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News, Transgenderism

Transmutilation defender comes to regret youthful tattoo

A young lady who goes by the online moniker of “emo hag” was such a fan of the Harry Potter series that she got a Harry Potter “sleeve” tattooed on one arm. But then the series’ author J.K. Rowling refused to give full-throated approval of transgenderism. Rowling is happy to support men wearing dresses, but she isn’t willing to pretend they are actually women. That has many on the Left (including actors who’ve made millions off her movies) denouncing her, and “emo hag” decided the only thing to do was black out the Harry Potter sleeve she’d spent years, and thousands of dollars, creating.

The irony here was expressed by Gene Parmesan in a comment on her tweet. He wrote:

“wait so in your youth you made a permanent change to your body that you grew to regret???”

She still didn’t catch the irony, tweeting back:

“yes it’s amazing how right my dad was about this whole thing 😂“.

Christians can appreciate Parmesan’s clever question, but we also need to understand where it falls short. He addresses regret, but that’s not the real issue. The devil’s play here is to blind the world to God’s created order, and the fact that He, and not we, decides what gender a person will be (Gen. 1:26-27).

Gene Parmesan didn’t start with God, and as a result his point isn’t standing on a firm foundation. In fact, it can be easily rebutted. After all, kids regularly make decisions in their youth that they come to regret. A kid might choose to take Dutch instead of French, or Physics instead of Chemistry. And any hours they put into basketball can’t also be put into piano. As an adult, they might come to really regret those decisions. So the transgender lobby could readily grant that, like course selection and basketball practices, some kids might come to regret their choice. But whatcha gonna do? Choices have to be made, right?

And that’s the real issue: whether this is a choice. Our real argument is that when it comes to gender, there are no options to explore because God has already made the choice for us.

Christians will sometimes avoid mention of God when they make arguments in the public square in the hopes of being heard and being more effective. But, like “emo hag,” we’re missing out on some irony here. Godless arguments aren’t actually effective because they aren’t firmly grounded. It’s not a coincidence that Parmesan’s argument could be rebutted. That’s true of every Godless argument, because they don’t stand on a firm footing. We can appreciate Gene Parmesan’s point but should think of it as a great plank – it’s not strong enough to stand on, but stacked on the solid foundation of God’s Truth, it can be put to constructive use.

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Documentary, Movie Reviews, Watch for free

The Ark and the Darkness

Documentary 2024 / 110 minutes RATING: 7/10 Got doubts about whether the biblical Flood really happened, or really covered the whole of the Earth? Then The Ark and the Darkness is for you. The documentary starts off with a bang, the opening credits showcasing what the world might have looked like as the Flood's waters rose. The most haunting image is the last one, of a wolf bounding up a rocky terrain, trying to find somewhere high enough to escape the rising seas. Then the experts arrive to do the heavy lifting. Much of the Church is embarrassed by the Flood. It's a Bible passage often ignored or even rejected because many Christians think Science has disproven it. The implications go far beyond these few chapters because if someone chooses Science over the Bible here, where does it stop? What about when Science proclaims we evolved? Or that death came before Man ever showed up? Shucks, we now even have Science tellings us guys can become girls. And the kicker is, Science also tells us that the dead don't rise. So if Science is your ultimate guide to what's true, then your Savior did not rise, and your faith is futile (1 Cor. 15:17). So, as Dr. John Sanford puts it, "What is at stake is, Heaven or Hell." But what if God's infallible unerring eyewitness account is your guide? What The Ark and the Darkness sets out to show is that the Bible is trustworthy, and that ideology blinds the scientists who say otherwise. There is more than the secular way to do Science and the facts, as this documentary details, fit well with the Bible's Flood account. Those with eyes to see will be amazed at what Science really says when it isn't being twisted towards godless ends. So, the short CGI scenes, showing the deluge, are striking, but the film's real value is in what the experts are saying. Some of the evidences they present for the Flood include: Polystrate fossils - Some fossilized trees extend upwards right through strata that is said to have been laid down over millions of years. But if it really took that long for the layers to build up and bury the tree, the tree would have rotted away long before. The better explanation is that these layers were put down rapidly over a short period of time during the Flood Bended and folded rock layers representing millions of years - Rocks don't bend; they shatter. So these layers must have still been soft when they were bent, which again doesn't make sense if they were laid down over millions of years. It does make sense if they were laid down rapidly. Elastic tissue in dinosaur fossils – Recently, soft tissue has been found in dinosaurs that are supposed to be millions of years old. That doesn't make sense. It does make sense if the dinosaur tissue isn't nearly that old. Hundreds of Flood traditions around the world – You'd expect an event that reduced the planet to just one family to be talked about and passed on to their children and children's children. And it was: there are worldwide flood traditions in cultures around the world. Lots of things get changed, but the gist isl there. That's just the tip of what they tackle. Caution I was struck by how many times variations of the phrase "...exactly as the Bible suggests..." pop up. The word "exactly" is the problem here, because it gives the impression that we know it happened just so. The followup "suggests" technically takes back that certainty, but still leave much of the same impression. We do know some things for certain: that God created in 6 days, for example. And that the waters covered the Earth. But what went down under those Flood waters? Well, here's a really interesting film exploring all that might have happened. But maybe it wasn't exactly so. So a little more humility would have helped things, with more "might haves"s instead of "exactly"s. There's some irony here, because talking too confidently is the evolutionists' typical sin – secular scientists speak as if they know this and that, when the sort of science they are doing is not the reproducible sort, but is instead more and less informed guesses. Caution #2 also relates to being too certain by half. At around the 95 minute mark, as the film is concluding, three minutes are devoted to a dispensational take on the Earth's last days. It's presented as if that's the one official orthodox Christian take on the end of the Earth, and it most certainly is not. So you may as well stop it at 95 minutes to get the group discussion going a little sooner. Conclusion The picture on the promotional material of a drowning dinosaur had me wondering whether this would be an amazing CGI visual treat showing the Flood liked we'd never seen it before. Turns out, there is a little bit of that, but this is more of a telling film with all sorts of experts chiming in. That makes this a wonderful resource for anyone who wants to know how the Flood might have, in geological terms, manifested. But it also means this isn't really a family movie night sort of show. Too many talking heads. You can buy it on DVD at GenesisApologetics.com/ark or you can watch it for free below. ...

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News

Saturday Selections – July 27, 2024

How questions can help you offer a good answer (7 min) In the New Testament, Jesus asks as many questions as he offers answers. Why? Maybe because questions can be a helpful way to cut through people's obfuscations, as Greg Koukl also shows here. Counsel the bitter person A bitter person can't forget the wrongs done to them, but can only do so by forgetting the vast registry of wrongs they've committed against their great God. This article presses hard on the need to forgive, noting that God even makes it conditional for us to forgive if we expect to be forgiven by Him (Matt. 6:12, Matt. 6:14-15). That's not a requirement to do so perfectly, but it is a requirement to try, however falteringly. Read like a Christian Samuel James offers up 5 principles to help Christians dive into a book. I think the first one here might be key: reading can be done just for fun, and that can include reading light, fluffy "candy" books... but don't get stuck on vanilla ice cream. Have you tried salted caramel? Read whimsically, not wastefully Read personally, not performatively Read with generosity, not grievance Read with wonder, not weariness Read for eternity, not ephemera How breastfeeding changed my view of God Rebecca McLaughlin reflects on a favorite verse she understands very differently after her first child: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you.” Why don't electric eels shock themselves, and other remarkable design solutions in biology Here are some biological features – that you've probably never heard about before – which require precise design and which therefore evidence a precise Designer: "Snakes should be immune to their own poison. Electric eels should not shock themselves. And protection from self-generated noise requires a preplanned noise cancellation system." The astonishing human egg! The link above is a part of a series of Intelligent Design articles on the amazing complexity of the human reproductive system. The video below is brilliant 10-minute overview from conception to birth. If high school students actually learned this, in detail, I don't know that any of them could fail to recognize themselves for the special creation that they are. This really is a must-see for our older kids. That said, while it is not graphic, it is detailed, and could prompt younger children to ask questions you might not want to answer quite yet, so be sure to preview it before sharing. ...

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News

BC finally declares Covid emergency is over

Fired healthcare workers can now apply for work ***** Over four years after declaring a public health emergency over Covid-19, BC’s provincial health officer has finally announced that the emergency is over. The July 26, 2024 announcement means that the remaining restrictions, as well as the vaccination requirement for healthcare workers, are lifted. But instead of explaining why BC maintained the “emergency” far beyond the rest of the country and continent, the NDP government devoted the majority of its announcement to explaining a new vaccine registry that it has created, requiring healthcare workers to disclose their immunization status. About 2500 healthcare workers lost their jobs in BC because of their unwillingness to support the government’s vaccine mandate. The announcement noted that they now have permission to apply for healthcare positions. Dr. Matt Dykstra, who owns a family practice and has 1,500 of his own patients in Smithers, BC, wasn’t willing to sign a statement, printed in the local paper, of unconditional support for the vaccine and other pandemic-related public health measures. Later, as a result of the mandate, he was forbidden to practice in any publicly-funded healthcare facility, including the local hospital, maternity ward, and extended care homes. In response, he helped form the Canadian Society for Science and Ethics in Medicine (CSSEM), which launched a judicial review, asking a judge to review the reasonableness of the public health order. After hearing Dr. Bonnie Henry’s announcement, Dr. Dykstra shared that on the one hand he is excited and thankful to get back to work using “the full breadth of my skills.” But he also can’t deny that it would be easier to do so if Dr. Henry’s announcement included some sort of acknowledgment of the harm and hurt that the government’s decisions caused. “An apology would help,” he shared, but he knows it isn’t really about him. “Ultimately, I'm going to work to serve the Lord and, very much, to serve my neighbors, my community, many of which are church people, many of which need a doctor, many of which rely on the emergency room being open." Dr. Dykstra noted that he would have appreciated “some kind of explanation as to why BC was such an outlier” with its decision to maintain the health order for so long, when all other jurisdictions in North America welcomed healthcare workers back a long time ago. He also worries that the message that Dr. Henry’s announcement gives to society is “I guess we can permit these guys to go back to work.” But that leaves some huge questions that she never answered publicly. “Was I, am I, a risk? Or was I ever a risk? At what point would I become an unacceptable risk again?” Dr. Dykstra noted as well that there are multiple legal efforts still before the courts. Their CSSEM judicial review (with nurse Hilary Vandergugten, another Reformed believer, among those involved) is being appealed. He hopes that these cases are not deemed moot in light of the announcement. “The major issues at play here are more than ‘can we go to work today?’ It's whether Bonnie Henry used adequate evidence, and if she didn't, then that caused a lot of harm that should be discussed.” Reflecting on the past few years from a spiritual perspective, Dykstra notes that his prayers about it have changed significantly. “For a good while, I was praying that the mandate could be lifted and that the pain and suffering as a result of the mandate, would be put to bed.” He acknowledges that “the Lord answered my prayer, not in the way that I was asking Him to, but in a different way.” He was given: “a tremendous sense of peace about it and about losing my job and I have been so blessed in going to work now with less anxiety and less fear than I used to, and I actually stopped praying for the end of the mandates. Not that I didn't want the mandates to end, but they just seem way less important.” He also experienced great blessings that he wouldn’t have been able to have otherwise, including more time with his family, opening a drop-in clinic that was so desperately needed in the community, and being able to serve as an elder in his church. “The Lord has brought me through that with great blessing,” he reflected....

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News

Former cop, coroner and mayor does a 180 on drug policy

It isn’t often that public officials who once championed “progressive” policies admit they were wrong. But it is becoming more common when it comes to those who once advocated for drug decriminalization with perhaps the most striking example to emerge being Larry Campbell. The former Senator and mayor of Vancouver supported the opening of North America’s first supervised drug-consumption site and advocated for the legalization of opioids. But as The Globe and Mail is reporting, he thinks differently now. “Mr. Campbell, 76, says that British Columbia’s NDP government made a mistake when it decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs without thinking through the impact on communities. He says the government made an even worse mistake when it started dispensing prescription opioids to drug users, through the practice known as safe supply.” Campbell was first on the RCMP drug squad in the 1970’s, and was then a city coroner in the 1980’s, a story captured loosely in a CBC drama called Da Vinci’s Inquest. As he told the Globe and Mail: “I’ve been a big harm-reduction guy forever and, after decriminalization, I just came to the realization that we were going down the wrong path and nobody was standing up.” He believes far too much focus has been put on “harm reduction” and not nearly enough on prevention, enforcement, and treatment. He recently took a trip to Alberta and was impressed by the United Conservative Party’s strategy of investing in an addiction treatment system. “We’ve got to figure out how we help people not only stay alive but have a life,” he shared. What folks are looking for in drugs (and money, sex, fame, and more) is the sort of higher purpose and meaning that the police and a secular government can never provide. But the Church can step into the gap. God’s people understand that we were made for a reason, and that fulfilment can be found in glorifying and enjoying God. His Church has been entrusted with the Gospel truth that though we might be drug users, or any other type of sinner, we can be washed clean – we can be reconciled with our Maker, through Christ. But, as Paul writes in Romans 10:14-15: "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'” Will we let others in on this good news, or keep it to ourselves?...

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Dying Well

Cremation: why and why not

Three things got me thinking about cremation. One was a phone call from someone asking me if I would like an information package about funerals. This was tacky – a telephone solicitation from a funeral parlor? – but I was so surprised, I found myself saying yes. A week later the package arrived and I discovered that in comparison to how expensive funerals were, cremations could be substantially less so. The second incident was an email, with a story about a woman who organized her own funeral and asked to be buried with a fork in her right hand. Why a fork? Well, when people saw it she knew they would ask the pastor about it, and that would give him the opportunity to tell them a little story from the woman’s youth. When she was a little child she loved to attend church suppers, and she especially loved it near the end, because just as people were clearing away the dishes, one of the older ladies would always lean over and tell her, “Save your fork!” That would get her really excited because she knew something better was coming – whether it was apple cobbler, or delicious blueberry pie, or perhaps some rich chocolate cake. Whatever it was, she knew it was going to be good. So to her the fork was always a reminder that something better was coming. “When I die,” she told the pastor, “and people ask about the fork, I want you to tell them my story and then tell them the good news – that when you belong to Jesus Christ, you too can be assured that something better is coming.” I don’t know if this story is true but it got me thinking about how many non-Christians might attend my own funeral. Funerals force people to consider their own mortality, and Christian funerals naturally bring up the idea of immortality so this sort of event can’t help but be evangelistic. The woman in this story took things a step further as she tried to really drive home the gospel message. Her approach was a little strange, but the evangelistic tone of her funeral was intriguing. The third event was a visit to Arlington National Cemetery. This is the United States’ most famous cemetery, a shrine of remembrance to the country’s honored dead. But for every remembered president buried there, like John F. Kennedy, there are dozens of forgotten generals and thousands of anonymous privates. A row of large statues had me thinking of the Preacher’s cry: “Vanities of vanities” (Eccl. 1). These grave markers were huge, but the men underneath weren’t special enough to be mentioned in my guidebook. The whole thing reminded me of the people today who seek after fame hoping that when they die members of the media will celebrate their life and say things like, “He’ll live on forever in our hearts” and “As long as we remember him, he’s not really dead.” Then, like the pharaohs of old, a giant grave marker will be erected over top of their bodies and their name will be engraved in stone in the hopes that this will ensure their remembrance. I left Arlington Cemetery depressed. So many people in the world seek after immortality but trade the real thing for a sham. Immortal for a different reason These three events left me leaning towards cremation. So far I had three reasons. First, it would save money. Second, getting cremated was a stark contrast to the huge grave markers that I had seen in Arlington National Cemetery. I liked that contrast. Third, cremation would be very much like getting buried with a fork – people would want to know why I did it. And when they asked, the minister could tell them a little story: “At a funeral you will sometimes hear it said that the departed has not really died because ‘he lives on in our memories.’ But if he lives on only in our memories what happens when all the people who remember him die? He’s been cremated and his ashes scattered to the wind so there isn’t even a gravestone to mark his time here on earth. In a short thirty or forty years there will be no memory of him at all, so if his immortality depends on people remembering him, what happens to him then? Well, the Bible tells us that he will still live on, not because people remember him, but rather because Jesus Christ remembers him, and has died for him. Through Jesus’ death on the cross our friend lives, now and forever. This is the real deal, the only type of immortality that endures.” The case against cremation  After bouncing this idea off a few friends and theological types I soon found out that some Christians are strongly opposed to cremation. It’s true there is no explicit command against cremation in the Bible, but there are still some texts that may apply in a less direct way. A brief look through Scripture will show that, at the very least, burial was the normal thing to do among God’s people. For example, the Bible specifically mentions that Abraham, Isaac, Samuel and David were buried (Gen. 24:9, 35:29, 1 Samuel 25:1, & 1 Kings 2:10 respectively). Additionally, when Moses died God selected a burial spot for him (Deut. 34:6). Also, when the Bible talks about fire, and specifically fire burning bodies, it is almost always portrayed in a bad light. In Gen. 38:24 Judah threatens to burn his daughter-in-law to death as a punishment for adultery. This same punishment is prescribed in Leviticus 20:14 for any man who marries a woman, and her mother. In Numbers 16 fire from God consumes 250 rebellious Israelites. The Lord curses Moab in Amos 2:1 “because he burned, as if to lime, the bones of Edom’s king.” The New Testament also links fire with punishment. In Revelations 20:15, for example, those whose names were not written in the Book of Life were thrown into a lake of fire. Jesus was buried. Combine this with God’s treatment of Moses and we have God burying someone, and God being buried. There is a lot of symbolism associated with burial that finds its origins in the Bible. For example Col 2:12 talks about how we have been buried with Christ through baptism. There are no similar passages for cremation. The case in favor While these texts do at first seem to make a compelling case for burial, there is more still that can be said. Burial may have been the custom throughout Israel, but there are many Israelite customs we do not follow. We do not, for example, wash our feet after entering someone’s house. Just because something is done a certain way in the Bible, does not mean that God commands us to do it that way today. While the Bible does talk about burning as punishment, it often refers to it as a way of killing the guilty, rather than as a means of disposing of their bodies. So this really isn’t cremation. If you do want to make the link then it is worth taking a second look at Numbers 16. It is here that the earth swallows up Korah and his household, and all his men. “They went down alive into the grave” (vs. 33). So just as “cremation” can be a punishment, so too can “burial.” 1 Sam. 31:12 recounts one of the very few examples in which cremation is specifically brought up in the Bible, and it is portrayed in a neutral, if not positive light. The bodies of Saul and of his sons are retrieved from the Philistines and burned by the “valiant men” of Jabesh Gilead. (But, as has been pointed out since this article was first published, the next verse, 1 Sam 31:13, then recounts how their bones were buried.) While fire is often spoken of as a means of punishment, John the Baptist promised that Jesus would baptize people with “the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). Fire is also mentioned positively as a means of refinement (Rev. 3:18). So it seems clear then, that this is symbolic language, and that fire is not, in itself, bad. Christian stewardship can also be a consideration here since cremation usually costs substantially less than burial– the main saving is in the cheaper casket and the fact there is no plot to buy. Some people will bury the urn, but that at least means a smaller plot is needed, or the same plot can be shared by more. Cost is not the most compelling reason, of course. The best case for cremation is really the case for Christian liberty: if there is no scriptural directive on this issue, then each Christian is free to follow the dictates of his or her own conscience. Conclusion Cremation seems to be a rarity in our churches so this may not be much of an issue for us today, but when you consider that cremation has gone from 4 per cent of Canadian funerals in 1961 to 46 per cent in 2001, it’s clear we will have to think about it soon. It’s best then to discuss this issue now, rather than when it is forced on us. If you have any thoughts on cremation, or have any points or arguments you would like to contribute, please send me a note. For further study, Christian resources on (and primarily against) cremation Dr. Nelson D. Kloosterman argues against in "Cremation." Justin Dillehay makes the case against in "Cremation or Burial: Does Our Choice Matter?" Stephen Kneale responds to the article above in "Cremation or burial: why I’m not convinced it matters nearly as much as some think." Paul Carter argues that it is not a sin, but that burial may be a better gospel witness in "Should Christians get cremated?" This article first appeared in the June, 2003 issue....

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In a Nutshell

Tidbits – July 2024

7 debunked evolutionary “evidences” As Dr. Jonathan Wells has documented in his books Icons of Evolution and Zombie Science, there are long discredited “evidences” for evolution that keep popping up in science textbooks. Why do evolutionists use these bad examples? Because, as lies go, these are pretty compelling ones, especially to high school and college students who don’t know better. And they use them because they don’t have any better evidences. Click on the links below to learn more. Galapagos finches – Darwin though changing beak sizes was a great proof. But the back and forth change only showed a built-in adaptability. Junk DNA – Evolutionists presumed the majority of our DNA was just non-functioning remnants of our previous evolutionary stages. Wrong. Vestigial organs – Evolutionists presumed that parts of the body they didn’t understand were just useless remnants of previous evolutionary stages. They were wrong again. Backward retina – Our eye isn’t designed the way evolutionists would design it, so they thought that was evidence of bad – i.e. unguided – design. But it’s not bad; it’s brilliant. Haeckel’s embryos – Embryos of different species were drawn to make it look like we all start life looking the same. But reality is quite different. Miller-Urey experiment – This intelligently-designed experiment done in a controlled lab setting is often cited as proof that the building blocks of life could come about by sheer luck, in the great outdoors. Homology in vertebrate limbs – Both frogs and humans have five digits, so does that show we evolved from a common ancestor? Well, no, as we now know very different genes can be at work here. Go to Creation.com, AnswersInGenesis.org or ICR.org to find out more about each of these. Education is never neutral There is a quote circulating the Internet, commonly attributed to Dr. R.C. Sproul and which certainly reflects his views, but that I haven't been able to trace directly to him. Regardless of whether he said it or not someone certainly should have. “There is no such thing as a neutral education. Every education, every curriculum, has a viewpoint. That viewpoint either considers God in it or it does not. To teach children about life and the world in which they live without reference to God is to make a statement about God. It screams a statement. The message is either that there is no God or that God is irrelevant. Either way the message is the same.” One paraprosdokian deserves nine others A paraprosdokian is a turn of a phrase that might seem to be heading in a certain direction, only to then take a sudden twist. Going to church doesn't make you a Christian, any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Always swim or dive with a friend. It reduces your chance of shark attack by 50%. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate. Don't let the village raze your child. Everything comes to those who wait… except a cat. Two guys walked into a bar; the third one ducked. I used to play piano by ear. Now I use my hands. Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad. Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read. – Groucho Marx Last night I removed all the bad food from the house. It was delicious. Tim Keller on Anglo-Saxon warriors and their feelings It is for the sake of “authenticity” that we now have men saying they are women. It’s how they feel, so the world has to take them as they identify. But what this supposes is that we are our feelings, and these emotions define us more certainly than anything else. It also assumes those feelings are so set in stone, so utterly unchangeable, that if our body runs counter to our feelings, it is our body that needs to be changed and not our feelings. To clear up this confusion, Tim Keller uses a thought experiment (from his book Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Scepticism) to demonstrates that our feelings don’t define us. “Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He has two very strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. He loves to smash and kill people when they show him disrespect. Living in a shame-and-honor culture with its warrior ethic, he will identify with that feeling. He will say to himself, That's me! That's who I am! I will express that. The other feeling he senses is same-sex attraction. To that he will say, That's not me. I will control and suppress that. “Now imagine a young man walking around Manhattan today. He has the same two inward impulses, both equally strong, both difficult to control. What will he say? He will look at the aggression and think, This is not who I want to be, and will seek deliverance in therapy and anger-management programmes. He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, This is who I am.” This highlights how there is something outside us that defines us. The unbeliever may just attribute it to “culture” but even he’ll have to admit that he is more than his feelings. Keller continues: “…we receive some interpretive moral grid, lay it down over our various feelings and impulses, and sift them through it. This grid helps us decide which feelings are ‘me’ and should be expressed – and which are not and should not be. So this grid of interpretive beliefs – not an innate, unadulterated expression of our feelings – is what gives us our identity. Despite protests to the contrary, we instinctively know our inner depths are insufficient to guide us. We need some standard or rule from outside of us to help us sort out the warring impulses of our interior life.” So what the world needs to hear from Christians then, is: Your feelings are answerable to a standard that is outside of yourself. Your culture can only offer an ever-changing, baseless standard. Your Maker made you for a purpose, and we can only be our most “authentic selves” when we yield to the One who knows us better than we know ourselves. A tribute of sorts Reagan once shared a quip about a teacher who had: “…taught her class about magnets and all their properties and then several weeks later gave a test and asked them what it was that was spelled with six letters, began with an M, and picked up things. Eighty-seven percent of the class said, ‘mother.’” Reason to pray For those who find prayer difficult, there are many reasons to persist, one of which Willem J. Ouweneel lists in The Heidelberg Diary: "There is a peculiar element in the Catechism's answer that we should not overlook. God gives his blessings 'only to those who pray continually.' Here, a direct causal link is seen between our prayers and God's answers. Some people feel that God's sovereignty implies that he cannot make himself dependent on what humans ask. If God would depend on humans, in whatever small way, they argue, this would ruin his sovereignty. They overlook the fact that, apparently, God has sovereignly decided to involve human actions and decisions as well as prayers in his ways with the world..." SOURCE: (h/t Jan Broersma) On the value of one plus one “…there are no words to express the abyss between isolation and having one ally. It may be conceded to the mathematician that four is twice two. But two is not twice one; two is two thousand times one. That is why, in spite of a hundred disadvantages, the world will always return to monogamy.” – G.K. Chesterton 11 things to do instead of screens Summer is here and as blogger Arlene Pellicane noted, “more free time usually morphs into more screen time.” While the pull of screens might persist, there is so much your kids can get up to. Here are 11 suggestions, but a 12th might be to have your kids create their own activities list. Play ultimate frisbee, or create your own backyard frisbee golf course. Wash your car… and your neighbor’s or grandparents’. Take an online course (programming, logic, Dutch, etc.). Have a yard sale for a good cause. Canvass for donations, make posters, etc. Create a list of books, with your parents’ help, that you should read before you leave home… and then read some of them. Play a board game. Change some of the rules to invent your own version. Do a chore, unasked, every day. Design and create a pro-life chalk picture for your driveway. Write, and draw, a series of stickman comics. Recruit a friend to do it with you. Get outdoors, swimming, biking, rollerblading, paddleboarding, or whatever. Compliment three people a day. Are you interruptible? If it ain’t an emergency your kids shouldn’t interrupt, right? That’s a good general rule, because we want our kids to be patient, and not think the world revolves around just them. But we also want them to understand God gave them parents to be there for them. So it can be overdone. As I heard noted on a podcast, even Jesus was “interruptible” – the woman who reached out to touch Jesus (Luke 8:43-48), and the men who lowered their friend through the roof (Mark 2:1-12) weren’t waiting patiently. Busy parents need to note that it is often the unplanned conversations that really matter. Yes, your daughter might already be late for bed, but if she’s sharing now, right before you’re heading out her bedroom door, maybe you’re the one who needs to learn some patience… so you can stop and listen. There is a balance to be had, but if you want your kids coming to you with their troubles – and you should want that – then you need to be interruptible. Not just a G-rating You have three kids wondering what they can do, and meanwhile laundry still needs to be folded, and you haven’t even begun figuring out what dinner will be. “What about a movie, Mom?” That sounds like just the idea, an animated classic, with a nice safe G-rating of course. But wait just a second! The authors of a 2014 study called “Cartoons Kill” compared death in kids’ films with adult dramas and found that main characters were more likely to die in the kids’ movies! If you find that hard to believe, consider what happens in just a few of Disney’s biggest hits: Bambi – Bambi’s mother is shot by hunters The Lion King – Simba’s father is murdered Frozen – Elsa and Anna’s parents are drowned Tarzan – Tarzan’s parents are killed by a leopard Finding Nemo – Nemo’s siblings and mother are killed by a barracuda The Fox and the Hound – Tod’s mother is shot The researchers concluded: “There was no evidence to suggest these results had changed over time since 1937, when Snow White’s stepmother, the evil queen, was struck by lightning, forced off a cliff, and crushed by a boulder while being chased by seven vengeful dwarves.” While “effects of exposure to animated depictions of death have not been studied,” one experimental study showed an impact: “…children who watched a movie about drowning were less willing to try canoeing than other children.” The study’s authors wanted parents to understand that while animated films may have a G or PG rating, they can still have a death count comparable to adult films. Hay mon! My hearing isn’t quite what it was, and I’m determined to have as much fun with it as I can. So I shared the joke when I couldn’t figure out what it was that my neighbor’s dad was up to that day. This 60-something gentleman has his own karaoke machine, so when his wife said he had left “to reggae,” it at least seemed possible. It turned out, however, that the retired farmer had gone “to rake hay.”...

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Saturday Selections – July 6, 2024

How social media keeps you poor (10 min) Though the two commentators here aren't Christian, the warning they offer may help us better resist social media's siren call. Spider silk might be ideal for nerve repairs Spider silk may be a great medium to regrow severed nerves in people, and that's just one of its amazing properties. If Man could make it, he would, but despite all our genius and equipment, we can't duplicate what a spider, with a brain the size of a pin, can make all on its own. Motherhood myth busting Feminists have women fearful of having children, with fertility treated more as a problem to be solved than as a gift (or if they deny God, an ability) specific to women. They look to children from a cost/benefit perspective and don't see how the pleasure derived from children can outweigh the bother. And from that self-absorbed perspective, it will be hard to enjoy any kids you might have. But, "if life has meaning beyond comfort and pleasure, then something can be difficult and worth pursuing at the same time. " Parents' guide to smartphones (10-minute read) The folks at Axis cover the highs and lows. It's a longer read but there is so much helpful material in here that this is a must-read for parents with teens. Communicating about sex in the first years of marriage "How can you have meaningful conversations about sex with your spouse? You should be sure to address wants, worries, ways, and why's..." When the government bets your house Like previous installments in this "Unintended Consequences" series, these are well-intentioned plans going wildly awry. While this is a secular presentation, the lesson being pitched is one Christians can get behind: there is an overall need for humility, because even (especially?) experts can get things really, really wrong. This humility wouldn't simply mean leaders, and the experts they follow, need to double-check their work. What it means is that our leaders and these experts need to admit to not being able to do many of the things they are currently trying to do now.... and they need to stop meddling in them. Just consider if, in the Sri Lankan case presented below, only some of the farmers had tried organic pesticides. Maybe they would have tried it as a marketing effort – get your organic rice from us! It would have been an experiment, but the farmers would have been gambling with their own land, money, and work. That's high stakes for them, but they are betting on themselves, their own smarts, and their efforts. And because it is only some farmers, win or lose, it isn't a high-stakes gamble for the whole country. If they had succeeded, they would have gotten the benefit and they would have been an example for others to learn from and copy. And if they'd failed, then others could also learn and avoid their mistake. However, when the government made the decision to ban inorganic pesticides for everyone, they were gambling with land, money, and work that wasn't theirs. And they were forcing everyone into just the one experiment. If it succeeded, wonderful, but the problem is, were it to fail, they were taking everyone down with them. That makes it a much, much higher stakes gamble. And anyone who has any humility shouldn't even think to bet someone else's house on their best guess. ...

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New Brunswick still isn’t banning smartphones in school

According to Paige MacPherson and Alex Whalen of the Fraser Institute, cellphones’ negative impact on students has been especially apparent in New Brunswick. The Maritime province has not banned cellphone in school, and has seen math scores among 15-year-olds plummet between 2003 and 2022. Worse than that, these scores trail the national average significantly. Other provinces, including British Columbia, Ontario, Alberta and Quebec, have introduced, or will introduce, smartphone bans in schools. And surprisingly, a large majority of Canadians seem to favor bans like these (one poll listed it as 54% completely in agreement and 26% somewhat so). Rather than seeing it as a restriction on student freedom, Canadians seem to recognize there is wisdom in taking these devices away during at least part of the day. Maybe that support comes from grown-ups recognizing how hard it is to regulate their own phone use, how difficult it is to resist the urge to look at it after just a few seconds of boredom. Maybe responsible use of phones during focus times isn’t possible, especially when these phones are designed to be used as often as possible. If the world around us is starting to reassess their relationships with their phones, it’s time for us as Christians to be more confident in the boundaries we draw with technology. Especially when young developing minds are concerned. After all, with everything tempting us to use our phones more and more, fighting that temptation will take the support of a community to reduce our dependence – and our children’s dependence – on them. As parents, we will have to agree to be comfortable with phoning the school instead of reaching our children directly. As adults whom children look up to, we’ll have to demonstrate how to handle those moments of boredom. And as a community, we can prioritize face-to-face interactions and social connections in the real world, enough to make the virtual world look much less attractive....

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Saturday Selections – June 22, 2024

What's wrong with marijuana This is the practical case against marijuana. For the Christian case, check out "Is recreational marijuana sinful?". Mothers' milk is amazing If you believe in evolution, you have to credit everything to the interaction of time and chance. That includes something you may never have considered before: the origin of mothers' milk. We know God designed moms to be specially able to care for their babies this way, so Christians shouldn't be surprised to learn that the closer we look at mothers' milk, the more amazing we find it to be. But if you think it evolved from "a glandular skin secretion in synapsids" then you might think that the human-designed substitutes available on store shelves would be the superior product. You might think that; it'd be a logical conclusion based on evolutionary presuppositions. But it ain't so. If Satan was a marriage counselor... ...he'd sound a lot like a newspaper advice column. Your family needs you (and you need them) My kids make me happy, but when they don't, can I abandon them? And what of my parents? If they become a burden or trouble to me, isn't that a reason to cut such "toxic people" out of my life? That's what the world would tell you. But as John Stonestreet explains (in this older piece), God says something very different. Baptists come out against IVF At their annual meetings last week, the US's largest protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, passed a resolution formally opposing the use of in vitro fertilization (IVF). While the majority voted for the resolution, many of the delegates opposed it, and spoke to how they believed IVF was a pro-life procedure, since it created life. But as IVF is practiced, it leads to the creation of "excess" embryos – "excess" children – that will either be destroyed (ie. killed) or frozen, which treats the child as a thing, not a human being. Some of these frozen children will then be given away via "snowflake adoptions" where the embryo is implanted in the adoptive mother's womb. But while the couples doing the adopting are rescuing these frozen children, it is still wrong for the biological parents to have engaged in a procedure that would leave them with "excess" children. Adoption is a rescue, but parents should never deliberately create a situation in which their children would need to be rescued. Homosexuals & some professing Christians redefine "love" It's been said that the opposition shares our vocabulary, but not our dictionary – they define words like marriage, hate, gender, tolerance, pride, and love very differently from how God defines them. With Pride Month in full swing, Christians need to be able to share that it isn't love to celebrate what God hates for the very same reason it isn't love to affirm anorexia – we wouldn't be doing the person any good to affirm as right the wrong they are struggling with. It's for their sake and for their good that we don't want to encourage their rebellious lifestyle. ...

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Economics, News

Premier Ford calls on the feds to make EV cars more expensive

Ontario’s premier has asked the federal government to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, which would make these cars twice as expensive as they would otherwise be. Why would Premier Doug Ford want to so strongly discourage consumers from buying these EVs? Aren’t EVs the way of the future? The premier explained he wants the tariff to protect Ontario jobs. Back in April, he announced he was gifting $2.5 billion of Ontario taxpayers’ money to induce Honda to build four EV manufacturing plants in the province. The federal government added in their own $2.5 billion in tax credits. Combined, this $5 billion would create 1,000 jobs, which works out to a cost of $5 million per job. It’s not surprising then, that the premier wants to protect these positions – they were a very expensive purchase. But why are these Chinese cars so cheap? In an interview with the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley, the president of Canada’s Automotive Parts Association, Flavio Volpe, raised the possibility of forced labor – slaves – sometimes being involved. That could be a reason to ban sales altogether, not simply penalize them. Another critique is that the Chinese government is heavily subsiding these vehicles. But The Hub has calculated that overall, the federal, Ontario, and Quebec governments have combined to offer $40 billion in subsidies and tax credits to our own EV industry. Or as Kiernan Green noted: “This represents 15 percent more than the companies themselves have put forward for their investments in Canada’s EV sector.” If subsidization is an unfair business practice, then shouldn’t we should stop it ourselves (Matt. 7:12)? And if it isn’t unfair, why are we complaining? There are other issues involved here: as Flavio Volpe noted, the same federal government that is subsidizing Canadian production is also involved in subsidizing foreign EV production too – the Liberals announced a program this past December that could credit EV manufacturers, both domestic and foreign, with as much as a $20,0000 credit per EV car sold. It is more complicated than that, but the short of it is, the government has gotten itself so muddled up in this market that its right hand is actively working against its left hand. Might that be evidence that it should get both hands, and its nose, out of the business sphere? Taxpayers are shouldering a heavy burden for EV cars. And now, if this tariff goes through, Canadians will be asked to shoulder even more, as less expensive Chinese competitors will be tariffed out of the marketplace. There is a broader lesson here, as this is what tariffs always do, protecting local producers at the expense of local consumers. God calls on the government to administer justice, and one of the first principles of justice is impartiality (Lev. 19:15, James 2:8). What we have happening here is an example of the government picking winners and losers, favoring EV producers over EV purchasers (and all of it done at the expensive of taxpayers). Why the one over the other? What business is it of government to show such favoritism? Picture credit: adapted from a photo by Bruce Reeve/flickr.com and used under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 2.0 license....

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Mortgage delinquencies up more than 20%

Increased spending and costs are catching up with Canadian households, according to the latest figures from the credit agency Equifax Canada. Mortgage debt makes up a whopping three quarters (74.4%) of total consumer debt, even though the number of new mortgages hit an all-time low in the first quarter of 2024. More than a third (37.1%) of consumers extended their mortgage amortization as the effects of increased mortgage rates began to take hold. Particularly troubling is the increase in delinquencies, i.e. missed payments. In Ontario, the balance of mortgages in “severe delinquency” – 90 or more days without payment – increased to over $1 billion, or twice the level of severe delinquency before Covid. Rebecca Oakes, VP of Advanced Analytics at Equifax Canada, explained that “mortgage stress testing,” introduced back in 2016, helped prevent even more delinquencies. This “test” gauged whether or not a borrower would still be able to handle their mortgage payments if rates were to take an unfortunate bounce upward. “ has helped to mitigate against the full effect of sustained high interest rates, but we still saw more than 34,000 consumers missing a payment on their mortgage in Q1, which is up 22.7 per cent compared to 12 months ago.” In recent years our federal government has led the charge in running massive debts, with many provincial governments following suit. Although political parties used to campaign on the promise of balanced budgets, Canadians have rewarded parties who promise increased spending and large deficits. And especially since 2020, Canadians have followed their example, racking up massive debt from both home purchases and other big expenses. A few thousand years ago, a wise teacher taught us that “the borrower is a slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7). Our government acts as if it is possible to incur debt and not pay for it, but we mustn’t let their example mislead us. Solomon’s ancient warning remains every bit as relevant to today, so take on debt with great caution!...

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We aren’t alone! 1,000+ converge in Texas for courageous faith

In  1 Kings 19 we find Elijah lamenting to God that the Israelites had rejected God’s covenant and that he alone was left, and Queen Jezebel was out to kill him too. God informed Elijah that he had it wrong, and that God had reserved a throng of 7,000 others who had not bowed to Baal. I recently assembled with a couple dozen Canadians and over a thousand others in Arlington, Texas for the 2024 Colson Center national conference. Listening to the stories and seeing this throng of believers, it was very evident that God continues to preserve His people through each age, and that He also calls us to stand firm in the face of the Jezebels of our day. As I’ve shared before, the Colson Center equips Christians to apply their faith to the cultural moment where God has placed us. This particular conference was focused on equipping attendees for “courageous faith.” As the organizers explained: “Faithfulness to Christ is not possible when we capitulate to profane cultural narratives, no matter how often or loud they are repeated…. The clash between the sacred and the profane is no longer ‘out there’ and the pressure to compromise is not merely hypothetical.” Courage past and present In the opening session on “courageous citizenship,” the Colson Center’s John Stonestreet interviewed Rod Dreher, the author of the well-known book Live Not by Lies, and also Kamila Bendová, who was featured in Dreher’s book. Dr. Bendová and her family live in the Czech Republic. Along with her late husband Václav Benda, they raised six children while holding underground seminars in opposition to their communist government, all while having their home bugged. Dr. Bendová shared how she didn’t protect her children from their resistance efforts but rather involved them. Now, many decades later, she reflects that all of her children and grandchildren have remained faithful. We can learn from the past, but need to live in the present. Doctor Kristin Collier spoke about the courage to change your mind, recounting how her journey from unbelief to faith in Christ resulted in 180 degree changes to her convictions about contentious issues like abortion. God then forced her to make a choice to follow Him in her public work as well, which came at a cost. She pointed us to Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one,” noting that at the core of courage is listening to and obeying the Word of God. Reverend Calvin Robinson, a broadcaster and commentator from England who himself was cancelled for his faith, challenged participants “we are called to be cancelled for our faith. We should embrace it rather than be afraid of it.” He proceeded to outline how our spiritual enemy is trying to divide and conquer by having Christians look to each other as moral compasses rather than looking to the teachings of Christ. Other speakers bravely and compassionately shared their stories and lessons about critical theory, cultivating a healthy identity, artificial reproduction, transgenderism, palliative care, and encountering suffering, all through the lens of living faithfully for our Lord. Conference connections It is one thing to read articles, listen to podcasts, or watch videos about these matters and another to be physically present with hundreds of other followers of Christ, growing in our walk together. We don’t all get the privilege of doing that at a conference like this, but we do have the ability to gather with our brothers and sisters in church weekly, in addition to Bible studies and fellowship in our homes. Let’s not miss these opportunities to spur each other on to godliness in this present age! If it interests you, the next Colson Center national conference is scheduled for May 30 to June 1, 2025 in Louisville, Kentucky, and we heard that Reformed authors Carl Trueman and Rosaria Butterfield are both scheduled to speak there. Pro-life apologist Scott Klusendorf will also be there. You can find out more at ColsonConference.org. Although Canada isn’t blessed with a conference like this, Reformed Perspective hopes to help change this with something similar (though much smaller and simpler) in the years to come. As valuable as a magazine, podcast, newsletter, website, and apps are, there is no substitute to gathering with others to worship God together and spur each other on in our walk. Mark and Jaclyn Penninga were just a couple of the Canadians at the Colson Conference. Other Reformed Christians included Rev. and Mrs. Slomp, and RP contributor Mark Slomp and his wife Jennifer....

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