Clues for the clueless Modesty is a battle that every upcoming generation seems keen to wage. So if your teens are either wearing their clothes too high or too low, here's a couple tips that may be hepful. BOYS: If their pants hang low, arrange for the little sister to point out: "Freddy, I can see your panties!” That should do it. GIRLS: This line might be best delivered by mom, or maybe grandma: "If you can’t sit down in it without being indecent, it isn’t decent.” Playing at religion C.S. Lewis, in Miracles, wrote about sinful man's tendency to pretend to seek after God. But what may come of even that when the Holy Spirit is involved? “It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. ‘Look out!’ we cry, ‘It's alive!’ And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back – I would have done so myself if I could – and proceed no further with Christianity. An ‘impersonal God’ – well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness inside our own heads – better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power that we can tap-best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the Hunter, King, Husband – that is quite another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (‘Man's search for God!’) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us!” A bumper sticker worth 1,000 words A good question can be a powerful thing (as Jesus demonstrated in His earthly ministry). Spurgeon – the rap If you've got reservations about rap, that's understandable – like rock and pop, most of it is horrible. But consider also what a Reformed rapper can do with this genre. Here's Shai Linne, with part of Verse 3 from his ode to Charles Spurgeon. (Click here to hear him perform it.) To observe this servant is extremely instructive One word about Spurgeon is he was productive Preached Jesus - no speakers - loudly he’d shout it Each week packed houses of crowds in the thousands His sermons were published - sixty-two volumes He worked almost like he just knew he would die soon Made mad disciples, passed on his knowledge Established a school to train pastors in college Sold out to the Lord Jehovah, his portion Also he built two homes for the orphans A monthly magazine, plus he wasn’t too busy to write books - about a hundred and fifty God’s grace in Spurgeon was manifest But remember, the best man is a man at best Yes, he struggled with depression - consistently sick, kid Both he and Susannah, physically afflicted He experienced as a servant of Jesus The power of God made perfect in weakness Later on comes complications His stands for orthodoxy got him shunned by his denomination But through all the hardship and all the controversy He never stopped relying on the sovereign God of mercy And when he had finished pressing towards the goal He entered into heaven at the age of fifty-seven His life is a case of God’s grace effectively At work in sinners to leave a great legacy The proof is many years later in your speakers We’re praising Jesus for raising up the "prince of preachers." Don’t all religions lead to God? In Together for GOOD, Jay Adams gives readers a fictionalized conversation between Greg Cunninghamm, a pastor, and Bob Rawlston, an unbelieving man wrestling with the Book of John. One of the Bob's struggles is with John 14:6 where Jesus says, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." It is the exclusive claim of the last sentence that bothers Bob. "I always thought that whatever religion you accept, so long as you are sincere, it will ultimately lead you to God. But Jesus doesn't provide much room for anybody except those who believe in Him." The pastor has two responses well worth considering: "If all religions lead to God, surely He wouldn't be much of a God since He'd be a contradiction in Himself. You see, since every religion contradicts every other, and if all of their ways lead to God, then God Himself must be confused. You wouldn't want to believe in a God who says one thing today and the opposite tomorrow, one thing to one person and the opposite to another, I'm sure? ".... And think of this: if people can be saved from their sins some other way than by believing the Gospel, then Jesus' crucifixion was not only a senseless tragedy, but sending Him to die was a stupid, brutal act on God's part. No matter how you squeeze it, when you think rationally, you have to come to the conclusion that if there's one God, there can only be one way." Math to make you smile In Craig Damrauer’s New Math the author takes everyday language and gives the words mathematical definitions. Sometimes the results are insightful. His definition of a Ponzi scheme makes it evident that those that fall for them are, most often, looking to get something for nothing: Ponzi scheme = ROI – R – I (ROI stands for Return On Investment). Other definitions are merely humorous. Here are a half dozen of the best. MODERN ART = I could do that + yeah, but you didn’t PERSEVERANCE = if at first you don’t succeed + repetition DOG = cat + loyalty REVENGE = do unto others – as you would have them do unto you CHILDREN = joy – sleep LOSING ARGUMENT = you’re right + I’m sorry REALIST = pessimist + good PR Why read Christian biographies? In his article, "Brothers, read Christian biographies," John Piper explained why we should: “Hebrews 11 is a divine mandate to read Christian biography…. If we asked the author, ‘How shall we stir one another up to love and good works?’ (10:24), his answer would be: ‘Through encouragement from the living (10:25) and the dead’ (chap. 11). Christian biography is the means by which ‘body life’ cuts across the generations.” Danger of biblical biographies I once read a fictionalized biblical biography of Paul that left me thinking that he and James fought over whether we can be saved by works or faith. I learned later that this was the author inserting his own perspective, and, not yet discerning enough to sift what was biblical from what was fiction, I swallowed it all. Some years back, Joanna Voschezang, writing in the Faith in Focus denominational magazine of the Reformed Churches of New Zealand, expressed a similar concern: “ sub-genre within that of biography is a section which could just as well be entitled ‘Biblical Novels.’ There are a number of books that have been written about people in the Bible such as Rahab, Joshua, Moses and Tamar. These books are written with very little factual, biblical information to go on and yet an entire story has been made around it. The danger of these books is that they can color your view of that biblical character for the rest of your life and yet 95 percent of it will be conjecture on the part of the author. When it comes to the lives of those in the Bible it is best to stick with the original source – God’s holy Word!” The real thing In Charles Martin’s When Crickets Cry, the main character has a frank conversation about pornography with a young man named Termite. "Your mind imprints images, especially that kind, on the heart, so that ten and fifteen years down the road, when you're married and trying to make something out of your life, they come drifting back, bubbling up and reminding you how much greener the grass is outside your own bed. I have loved one woman in my lifetime...she's been gone five years, but, I've got enough memories to last a lifetime, and I wouldn't sell you a single one for every picture in every magazine around the world. And you know something– the ones where she has her clothes on are worth just as much as the ones without.... Love is no tool; neither is a woman's heart." ….Termite scoffed and shoved the last bite of jerky into his mouth “How would you know? You just said you’ve loved only one woman. I think you need to test-drive a few cars before you buy one." "You can buy that lie if you want, but if you're working for a bank, you don't study the counterfeit to know the real thing. You study the real thing to know the counterfeit.... From out of the heart, you speak. You put that crap in your heart, and you can't help but find it coming out your mouth. It'll color and flavor your whole person. Pretty soon, it'll eat you up." Cults flourish wherever the Church is neglectful Some cults are started by charismatic figures with large egos – they are quite happy to have the attention on themselves rather than God. But as Jay Adams explained, sometimes it is the Church that is to blame for the rise of a cult: "…as someone has said, 'Cults are the unpaid bills of the Church.' What does that mean? Simply this – whenever the church of Jesus Christ fails to emphasize some truth, and becomes imbalanced in one direction or another, it leaves room for a cult to creep in and take over that area of theology which it has neglected. You didn’t pay your bill, so someone else moves in to take possession of what was your God-given responsibility to teach in the first place. Take the days in which there was little emphasis upon eschatology. The Adventist cults gained favor. The period in which there was little concern for pastoral care led to the beginnings of the healing cults." From insult to insightful "The urge to save humanity is almost always only a false- for the urge to rule it.” Some quotes age well. This bit, from H.L. Mencken (1880-1956), was originally targeting Christian missionaries heading off to “foreign parts” and, in that context, was simply insulting. But today, when we have would-be environmental, economic, educational, and political saviors, all of whom are demanding more control and more power, Mencken’s words have become insightful....

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News

Saturday Selections – Aug. 9, 2025

Four guys, one piano, doing a One Direction cover The Piano Guys, getting clever... Anything can be an idol "I have worshiped an hour of uninte...
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Canada just about had a ballot as tall as you

On August 18, voters in the riding of Battle River–Crowfoot will go to the polls to elect one of the 214 candidates on the ballot. This is the large...
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Assorted

Yea, all things

come not by chance but by His fatherly hand - Lord’s Day 10 ***** The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. – Pro...
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Can you track all the ways you’re taxed?

Each year the Fraser Institute observes a “Tax Freedom Day” – this year it happened on June 8 – that tracks Canadians’ total tax burden when...
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How to stop taking the Bible for granted

“Scripture has never been easier to obtain, and Scripture has never been more difficult to absorb.” Let that sink in for a minute. I read that quote the other day in The Me I Want to Be by John Ortberg, and was struck by that sad truth. It reminded me of a recent discussion around our dinner table, when Pop told us the story of Mary Jones. She was a poor young Welsh girl who saved and saved for a Bible, and when she finally had the funds she needed, she walked 26 miles to buy one (just a heads up that is 42 kilometers – a literal marathon!). So, after a long arduous trek barefoot through the countryside, Mary arrived at the house of the clergyman Thomas Charles to make her purchase... only to discover there were no Bibles left! She burst into tears. Her heart was broken, because she could not buy her own Bible. Do not worry though, the story does not end there! There is a happily ever after! Mary ended up with a Bible (one set aside for purchase by someone else, but a Bible nonetheless). And God used this interaction in the push for more Bible translations! What a beautiful chain of events. Now, as we contemplated this story at home, Pop asked a question I would like to pose to you: How many Bibles do you have? Most of us probably have a few Bibles, either from our school days or due to the changing translations within our churches. And that does not even take into account the access we have through the internet! But with all this access, all these Bibles... do you ever desire to read Scripture like Mary? Satan knows the Word has power. Saving power (John 5:24; 1 Cor. 1:18; Rom. 1:16). So any time you even think about opening the Bible, you may well find yourself faced with temptations and distractions placed there by the devil, the world, or simply your own sinful flesh. Suddenly there is something else that requires your immediate attention, or there is a notification on your phone, or you just do not feel like it. And once the first battle has been waged and won and your Bible is open... the spiritual war resumes! You are once again distracted, or start skim-reading, or your brain just goes numb. The sad, unspoken truth is that many people find the Bible boring. The length and strength of our attention span has been weakened by our dependence on external stimuli. The overconsumption of short and shallow content through social media has decreased our capacity to focus. Therefore, in a world with so many easy options to amuse or distract our minds, we all have to learn to be fed by the Bible. So, how can we do this? How can we make sure we are truly listening when we hear the Bible all the time? How can we make sure we are still looking for God’s Word when it is right in front of us? John Ortberg had a few suggestions for improving our engagement with the Scriptures, and I would like to share them with you. 1. Read with expectancy Sometimes people bring energy to a gathering. Sometimes they just show up. Consider this: when you spend time in the Word of God, you get to spend time with the God of the Word (James 4:8; Jer. 29:13). If I really understand that, then when I open up my Bible, I do not just “show up.” My mind is awake. I am building my relationship with my Father. It is His turn to talk. I am expectantly waiting to hear what He has to say! 2. Read with an active mind Satan loves to paint a mental glaze over the familiar words of the Bible. So break through it! Use your critical thinking, voice your musings, and ask questions! Read the way you watch a movie. Nobody “tries harder” to watch a movie, but everybody is engaged. Everyone has something to say. However, when it comes to the Bible, the conversations become stilted. People are so concerned with making sure they get the “right” answer, that everyone backs out. The good-natured revealing of different perspectives creates much more learning than just anxiously filling in the blanks with the right answers. 3. Memorize the Word I can’t emphasize how much I believe in hiding God’s Word in your heart (Ps. 119:11). I know it can sound hard, or tedious, or time-consuming, but you can start small! Just start! The words we carry in our minds are available to transform any moment. Memorize the encouragements or warnings that you need most. When God’s Word pushes out lies and resides within us, we will reach for truth, and it will be ours to have. 4. Don’t just read. Do something! It is easier to be smart than to be good. In all our love of debating what we need to do, sometimes we just need to do what we already know (James 1:22)! Practice loving a difficult person (Luke 6:27-29; Col. 3:12-14). Give away some money (Deut. 15:10-11; 2 Cor. 9:7). Be patient with your siblings (1 John 3:16-18; Ps. 133:1; Eph. 4:31-32). Respect your parents (Deut. 5:16; Ex. 20:12). Confess your sins (James 5:16; 1 John 1:9-10; Prov. 28:13). Trust God’s plan (Ps. 37:3-5; Rom. 8:28; Prov. 3:5-6; Matt. 6:25-34). Now I cannot promise this is the perfect recipe for engaging with the Scriptures. Reading God’s Word is part of a relationship we cannot build on our own. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work within you, daily transforming your heart and your desires. If you truly love God, then His Word will never be boring. I’ll leave you with a short text to hide in your heart. “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:1-2). A version of this article first appeared in the June 2025 issue of “Contender, the FRCA Youth Magazine” under the title “Boring Bible” and it is reprinted here with permission....

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Saturday Selections – Aug. 2, 2025

Josiah Queen's Dusty Bibles As a tribute to everyone who participated in RP's just-complete screen-fast challenge, Josiah Queen's newest. Lunar tales: what's going on here? Even kids are confronted with conflict between what the world says about our origins and what God says. "What’s going on here?" That was the question a perplexed fifth grader asked me during a recent church service. She’d been learning about the Moon in her public school science class — and was confused. What she heard in class didn’t align with what I had recently presented to the church...." WiFi companies can track movements in your house In George Orwell's 1984, citizens are monitored in their own homes via a "telescreen" that brings new into the house – the government-approved news – but more importantly, allows them to look through it at you. Today, we're not far off of this same 24/7 oversight. We live in a world where our online presence is being monitored by tech companies, and even the US government's NSA (as whistleblower Edward Snowden disclosed back in 2013). And, now it turns out, you can be monitored when you are offline, in your own house... as a security feature. As one person tweeted: "it blows my mind how many conspiracy theories turn out to be true." We are all late bloomers It can be downright depressing to think of all we could have done and accomplished for the glory of our Lord, if only we hadn't been so slow to respond, or so quick to turn to sin. It's depressing because there is no denying the truth of it. But God forgives. And He most certainly can be glorified too, by us late bloomers. How Jacob Arminius effectively said no one would be saved If you sinned right before you died, you would then be dying unrepentant of that sin. So... would your unrepentant sin send you to hell? Is God's grace dependent on you repenting of every sin? Christless conservatism saves no one Matt Walsh, Donald Trump, and to a more limited extent, Pierre Poilievre have made the case that guys in dresses aren't girls. But... so what? Tearing down one lie without pointing people to the Truth they can actually stand on only leaves them falling for the next lie. The world needs God, which means the world needs God's people to speak as God's people. ...

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Music

Music worth watching: a top 10

The only rules for how these videos were selected were that: no band could get more than one entry, and this specific song had to be solid – I haven't looked through the back catalogue of all these artists, so I'm not trying to endorse everything they've done. I do think this was special, though. I might expand this list periodically, but 10 seemed enough to get things going. Eight of the songs were on Spotify, if you want to listen there, though these really are worth a watch. ONE SHOT WONDERS (2) The one-shot video is an exercise in planning – once filming starts, it's supposed to never stop until the entire song is sung. While Ok Go didn't invent this genre, they might be the most proficient at it, and they're the band that the comic troop Studio C is spoofing in their own one-shot disaster. Two Christian artists have made the attempt too, and managed to do what Studio C didn't. These are wonderful... Allison Eide’s one-shot “In the Moment”  Christian artist Allison Eide got her friends together to create this epic, non-stop, one-shot video. Andrew Peterson's "Is He worthy?" This is a wonderful song with a video every bit as good. It probably isn't a true one-shot video, as the camera zooms in on the black piano at one point, which could have made for a nice scene break, but regardless, it feels like one. And whether it is or isn't, it is amazing! MORE THAN JUST PEP (3) These have some toe-tapping zip to them, but also truth worth hearing. Micah Tyler's "Praise the Lord" Into everyone's life a little rain must fall, yes. And we will praise God still. Matt Maher's "The Lord's Prayer" Don't let the heavy metal-ish way this begins throw you off - that's a little misdirection on an awesome song. Jenny Geddes Band's "Hold your peace" Who is the pot to question the potter? PERFECT WEDDING SONGS (2) Here's a couple for every couple out there. The Gray Havens' "Band of gold" I'll just say, love it, love it, love it :) Jimmy Clifton & Haddon's "Pinching pennies" These two are quite happy about being poor. But that's okay; they'll be fine, because they have such good women in their lives. RAP FOR THE MASSES (3) Not every musical genre is going to appeal to everybody, and Rap's reputation might have many wondering if there is just something inherently wrong with it. But some folks do Rap right... and even do it Reformed, as you can see below. Shai Linne's "Farm talk" Years ago, I showed my father-in-law a video by Shai Linne's wife, Blair Linne, called "The Perfection of Beauty." My father-in-law was a Rap skeptic beforehand, and while I can't say I won him over completely, that song had him re-evaluating. Shai Linne's video below doesn't have quite the same emotional pull as his wife's, but it is a story well told. Tedashii's "Make war" For a while there, Reformed pastors were making regular cameos in Rap songs. This time around, it's Pastor John Piper teaming up with Rapper Tedashii to call out any and all who are whining about, and not fighting against, their sins. Propaganda's "Life in 6 Words: The GOSPEL" This might be more spoken word than rap, but... close enough. And great stuff! JUST  BEAUTIFUL (1) It might not be you, but if you're watching this with someone, at least one of you is going to be bawling. Brian Suavé's "Winnie's Song" A dad shares his prayer for his little girl. FUTURE NOMINEES This didn't quite make the Top 10, but it might make the Top 12 when the list expands. And if you have nominees, please let me know. Josiah's Queen's "Dusty Bibles" If ever there was a song for our time... MercyMe's "So long self" If there was an oldie but goodies category... ...

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News

Supreme Court of Canada upholds prostitution law

In an important decision that didn’t get covered by the mainstream media this July, Canada’s highest court made a unanimous decision to uphold key parts of the country’s prostitution laws. The law, passed in 2014, went after the Johns rather than the prostitutes, making it illegal to purchase sex, but not penalizing the selling of it. Why? The goal was to reduce the demand for prostitution while making it possible for those trapped in prostitution to leave without prosecution. Mikhail Kloubakov and Hicham Moustaine worked as drivers for a sex-trafficking business and were charged under sections of the prostitution law relating to procuring people for prostitution and benefitting from the prostitution of others. They appealed this all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada, and also asking the court to declare the entire law to be unconstitutional, which could have left Canada with no restrictions on prostitution. ARPA Canada teamed up with the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) in a joint intervention before the court, arguing that the law be maintained to uphold human dignity and equality, and to expose the harm that results from commodifying sexual intimacy. Lia Milousis, a lawyer who worked on behalf of the EFC and alongside ARPA’s lawyer John Sikkema, expressed gratitude for the decision. As she noted in The Acacia Arc newsletter, “The Court notes that Parliament views profiting from the commodification of another human being’s sexual activity as inherently involving exploitation…. It deferred to Parliament, which I would say and the EFC and ARPA argued, is the correct approach.” The law is also being challenged separately in an Ontario case, which ARPA is also intervening in....

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