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Who is Mark Carney?

After winning the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, and then leading his party to victory in April’s federal election, Mark Carney has become Canada’s 24th Prime Minister. So, who is he?

Mark Carney may well be the most credentialed Prime Minister in Canadian history, despite never having held elected office. His CV includes:

Graduate of Harvard (1988) and Oxford (1993)
Analyst at Goldman Sachs (1990-2003)
Senior associate deputy minister for the Department of Finance (2004-2007)
Governor of the Bank of Canada (2008-2013)
Governor of the Bank of England (2013-2020)
United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance (2020-2025)
Special advisor and chair of the Liberal task force on economic growth (2024)
Vice chairman at Brookfield Asset Management (2020-2025)
Board member of the World Economic Forum (2010-2025)

Most Canadians know Mark Carney as “a central banker/climate change guy,” but we want to explore Carney’s political, religious, and moral beliefs that will likely guide him as Prime Minister.

Mark Carney’s political beliefs

In his 2021 book Value(s), Carney isn’t shy about what he thinks is the duty of the state: “The most fundamental duty of the state is to protect its citizens.” That sounds reasonable, but the question is: protect citizens from what?

He elaborates further:

“An expansion of state duties has occurred over the centuries. The government’s role as protector now extends well beyond shielding citizens from violence and direct injury to cover areas as varied as promoting financial stability, protecting the environment and maintaining data privacy. Much of this growth has been a response to risk-averse populations that expect ever greater protections from government authorities. Moreover, the duties of governments today reach well beyond their traditional roles as protectors to include the provision of basic services, the promotion of welfare and the fostering of culture.”

Compare this with a Reformed view of the duty of the state. With Article 36 of the Belgic Confession, we confess that God “wants the world to be governed by laws and policies so that human lawlessness may be restrained and that everything may be conducted in good order among human beings.” These twin responsibilities can be boiled down to public justice and public order. Although both concepts could be stretched to include all sorts of activities like providing education, welfare, or healthcare, Reformed Christians usually maintain that public justice and public order are relatively narrow responsibilities.

A third of Carney’s book is dedicated to discussing the “triple crises of credit, Covid, and climate.” In each of these cases, he frames the government’s responsibility in terms of protection. When it came to the financial crisis of 2008, the government’s job was to protect people from financial instability. In 2020, the government had to protect citizens from a pandemic. Today, the government needs to protect its populace from climate change.

Carney uses just these three examples, but there is hardly a hint in the book that he considers there to be many limits to what the state can or should do.

That doesn’t necessarily mean that Carney thinks the state needs to be huge or swallow up the other institutions in society. At numerous points in his book, Carney recognizes that businesses and markets are efficient and indispensable in a modern society. He recognizes that markets – not the state – are the engine of the economy.

But if businesses and markets are the engine of the economy, Carney believes the state should be the steering wheel, guiding the generative potential of the economy in what it perceives is the right direction. As he puts it, governments must “use regulatory policy to frame the future direction of the economy.” Carney gives this power to the state because only “the state embodies collective ideals such as equality of opportunity, liberty, fairness, regional solidarity and caring for future generations.” In his view, business and other private institutions will always be selfish and self-seeking. Only the state is selfless and altruistic.

Religious/moral beliefs

Carney is Roman Catholic. In 2015, a British newspaper called The Tablet called Carney the most influential Catholic in Britain. A 2021 Wall Street Journal article noted that Carney “goes to Catholic church at least once a week.” He also sits on the Steering Committee of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism at the Vatican.

Although he didn’t write Value(s) from an explicitly Christian perspective, his faith does peek through in his writing. For example, the book begins with a story of his interaction with Pope Francis at the Vatican when various Catholic leaders gathered to discuss the future of the market system. The book ends with quotations from a New Year’s Day service that he attended in 2021. Sandwiched between these stories are occasional references to Scripture, such as Jesus’ warning that “everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more” (Luke 12:48) and “as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them” (Luke 6:31). Carney uses religious worldview language to describe faith or beliefs in markets. He also discusses medieval Catholic canonists like Thomas Aquinas as they attempted to incorporate their faith into their economic thought. Sprinkled throughout the book are words related to Christianity, such as faith, vocation, divine coincidence, meditation, the common good, and the unborn.

But perhaps where his faith is most on display is in the overarching theme of his book, in how government, markets, and society must do more than assign economic value (in the sense of worth) to everything but also recognize the importance of values (in the sense of virtues) in building our society. Carney recognizes that the moral foundations of our society are critical and highlights seven principles that he believes public policy needs to take into account:

“Dynamism to help create solutions and channel human creativity;
Resilience to make it easier to bounce back from shocks while protecting the most vulnerable in society;
Sustainability with long-term perspectives that align incentives across generations;
Fairness, particularly in markets to sustain their legitimacy;
Responsibility so that individuals feel accountable for their actions;
Solidarity whereby citizens recognize their obligations to each other and share a sense of community and society; and
Humility to recognize the limits of our knowledge, understanding and power so that we act as custodians seeking to improve the common good” (8-9).

A Catholic in name only?

Having a Catholic as Prime Minister will likely raise the hopes of some Reformed Christians that the federal government might finally take action on social issues. After all, the Catholic Church is opposed to abortion, euthanasia, same-sex marriage, and medical transitioning. Wouldn’t it follow that a Catholic Prime Minister would follow the teachings of his own church?

Unfortunately, that isn’t likely. Ten of Canada’s preceding 23 Prime Ministers have all claimed to be Catholic. Yet, their Catholic faith didn’t guide their political decisions. Catholic Pierre Trudeau legalized abortion and homosexuality. Catholic Paul Martin legalized same-sex marriage. Catholic Justin Trudeau legalized euthanasia.

With respect to Mark Carney, the Catholic Register concludes that:

“his track record betrays a stronger alignment with the mores and allegiances of global markets than with Catholic sensibilities… Carney is undoubtedly a Catholic of a different stripe than the Trudeaus and all the prime ministers who came between… but the wait for a prime minister who will address some of the more glaring divergences of Canadian culture from a culture of life may yet be a long one.”

Forward with hope

As Mark Carney takes up his task, Canada will be watching. As Christians, let’s also be praying for him during this transition, and for all our leaders that they would have wisdom and strength, and ultimately that they would recognize their place under the God of heaven who gave them their position.

This is reprinted with permission from ARPACanada.ca where it was originally published under the title: “Besides being our new Prime Minister, who is Mark Carney?” Photo credit: Shutterstock.com/Harrison Ha

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Saturday Selections – April 26, 2025

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Assorted

If businesses tithed

Christians are familiar with the Biblical principle of tithing, and support many kingdom causes as a matter of course. They apply the principles of Galatians 6:10 with their talents, time and treasure: “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Followers of Jesus Christ are known for their enthusiastic support of their local church, Christian education, organizations helping the homeless and poor nearby and in other parts of the globe. We are giving, and we can see God blessing those gifts. So, what might the Lord do if Christians who own their own businesses or are shareholders in a venture with others, found ways to apply these same principles in their business operations? Retained earnings Often in the first years of establishing a company, funds can be tight, and any profits that are made need to be invested back in the business to pay down debt, or to purchase new equipment, or to hire more staff. (These profits that are not pulled out of the venture, but are used by the company are often called “retained earnings.”) Sometimes, a new firm can operate for years without paying out profits to its owners, but meanwhile, the company is growing, owns more assets than when it was starting up, and itself is now worth far more than it was when it was just an idea percolating in the minds of its founders. When Christian owners or shareholders are rewarded with a dividend payout from the business, it’s relatively easy for them to make an individual decision about giving back to the Lord from these earnings, just as they would decide when receiving a regular paycheque. All these good gifts that we receive are really the Lord’s, and for us to “give back” from our first fruits should be a given. In Proverbs 3:9-10, Solomon reminds us to: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” But what about the wealth that has been building up inside the venture, the “retained earnings” referenced above? In Luke 12:16-21, the Lord Jesus warns against covetousness and greed with the story of the rich fool: “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things that you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” Stewards, not owners The rich man’s declaration of what he will do with “my grain and my goods” tells us how he thought of what he owned – it was all his, and not the Lord’s. That’s a point that the Lord Jesus makes again and again – not to think of the possessions God has entrusted to me as mine. All of it is the Lord’s, and all of it is only lent to us here on earth, to use wisely, and give back to Him (Luke 12:42-48, Matt. 25:14-30, etc.). And leading into this passage, He also warns us against thinking that one's life consists “in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). 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Can you encourage the company you work for to consider more than nominal support of causes that promote the Kingdom of God? May we be encouraged also by Paul who writes in 2 Cor. 9:6-7: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” Just imagine Business tithing brings with it all sorts of opportunities and possibilities. Imagine a business tithed from their profit of $100,000: they could cover the cost of a part-time special needs assistant at their local Christian school. If they tithed from $1M, they could provide the means for a church or non-profit to hire a full-time employee, or do a renovation, or fund a medical clinic in the third world for a year. Imagine doing this consecutively over 10 or even 40 years? It really adds up. 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There you are, with this bundle of perfection and magic in your arms, the joy that is set before you that got you through the pregnancy and the labor and the delivery – she finally came, and your life is not the life you had before. You have her fed and warm, fresh as a daisy and probably wearing one of the cute outfits you were given at a shower from people who love you, and you observe that those teeny tiny fingernails look alarmingly like the claws of a Bengal Tiger and so you reach for the most cruel and inappropriately named of all baby accoutrement – the safety fingernail clippers. You have already conquered nursing, for Pete’s sake, and you’ve been cutting your own nails for years! What could go wrong? And then you clip the first tiny pointer finger claw... and blood flows everywhere. And you are horrified. God gave you this absolutely perfect bundle of covenant joy and you broke it!!! 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Pornography

How to lock your phone from pornography… 101

A taste of Into the Light Ministries’ TechSafe series ***** “Always lock the doors.” As a boy, this teaching served me well. We lived in a place with frequent break-ins, so the danger was real and present. We only had four doors in our home so “Always lock the doors” was an easy command to follow. Teaching us this was part of what my parents did to protect our home. And protecting the home front is what loving parents do, right? But in 2025, there are new kinds of dangers. The most dangerous doorway into your house is no longer through your front entrance – it’s in your pocket. It is in our children’s pockets and hands. And there are often hundreds of doorways to pornography on your phone. It takes time and energy to find, monitor, and lock all of these. I’m here to help. In this article, I will show you how to lock down your phones, protect yourself and your children, and live with a phone to the glory of God. Here are eight key steps that will make your devices far safer. Step 1: Learn the phone Think about how often you use your phone. Have you ever asked what a phone is? Have you ever asked how information gets to your phone? Simply put, a smartphone is an information machine. Any time you use your phone to watch a video, listen to music, or read an article you are receiving video and audio information. But information can come into a phone through Wi-Fi, data, Bluetooth, the phone's camera, and other means. Each one of these represents a unique doorway into your device and, therefore, your home. And since smartphones can fit in your pocket, they are designed to be personal and private. Statistics show that most pornography is accessed on a smartphone. What does this mean? You need to get to know your device. You do not need to be a tech wizard, but you do need to be generally familiar with it. Step 2: Control Wi-Fi The main way information enters the phone is through Wi-Fi. Every app on your phone uses Wi-Fi to access the internet to obtain whatever information it needs, whether that's Spotify to stream music or Google to find a new recipe. We sometimes think of the internet as something that is in our home, but it’s not. The internet is way out in the wide world. We access the internet through our internet service providers (ISP), and we connect to the internet providers through Wi-Fi. How does that Wi-Fi get to our devices? A router. A router makes Wi-Fi so that all your devices can connect to the internet. Without a router, your Wi-Fi could not travel from the wire in the wall, through the air, and into your phone. Your wireless devices couldn’t connect to the World Wide Web. The router creates a Wi-Fi signal and carries the internet service through the Wi-Fi signal to every part of your house so that all your devices can connect to the internet. This access to the internet can be used for good, such as searching for a new recipe or for a used car on Facebook marketplace. It can also be used for evil, such as searching for pornography. Normal routers carry all of this information to your phone indiscriminately of what is good and what is evil. A smart router, on the other hand, will monitor, filter, and (if necessary) block this content before it even sends it out over the Wi-Fi. This smart router will let that recipe reach any device that searches for it, but it might block Facebook for some of the younger teens' phones while allowing it for the parents’ phones. Best of all, it will block pornography for all devices, entirely. So your second step to locking doors on your phone is to buy a smart router like Bark or Gryphon to have powerful router-level monitoring, blocking and filtering tools. If you want more information on routers, we have an entire video on this in the TechSafe router series. Step 3: Install Covenant Eyes Wi-Fi-level router monitoring systems are amazing, but they only work while on Wi-Fi. When a phone is not in your home or not on your Wi-Fi network, these smart routers can’t filter anything for you. This is why an accountability system that stays on the device at all times is essential. So step three is to install accountability software to monitor, filter, and block content on the smartphone device. We recommend you install Covenant Eyes. This accountability software helps you keep your kids or yourself accountable to what is viewed online. It even sends reports to any ally of choice. Covenant Eyes enables you to block specific websites or apps that you don’t want your child browsing on, ranging from explicit websites to even benign websites that may waste time. To learn how to set up and install Covenant Eyes on your phone, go to CovenantEyes.com, and they will walk you through the entire process. You can try it out and get your first month free by using the code: INTOTHELIGHT. Step 4: Assess apps In steps one through three, you have increased your security for the whole house, but there are many doors still left open on individual devices. The most common danger points show up in a phone's apps. Apps are just roads to get you to the information you want to view, receive, or send. While some apps can be monitored by accountability software, some cannot. An app with open access to the internet that is not monitored, filtered, or blocked is simply too risky to leave unattended. It is vital to go through all the apps on the phone and delete any that are unnecessary or could be a road to access explicit content. If you see apps that you or your child don’t need, then delete them! There are also app categories like social media, dating, or streaming services that are very dangerous to have on a device. Unless you or your child have demonstrated significant levels of self-control, these apps should not be on the phone. They often provide direct access to explicit material through their internal browsers. Other app types like gaming or messaging can be dangerous for other reasons, like getting sent inappropriate pictures, being groomed by a predator, or seeing sexually provocative ads after a game. This is why every app must be assessed and reviewed before leaving it on your or your child's device. It will take some serious time to work through each app, testing links, looking for chat boxes, watching for ads, and assessing any other potential danger points, but it is worth it! Step 5: Set up parental controls Finally, step five is to set up parental controls. Many apps and phones have parental controls built into the phone – these are good and powerful tools. See our video on video smartphones to learn more about these parental controls and to find links to the websites of the specific devices you use. What do parental controls do? Why are they helpful in protecting yourself and your home? They keep you from losing all the work you did in step four. Without parental controls on the device level, locking down the app store or play store, the deleted apps can just be redownloaded! Most phones have parental or screen time controls built in that allow you to disable the app store with a password that only you know. You can also set time limits for games or communication apps, set age-level content restrictions, block in-app purchases, and set device-specific downtime. For example, if you don't think that your children should be on their devices past 10:00 pm, you can set that up through parental controls on their devices. Many of these parental controls can be found in the settings portion of the phone itself, or have their own accompanying app that can go on your phone, so you can monitor, block, and filter your child's phone from afar. Remember, these parental controls are not designed for tech wizards, they are made for you. Step 6: Consider other devices If you’ve not guessed it already, smartphones are complex and very difficult to lock down. They are very powerful devices, which make them powerful to accomplish good… but also evil. Because of this, you might want to question whether or not you or your child needs a smartphone. Step six, consider “dumbphones” and “child phones.” On the outside, dumbphones look very similar to smartphones, but their operating system is hyper-minimalistic. They have black and white screens and only a handful of features like calling, text, GPS, and a few other basic functions. That's it. Many adults love dumbphones because they are distraction-free. But because they are so limited, they are also a safe option for your child’s first phone. It's literally impossible to surf the internet on a dumbphone, unlike some old-school flip phones. We recommend looking at the LITE Phone and the WISE Phone. A quick Google search will bring you to their website, and you can also get a small discount on your order when you use the code: INTOTHELIGHT. If the temptation to pornography or to doomscroll Instagram is an active struggle in your life, then you should consider a dumbphone or child phone. Step 7: Change rhythms and rules While all of these “tech” solutions are essential to making a smartphone safe to use, they are only one-half of the conversation. You need to think through household rhythms and rules that will bolster your ability to keep an eye on things and protect yourself. If your children want a particular app, allow them to make a case for it, and then evaluate together the dangers and benefits of the app. Here is a list of ideas to get your brain working on the patterns you might want to put in place for your home. While this list isn’t comprehensive, it is a good place to start. No phones in the bedroom: personal devices need to be used in a common area in the house. Device curfew: All devices in the home get turned off at nine or ten at night. You can also have all devices charging in the kitchen overnight, even friends' devices. All apps, software, and media need to be approved by you, the parent, or your spouse before being downloaded or watched. You, not your children, own the devices in the home, and you have the authority to check on those devices as needed. Let your children know that you might look at their apps or search history from time to time. If there is a particular way you want your children to act with their smartphone, make sure you model that yourself. If you have children, invite your older children into the conversation. These ideas should just be a start to get your mind thinking. Ultimately you know what's best for your home. Spend some time in prayer asking the Lord for wisdom as you set up rules for your house. If you are married, make sure you do this with your spouse. Step 8: Rinse and repeat because it’s worth it Step eight is to rinse and repeat. Imagine if you only locked your house’s doors one day in the year. You might say to yourself, “Alright, everything is safe and locked up!” Of course, this does not account for the other 364 days of the year or the regular unlocking that happens over time. The same is true for smartphones. This “how to” is not a one-time, fix-all solution. Rather, it’s a roadmap to a lifestyle change. And thankfully, God addresses the very work you’re doing here. In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches us how to handle these temptations to sin – radical danger calls for radical measures. He says, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.” Of course, Jesus does not want you to literally tear your eyes out. Rather, He wants you to take the necessary steps to protect yourself from sin. Where temptation is present, radical measures are necessary. In fact, the way Jesus describes the dangerous result of indulging in sin – which is the eternal judgment of God – makes radical measures appear normal, even necessary. In fact, to Jesus losing an eye is nominal compared to losing your whole body. If you are tempted to sin with your phone, Jesus is calling you to tear out your right eye by locking down the doorways to sin on your phone. Be encouraged, Jesus never calls His people to do something without providing the grace to do it. Conclusion Whew. That’s a lot. We understand how overwhelming this can be, but be encouraged – the fact that you are reading this article shows that you have the desire to make changes and protect your family. May God bless your efforts to secure your home, raise children of integrity, and glorify Him supremely. Where can I get more help? This article is a taste of what we’re doing at TechSafe, a tutorial series for protecting every device in your home. The help doesn’t stop with just your phone; we’ve also tackled your computer, tablets, Smart TVs, gaming consoles, routers, VR headsets and more. And we have a separate tutorial for each one. So now you don’t have to be a tech wizard to protect your home! Whether you are a parent wanting to safeguard your family, a struggler seeking to cut off access, or a pastor looking to equip your church, this series is for you. These tutorials will equip you to safely live with and enjoy your technology to the glory of God. Let us walk you through this complicated process on our website, where we will provide everything you need to know about every device that you own. It’s all at IntoTheLightMinistries.ca/TechSafe – we will ask you for your name and email, but that’s it. It’s all free....

News

Abortion deaths reach 10-year high

According to the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI), the number of abortions reported in Canada increased to a staggering 101,553 in 2023...

News

Pierre Poilievre: sometimes access comes with too high a cost

News

Becoming Chinada? – a look at our country, from the eyes of a recently arrived Chinese family

News

Saturday Selections – April 19, 2025

Embrace reality - brought to you by the letter f This is both fantastic – encouraging a farm hand to embrace reality over his feelings – and fall...

Assorted

Little Free Libraries can be a big deal

If you have a (too) well-stocked home library of good Christian books, but you still want to keep stocking it, start passing along your already-read titles to a local Little Free Library, which invites users to “leave a book; take a book.” What a great opportunity to share your favorite Christian authors with the neighborhood! And if you want to be subversive, the books you take when you leave a book can be the kind that you don’t want your neighbors to read. Take out the trash and leave them the treasure instead. It’s a service too, to put garbage into the garbage can. For instance, in my neighborhood’s Little Free Library, I gave up a copy of A.W. Tozer’s God and Men, in exchange for the bigger, but definitely not better, The Origin of Species – Charles Darwin’s kickstarter for the evolution movement – and dropped the latter into my little free wastebasket. On the other hand, more positively, to be more clearly salt and light in your neighborhood, include a bookmark in each book you donate, with suitable contact information and an invitation to email you, or, even better, to talk with you over coffee, about the book. If you want to start your own Little Free Library, check out LittleFreeLibrary.org....

Being the Church

God loves a cheerful giver

6 ways to restore the joy of giving ***** In one sense, the most faithful givers during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ were the Pharisees, as He Himself said: “you Pharisees… tithe mint and rue and every herb” (Luke 11:42). However, a fuller look at this passage shows that Jesus was not pleased with their self-glorifying and joyless giving: “But woe to you Pharisees! For you… neglect justice and the love of God” (Luke 11:42). Christ wants us to give from the heart so we should never allow our generosity to become merely a dutiful routine. But it can easily happen. For example, one way to give responsibly to your church is to give by automatic or pre-authorized withdrawal. If you have a stable income, it’s an excellent way to commit to giving your first fruits each month… but it can also become almost invisible, to the point that you barely realize that you are giving at all. Yet, “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:7). So how can we be more heartfelt, God-loving, and cheerful in our giving? Be more intentional – if you invest your time and thoughts, your heart will follow. So here’s a half dozen ways to restore the joy in your giving. 1. See for yourself While our giving shouldn’t be motivated by our pleasure, it can be motivated by knowing the good it is doing. Paul demonstrates this when he shares with the Corinthians the blessing their gift will be for those in need in Jerusalem, and also shares what glory it will give God (2 Cor. 9:12-13). If you are giving faithfully to your congregation’s budgetary needs, invest some time as well. Read over the budget before the annual congregational meeting to see where your money is going. Focus carefully on the reports of the various committees in your congregation to see or hear what they have been doing and hope to be doing in the year ahead. When giving to other Reformed and Christian causes, get informed about them, and be sure to sign up for updates on the work being done by any ministry you are supporting. Visiting the building where an organization does its work can give you a better understanding of the value of, and the need for, its services. For example, when I recently visited Edmonton’s Hope Mission, Ryan Harding, the Mission’s manager of community engagement, told me of one client who had, more than a decade ago, actually threatened Ryan while high on crystal meth, but who was now ministering to others at the Mission. While I was there I saw the Mission was putting up wooden barriers around one end and one side of each bunk, so I asked about it. Ryan explained that many of the men they served had felt a lack of privacy, being exposed on every side – the barriers fixed that, and they also lowered the level of conflict among their clients. However, Ryan stressed that these barriers come with a cost. There’s the financial cost of installing them, and also the expenses involved in the increased need for more supervision because the barriers block staff’s view of the men in the bunks – now it is harder to see if men are using drugs or might be having a medical emergency. Being there, and being able to see and ask questions gave me a good sense of their need for funds and the careful use they are putting them to. And that certainly increases the joy in giving! 2. Let others know Share your newsletters from Christian charities and ministries with your friends and neighbors. Promote those same organizations on social media, being sure to open your posts with acknowledgment that their successes are due to God’s blessing and to His glory. If the leaders of the ministries you support have written a book or two about their work, request a copy, read it, talk about it, and pass it along to your nearest Little Free Library, or lend it to multiple interested people. The Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us, rightly, that “the chief end of man” is to “glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” so let the world know how the groups and people are bringing glory to God. “Blessings box” let’s light shine The “blessings box” pictured here has been built by Providence Canadian Reformed Church on the edge of their property in the middle of their residential Edmonton neighborhood. Church members share all kinds of blessings with their neighbors via the blessings box: canned goods (in the summer), dry goods, hygiene items, and, as mentioned in the article, good Christian books. Providence Church supplies stickers with Bible verses to put on the items shared. The church members’ goal is for the neighbors of Providence Church to see it as, by the grace of God, a blessing to their neighbors, and to encourage their neighbors to check out what makes this church so willing to be a blessing. For more information, see ProvidenceReformed.ca/the-blessings-box. 3. Get your hands, or feet, involved Consider giving more than just your money. Put in some sweat equity to, again, have a better idea of what your money is supporting. In your church, volunteer to provide coffee and other refreshments on Sunday; buy supplies for your church’s Little Free Library or Blessings Box; join your church’s outreach to the neighborhoods around the church building; become a member of the church’s Committee of Administration or sound crew; and either step up to allow your name to stand as a candidate for office-bearer or support your office-bearers with hospitality, or errands, or meals to support their families during the busy times of an office-bearer’s term. As far as spending volunteer time outside your own congregation, the idea of regularly volunteering for a particular organization may seem scary or impractical for you. Perhaps you are feeling a mismatch between your talents and the organization’s needs, or maybe you have bigger commitments right now to your church and/or your family. “If so, perhaps you can support others’ efforts: encourage your kids to get involved (and commit to driving them if needed), or help make it possible for your spouse to free up some time to contribute to this cause.” Getting together with others to support your favorite organization spreads the joy, and promotes the glory of God, that much more. For instance, if you only have time to make one visit to see what an organization is doing, you may still be able to bring others with you. Organize a group to tour the headquarters or the sites where the ministry does its outreach. If you can only commit to one afternoon or one evening a year for the organization, see if you can help get a team together, or make a date of it with your spouse for the group’s annual fundraiser. And if that fundraiser is a walkathon, it gets you into the fresh air, gives you exercise, and promotes your fellowship for a morning or afternoon together – win/win! When a number of Canadian Reformed school staff and students organized a team to walk for the Union Gospel Mission in Winnipeg, the competition to raise more funds than the other teams was just plain fun, but it also promoted God’s glory by spreading around the knowledge of what God was doing through the Mission. 4. Follow the money Another way to feel good about your giving is to know that the funds are being used in a stewardly way. So check the accountability of the organizations you are contributing to. Visiting them might be the best way, but you can also look over their public budgets (especially comparing planned spending and revenue to actual spending and revenue), and their online ratings. For example, if the organization is American, you can visit the Ministry Watch 1000 Database to see the financial accountability and efficiency of the one thousand biggest Christian charities in the United States. Ministry Watch has tough standards for financial accountability, and a willingness to report on Christian organizations that are not living up to their Christian mission, or are even involved in actual abuse of those that they are supposed to be serving, but it also highlights Christian organizations that combine Christian ministry with financial accountability. 5. Don’t underestimate the urgency Another way to restore the joy of giving is to realize the ultimate purpose and the urgency of what you are doing. In his article on ChristianStudyLibrary.org, Glenn D. Jerrell reminds us that: “We are the church militant! Do not underestimate the enemy! After all, ‘your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour’ (1 Peter 5:8). The Scriptures also teach us to ‘take every thought captive to obey Christ.’ Your whole life is engaged in this struggle – and that includes your giving. Resources for gospel ministry are needed now! “….The warfare between God and Satan should generate a life-and-death sense of urgency to support and sustain gospel ministry with all the means that God gives us and to do so from generation to generation.” We are in the midst of spiritual warfare! Faithful giving equips our fellow warriors to proclaim how our God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:13-14), and to help see others rescued as well. 6. Remember the chief part of our thankfulness Finally, we need to remind ourselves of the spiritual dangers associated with giving: a sense of self-reliance and self-glorification. We may be tempted to think that we have done so much for God’s kingdom. The best way to avoid those dangers is to bring the organizations God has given us the resources to support before Him, in both thankfulness and supplication for their work (Phil. 4:6). After all, the Heidelberg Catechism says that prayer is the chief part of our thankfulness, and thanking God for His work through Christian ministries, and seeking His help to make their work fruitful, kills our innate pride in our own generosity and brings glory to Him and joy in His work. It is easy to lose track of the ways in which God is working in the world. One way to avoid that is to make a list of everything you are giving to, as well as other worthy organizations, and to put them on your own personal prayer calendar – for instance, intentionally thanking God for, and interceding for, specific ministries each day of the week. Finally, in all your prayer, as the ultimate pride-killer and joy-giver, remember how much more God has done for you in Christ than you could ever do for Him: “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” (2 Cor. 9:15)....

News

Millions distributed to Canada’s legacy media during election campaign

While the media was covering the federal election, the newly formed Canadian Journalism Collective (CJC) started its first handouts of cash from the enormous pot of $100 million that it is now mandated to give to Canadian news outlets each year. The funding comes from money that Google was required to pay in order to comply with the Liberal government’s Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which passed through Parliament in 2023. As revenue has dwindled for the legacy media, the Liberal government has been very motivated to step in with their own funding, both directly and indirectly. In addition to its $1.4 billion in annual funding of the CBC, it provided about $885 million of other media handouts in the past five years. The Hub, a relatively new media organization which doesn’t support government funding, reached out to Canada’s largest legacy media companies to ask if they received any of this money, how much they got, and whether they would be willing to disclose this during the election campaign. None of the organizations would commit to this. Why does this matter? We can’t serve two masters – if the media is supposed to be the servant of the public, holding the government to account, it can’t also be in the employ of that government. Last year, Reformed Perspective turned down an opportunity to receive substantial funding from the “Special Measures for Journalism” component of the Canada Periodical Fund. By God’s grace, our readers not only covered all our bills, they provided the means for us to grow our circulation and expand our team. Thank you for being the means through which we can continue to celebrate God’s truth, without being beholden to the government....

News

Saturday Selections – April 12, 2025

The Gray Haven's High Enough (4 min) The first story, history, told with tempo, beauty too – something special that'll have even rap and poetry haters take notice. Have you lost your ability to think deeply? "In 12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You, Tony Reinke writes, 'God has given us the power of concentration in order for us to see and avoid what is false, fake, and transient — so that we may gaze directly at what is true, stable, and eternal.' As our ability to concentrate is eroded by cheap entertainment, so too is our ability to discern truth and focus on what has eternal value. We’re wasting God’s precious gift." So what can be done? Apologetics without apologizing Christians sometimes fall for our own bad press - the world paints us as simpletons for believing God's Word, and then we encourage their insult by acting as if God's Word is something to be ashamed of, when we never reference it in the public square. But the fact is, "Christianity is the most accurate account of reality and therefore worthy of our saying so." Solar and wind power are expensive The push for renewable energy doubled the cost of electricity in Ontario from 2005 to 2020, though the government hid some of those cost increases by paying for them. But that just meant taxpayers were going to be on the hook for them another way. And Germany, a renewable energy leader, is paying twice that. On a sunny, windy day, their solar and wind provides almost 70% of what their country needs, but on a dark, windless day, less than 4%. This is an article by a gay atheist who believes global warming is happening and man has a role. And he's still questioning what we're doing in our push for expensive unreliable renewables. Families parenting together God blessed us with like-minded Christian neighbors who were a few years ahead of us in parenting and we've been able to learn from their example, and share our own practices with them as well. This author makes the case that this is a blessing worth seeking out! Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity The German theologian thought that it is more dangerous for a nation to be stupid than wicked. The application is as suitable to our day as it was in Nazi Germany. "In his famous letters from prison, Bonhoeffer argued that stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice, because while 'one may protest against evil; it can be exposed and prevented by the use of force, against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here. Reasons fall on deaf ears.'” ...

Economics - Home Finances

5 things I’d like my kids to learn about money

The saver, the spender, the schemer – as my kids get older, it’s interesting to see their “money personalities” develop. In the area of money,...

Apologetics 101, Pro-life - Abortion, Transgenderism

Don’t Argue the Exceptions: Beating bad arguments for Abortion and Transgenderism

Adult biographies, Book Reviews

5 things you might not have known about Pierre Poilievre

News

Saturday Selections – April 5, 2025

Click on the titles to go to the linked articles. Broken Window Fallacy explains what government gets wrong Politicians can always point to the resu...

Assorted

Write down your story

Sharing your history is sharing His story ...things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and His might, and the wonders that He has done. – Psalm 78:3-4. ***** There are half a dozen people in my group of older friends who have written their autobiography, or who are working on completing their life story in print. When someone commented “you should write some of those stories down” they responded! And that they did has benefits for both themselves and their children. How so? Writing might seem an artform slowly losing ground in a world of emoticons and AI-written essays. Fortunately, for some people, writing is still a joy to do, and an even greater pleasure to read again later. Young people who keep a daily journal can attest to this (except perhaps on their wedding day, when someone roasts them with readings from their journal pages). Words are like pictures in that they tend to bring back memories; good and bad. We can enjoy our own writing. And others’ words can place you in the shoes of someone dear to you. Imagine reading a story that your grandpa or grandma wrote many years ago. It helps you to understand who they are, and how they lived their life in those days, and perhaps even why they are the way they are. Writing history 37 years of Bram Vegter’s extended family’s chronicles, bound in some 15 volumes, there for children and grandchildren to enjoy Writing your family history doesn’t need to be a solitary effort. My Dutch family members started publishing our own chronicles in 1987 and kept it going (monthly, and later bi-monthly) until 2024. It was kept “in-house” which enabled us to write freely and openly, and we did. These 37 years of chronicles, which are bound in some 15 volumes (!), are wonderful to browse through and relive all the weddings, birth announcements, vacations, highlights and low points in the lives of my family members. These many years also cover the time when computers and phones were introduced, and you can imagine how things changed because of these and other incoming electronic devices. You can see the changes as you turn the pages, from the old typewriter font to a variety of new typefaces we could select from, and from photocopies to email. The printing press invented anew! Now the grandchildren browse through the pages and are elated when they find the page where their birth was being announced with joy! “Look Mom – this is when I was born!” And Mom looks at a relieved and tired face in a bed… with a tiny newborn on her tummy. Your story If you don’t have a family chronicle, you can take up the quill yourself. It takes just one to start. And the writing you do for your autobiography is your story. How and where it began. Someone who is reading your story sixty years later lives in quite a different era. To read about your younger years and how things were then, will partly explain who you are now! Your story can be so fascinating and encouraging for others who may not have lived close to you, or perhaps even lived in a different country. Different times, different settings, even a different church maybe. You may tell how it was when you were growing up, and these are beautiful word pictures for your descendants. “The times, they are a-changing” Bob Dylan sang years ago, and he wasn’t wrong. This is what makes a time capsule, in the form of an autobiography, so interesting. Some Vegter Dutch relations showing off their just-received copy of Bram’s own autobiography, Overdrive. And there is much to write about: your family, your siblings, your friends, your church activities, your school, your neighborhood, what it was like growing up there. And then of course, what you did after your studies: where you worked, or where you traveled to, what kind of things held your interest. And for those who got married, how did you meet your better half? Explain to readers yet to be born how that went, and what has the “I do” meant to you before your spouse, and before God? We often say so little about that, and these can be fascinating, fun and encouraging stories. Especially for a new generation growing up in a time when marriage is becoming less common. Then you probably want to write a bit about what you have done in life, how you have filled your time with work, perhaps some volunteer work and hobbies. Many of these move to the background as you get older, but they were once front and center in your life! They kept you occupied, and (grand)children want to read about them. What made you tick? His story! Ultimately, whatever you write will be His story, as God has put together your life. In the beginning, when you were just getting started, it was perhaps a bit of a puzzle; maybe you had trouble seeing where He had you heading, and how all the pieces would fit in. Often later in life you recognize God’s hand more and more, and you begin to see how His plans for you came together… though when the picture of your life will be complete, only God knows. It is so beautiful to pass on to (grand)children what you have gone through, how you trusted God in uncertain times, and how God often gave more than He promised you. His goodness, His grace, and His faithfulness are often more fully understood later in life, so your story can encourage younger people still figuring it out. It is also good to relate some of the foolish things you did when you were young, and how God forgives the sins of our youth (Ps. 25:7). Often, when people become older, they tend to reminisce and look back on their life. They may regret some of the things they did when they were young. Be honest about that (without sharing all the details) and tell your children you were once (and still are) far from perfect. Then rejoice together in God’s love and forgiveness! In these days, it has also become much easier to share information with each other. Many families now share a WhatsApp account to regularly keep in touch with each other. This is beautiful, but it misses the rich spiritual heritage of the past. There is still nothing like really writing to help you reflect and remember. I want to end with the first Bible verse I ever wrote on a card to a friend. It is from Proverbs 3:6 and it says: “In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths.” God was there, also in my early teens. May we acknowledge Him, even to our children’s children! So, start your Word doc today, 8.5x11 will be just fine. Write your story down – for your family....

Being the Church

A principled (and practical) guide to tithing

Twice every Sunday the offering plate comes your way. What do you do? Do you chip in whatever you have in your wallet, do you have a cheque already written out, or will you send an e-transfer later in the week? Do you abide by whatever tithing tradition your parents instilled in you, or look around to see what everyone else does, or do you have your own rationale of how to give? How we tithe is an intensely practical question for everyone, but perhaps one that you’ve not given much thought. Here are some biblical principles for tithing, followed by some practical suggestions, from my experience as a deacon and as a manager of a personal household budget, of how to apply these biblical principles in our offerings. 1. God owns everything The first principle that we need to recognize when we consider tithing is the fact that everything ultimately belongs to God and not to us. As the Creator and Sustainer of all things and the Redeemer of His people, God not only is the ultimate owner of everything, but we owe Him everything. Like the servants in the parable of the talents (Matt. 25:14-39), we are merely temporary stewards of the blessings that God has given us. The tithe – 10% – is a reminder of that fact. Abram offered the first recorded tithe in Genesis 14, when he gave a tenth of the spoils from the defeat of Chedorlaomer to Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High. Jacob also vowed to give God a tenth of everything (Gen. 28:22). This voluntary tithe was enshrined in God’s law in Numbers 18:21-24, when God commanded the Israelites to give a tithe every year to support the Levites and the tabernacle. The disposition of our heart should not be “how little of my hard-earned money do I have to part with” but “how much of God’s blessings am I able to give back to Him?” 2. Our heart (not just the %) matters We see cheerful and abundant giving throughout Scripture, whether it was the Israelites giving overabundantly for the construction of the temple (Ex. 35:20-36:7), the early Church freely sharing their possessions (Acts 4:32-37), and later congregations collecting for needy churches (Rom. 15:25-28, 1 Cor. 16:1-4, 2 Cor. 8:1-5, 2 Cor. 9:1-15). It is entirely possible to give large sums of money to the LORD but without the right motivation. In Acts 5, Ananias and Sapphira sold a piece of property and gave some of the proceeds to the disciples. And yet they wound up dead because of their dishonesty. Instead, in 2 Corinthians 9:7, Paul famously reminds believers that “each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” While it may be relatively easy to change our giving patterns, changing our heart from being a reluctant, to a cheerful, giver may be far harder. Yet we serve a God who delights more in a pure heart than external sacrifice, and we need to recognize that our giving should come from gratitude over God’s grace delivering us from our guilt. So we must set our hearts in the right direction when we give. 3. First fruits The Bible also speaks to when we give. Men like Abel gave “the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions” (Gen. 4:4) Throughout the books of the law, God commands the people of Israel to bring to Him the first fruits – not their last fruits – of their field and their flocks. Calling upon His people to bring their first fruits was a way that God set the priorities of His people: give to Me first and provide for yourselves after. This practice also fostered a trust in God’s people that He would provide if His people obeyed Him and gave their first fruits to Him. In the days of Malachi, when the people of Judah were robbing God of their tithes and contributions (possibly because they thought that they were too poor to afford to tithe), God calls the people to: “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need” (Malachi 3:10). Questions to consider With these general biblical principles established, here are some more practical suggestions of how we can live out these principles in our tithing. A. How much should I give? This is everyone’s biggest question as well as the one that will impact our lifestyle the most. And the usual Christian response is to tithe (to give 10% of our income). But, interestingly, most Israelites were commanded to give more than a 10% tithe. God also commanded a second tithe every year to fund ceremonial feasts and festivals (Deut. 14:22-27). And every three years, the people were to give a third tithe that was to go not only to the Levite but also the poor (Deut. 14:28-29). They were also to provide for the poor in other ways that would have a financial cost, such as allowing the poor to glean the droppings and corners of the field (Lev. 19:9). So, in reality, the Israelites arguably tithed as much as 23.33% annually. (I say “arguably” because some theologians like John Calvin thought that the tithe to the poor every three years was simply a further explanation of how to spend the first tithe to the priests and Levites.) We live in a different time period today. The civil and ceremonial law apply differently to the Church today. We don’t support one thirteenth of the population of the Church with our tithes (as the twelve tribes had to support the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament). We don’t have a calendar of feasts and festivals that require another tithe. Various institutions of society, such as the government, do a lot of the work of providing for the poor (through the taxes we pay). And so that strict command to give away 10% (or 20% or 23.33%) of our income may not bind us today. But I still think that a 10% tithe is a good minimum for us all to strive to give. Even if you’re a student working a part-time job, an unemployed man collecting EI, or a retiree living off a pension, aim to give at least 10% back to the LORD. In Mark 12:41-44, Jesus watched many rich people putting large sums of money into the temple treasury. We have no idea what percentage of their regular income they brought. Perhaps some brought 5%, thinking that the sheer amount of money that they gave was more important than the relative percentage of the income they gave. Perhaps some brought exactly 10%, giving just as much as the law required, no more and no less. And perhaps some brought 15%, priding themselves on exceeding the demands of the law. But then a poor widow comes in and gives two small copper coins. Jesus says to His disciples: “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.” In other words, the widow gave 100%. While we may not be called to give every cent that we earn to the Church, in The Ministry of Mercy, Timothy Keller calls Christians to give “sacrificially, until their lifestyle is lowered.” Following the call in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another’s burdens, he suggests that “we must give so that we feel the burden of the needy ourselves.” In support of this, he quotes Jonathan Edwards, who said, “If we be never obliged to relieve others’ burdens, but when we can do it without burdening ourselves, then how do we bear our neighbor’s burdens, when we bear no burdens at all?” Keller’s book is a real challenge to Christians to give more than just 10%. Those more well off could and should give more. In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul commands the Corinthians “to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper.” Those whom God has prospered are in a position to give more than those who are struggling. To use an example, those of us who earn the median family income in Canada of $98,390 and tithe 10% would give away almost $10,000. Those who earn double that – nearly $200,000 – and still give 10% would give $20,000. The rate of giving is equal. And the richer family gives away more. But who feels the impact of that tithe more? The average family. They might have to give up a vacation, live in a smaller house, or pass on enrolling their children in organized sports. The comparatively richer family probably doesn’t have to give up these things and could give far more before they really began feeling it. B. Tithing pre-tax or post-tax? If you do decide to give a certain percentage of your income regularly to the Church (say, 10%), some might ask, “should that 10% be pre-tax or post-tax?” Our response to this question may reveal where God and His Church are on our priority list. Most of us don’t get the full amount of our paycheque. Even before our earnings are deposited into our bank account or we pick up our paycheque, the government takes its share, roughly about 25% of our salary through income taxes, CCP contributions, and EI premiums. If we give 10% of our take-home paycheque, what are we implicitly saying? That the government is entitled to its share first and in full and God gets a tithe of our second fruits (and a lesser amount to boot). So consider giving of your income pre-tax, before the government claims its share. C. Tithing at the beginning or end of the month? Perhaps this isn’t a significant question in your mind, but again it may reveal your heart. If you write a monthly cheque or pre-authorize any bank withdrawals to the Church on the last day of the month, what does that say about your priorities? Are your priorities to make sure that you have enough money to pay your rent, your grocery bill, and your credit card statement and then give some of whatever is left over to the Church? Might this be how you implicitly think about giving? And so, consider determining, as soon as you get your paycheque, what you are going to give back to God and His Church, giving to God of your first fruits rather than your leftovers. D. Can I let the offering bag pass me by? This is another question that many people would raise an eyebrow at. As long as I give my 10%, who cares when I give it? As a deacon, I saw some people would wave away the offering bag during a service, implying that they had nothing to give that service. Others would write a few (though substantial) cheques a few times a year but give little during the remainer of the year. When December rolled around, we would often collect three or four times our usually monthly donations in a single month, suggesting that some people only gave at the end of the year. A handful of people in the congregation gave much smaller amounts every week. We as deacons often thought to ourselves that we’d save a whole lot of time if we didn’t have to count as much cash, or input a lot of small cheques, from these frequent givers. But this attitude of giving a little bit every week again reflects a heart that always has giving back to the LORD written on it. And again, there are Scriptural and confessional hints that we shouldn’t let the offering bag pass us by each Sunday. As already quoted in part, 1 Corinthians 16:2, says, “on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up , as he may prosper.” Based in part on this passage, Lord’s Day 38 of the Heidelberg Catechism, speaking of what God’s will for us is in the Fourth Commandment, says “that the gospel ministry and schools for it be maintained, and that, especially on the festive day of rest, I diligently… bring Christian offerings for the poor.” In the Old Testament, there are also a few warnings against appearing before the LORD empty-handed, even if these passages are not strictly related to tithing (Ex. 23:15, 34:20; Deut. 16:16). So don’t let the offering bag pass you by. Even if the total amount that you give in a year doesn’t change, give often. E. How can my tithing go the furthest? Finally, we can be good stewards of our money by taking advantage of charitable tax advantages. Our federal and provincial governments give significant tax credits (typically 40-50%) to encourage charitable donations. That means that you can get up to 40-50% of your donations back on your tax return every year. If you are the average Canadian family earning $98,390, tithing 10%, and giving away almost $10,000, that could mean a return of $4,000-5,000. We are called to give taxes to whom taxes are due (Romans 13:6-7, Mark 12:13-17, Matthew 17:24-27), but if there are organizations that spend their money more efficiently or that labor more in the Kingdom of God than the government (and I’m sure we can think of many such organizations), making use of our charitable receipts is good stewardship. Through these tax benefits we can give even more generously to the most effective and godly organizations around us. The key to getting that tax credit is that your donations need to bear your name so that your church can issue a tax receipt. So write cheques or donate cash in envelopes with your name on it. Cash tossed in the collection bag won’t get you a tax receipt, but I’ve heard of some churches allowing congregation members to buy “tokens” through cheque or directed cash so that they can get a tax receipt. This allows parents and children to still donate via the offering plate while taking full advantage of charitable tax receipts. Conclusion However you decide to give to your local church, consider both where your heart is and what your hands are doing. As James 2:18 says, “Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” That includes our tithing....

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – April 2025

Trying to have your cake and eat it too A carving on a Cambodian temple built around 800 years ago seems to depict a stegosaurus. Christians know that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time, so this is no surprise for us. The artist might have seen a stegosaurus himself, or perhaps only heard a description passed on through the generations. But evolutionists say that dinosaurs died tens of millions of years before man appeared, and if that’s true then there is no way this artist could have seen a stegosaurus or had an accurate description of it passed on by word of mouth from one generation to the next – not if the span was millions of years! So evolutionists need to explain how this carving could have come to be. In an article on Smithsonian.com Brian Switek offers two possibilities that can be summed up as: 1. It doesn’t really look like a stegosaurus “If viewed directly, the carving hardly looks Stegosaurus-like at all. The head is large and appears to have large ears and a horn. The ‘plates’ along the back more closely resemble leaves, and the sculpture is a better match for a boar or rhinoceros against a leafy background.” 2. It looks so much like a stegosaurus it must be a hoax “There are rumors that it was created recently, perhaps by a visiting movie crew (the temple is a favorite locale for filmmakers), and it is possible that someone created something Stegosaurus-like during the past few years as a joke.” Watts was a wonder Isaac Watts (1674-1747) was a gifted poet and hymn writer, perhaps best known for Joy to the World and O God, Our Help In Ages Past. When he was a young lad, his gifts were already in full bloom, but they weren’t yet fully appreciated by those closest to Watts. In fact, as Douglas Bond recounts in his biography The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts, the poet’s mother didn’t even believe that the poems she was finding around the house were actually Watts’ own compositions. Sure, the boy said they were his, but what seven-year-old child could write like this? She assumed they must be poems he had memorized and then written down as his own. So, to put him to the test, she sat the boy down at the kitchen table and asked him to write her a poem. This is what he came up with. I am a vile polluted lump of earth; So I’ve continued since my birth; Although Jehovah grace does daily give me, As sure this monster Satan will deceive me. Come, therefore, Lord, from Satan’s claws relieve me. Wash me in Thy blood, O Christ, And grace divine impart. Then search and try the corners of my heart, That I in all things may be fit to do Service to Thee, and sing Thy praises too. After he showed it to his mother, she thought her suspicions were confirmed. This, clearly, was a copied piece, showing a theological depth far beyond the insight (let alone poetic ability) of any mere child. But then Watts told his mother to look at the first letter of each line for proof – the boy had crafted an acrostic that spelled out his own name, “Isaac Watts.” As Bond writes, "This was, no doubt, one of those moments that a mother cherishes and hides up in her heart. Imagine Sarah Watts’ wonder at her son’s gifting, but still more, the gratitude to God any Christian mother would have for so obvious a working of grace in her son’s heart." Credit card 101? Earl Taylor is an American high school principal who thinks it is vital our kids learn how to use credit cards responsibly while still at home. He proposed a two-step method that involved giving a son or daughter getting a card as soon as possible (16, 17, maybe 18) with two stipulations: 1) It has to be paid off in full each month 2) If there was ever a time when it wasn’t paid off in full, then the card would be cut up. And then the whole process could be tried again 6 months later. Let’s not whine John Piper wants us to know that sins aren’t something to complain about – whining isn’t the proper response. No indeed. As Piper puts it: "I hear so many Christians murmuring about their imperfections and their failures and their addictions and their shortcomings, and I see so little war! 'Murmur, murmur, murmur… Why am I this way?' Make WAR!" Great horrible puns • Class trip to the Coca-Cola factory. I hope there’s no pop quiz. • I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words. • Broken pencils are pointless. • They told me I had Type A blood, but it was a Type O. • It’s hard to beat a boiled egg in the morning. • The bride got a new name and a dress. • It’s hard to explain puns to kleptomaniacs because they always take things literally. • Someone left a pile of plastecine on my doorstep. I don’t know what to make of it. • Never trust an atom. They make up everything. • You want to know the key to being a successful mime? I’m not talking. • Can you think of anything nice about Switzerland? Well, their flag is a big plus. • While I usually refrain, I prefer to sing songs without their choruses. You can’t trust Hollywood?!? Hollywood tells us that there is one special someone, one soulmate, one person out there who, as Jerry Maguire put it, completes us. Blogger Matt Walsh sums up the Christian position in one sentence: “I didn’t marry my wife because she’s The One, she’s The One because I married her.” Why was Jesus silent? After he was arrested, Jesus replied to some of Pilate’s questions, and responded to a question by the high priest, but to their many false accusations he gave no reply – he stayed silent (Mark 15:5). The late Dr. D. James Kennedy, a popular American Presbyterian pastor last century, had an unusual thought as to why Jesus didn’t speak up. "Why was Jesus silent? Is it not often the case that a person is silent because he is giving tacit consent? Could that be the case? Many accusations were made against Him, and yet He denied none of them. Was He perchance guilty? In the answer to that lies the very heart of the Christian faith, and we must uncompromisingly declare that Jesus was silent precisely because he was guilty! He was guilty of everything with which He was charged. And He was guilty of many crimes for which He was not charged. He was guiltier than any man who had ever stood before the Sanhedrin. He was guiltier than the vilest miscreant who shall ever stand before the judgment bar of God. He was the guiltiest man who ever lived! But the guilt He bore was not His own. It was yours, and it was mine. 'The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).' God hath made Him to be sin for us. Guilty – as charged (2 Cor. 5:21)." Ouch! But…yeah “If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him, for you are worse than he thinks you to be.” - Charles Haddon Spurgeon G. K Chesterton on repetition To a dad’s distress, kids never tire of being thrown in the air. G.K. Chesterton thinks that, as we’re in the midst of doing it again, and again and again, we might not be properly appreciating the wonder of it all. Might our son or daughter be reflecting something of God in their unending enthusiasm? "….children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, 'Do it again'; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, 'Do it again' to the sun; and every evening, 'Do it again' to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we. The repetition in Nature may not be a mere recurrence; it may be a theatrical ENCORE."...

Internet

Will AI replace reading?

Empty libraries and human-less humans ***** Many new technologies are sold with the promise of freeing people from menial tasks. Dishwashers, dryers, tractors, and word processors are just a few of the many inventions that have made life easier, reducing the amount of backbreaking labor involved in necessary chores and leaving users more time for things worthwhile, like learning, creating, and enjoying relationships. But what happens when technology promises to “free” us from even those worthwhile activities? That’s one of the many questions we face in the age of artificial intelligence. For example, entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” judge Davie Fogarty recently told his 40,000 followers on X that “(r)eading books is now a waste of time. AI reasoning models can distill key insights and tell you exactly how to implement them based on everything they know about you.” Can reading really be outsourced to AI? Should it be? Is this a post-schooling version of the new epidemic of AI-based cheating where students have chatbots do their research and compose their assignments? Is the study and reflection on ideas now as much of an historical anachronism as plowing a field by hand? The process is the point The belief that reading and writing should be delegated to AI betrays a confusion not only about what technology is for but, even more, what we are for. Also, it lands us in some dark places, philosophically and spiritually. Author and classics professor Spencer Klavan wrote on X that many students who outsource the slow work of reading and writing soon find themselves wondering what the point of life is. After all, why go on if humans are obsolete, and chatbots can perform every task better in a fraction of the time? All new technologies require humans to wrestle again with what it means to be human. Human work is vital, not only because it is a way in which humans love and serve our neighbors, but because it is a fulfillment of the creation mandate. It’s true the Fall has turned much of our work into toil, and so any technology that alleviates futile, dangerous, and pointless work is a blessing. However, for some of our work, like reading, the process is the point. Not all activities can be measured in the narrow, utilitarian way that Fogarty and other over-eager fans of AI claim. Assuming AI can “distill” a work accurately, or that we need to be made “free” of sitting with an author, following an argument, or experiencing a narrative reduces truth, goodness, and beauty to mere data. To optimize or automate reading is simply not to read. It is like asking AI to free us from eating a delicious meal or taking a walk in the park with our kids. Some things cannot be optimized or outsourced, because they are irreducibly embodied, conscious, and human. Required to read and wrestle The best case-in-point is the Bible. God could have revealed what He wanted us to know in a bulleted list of “distilled” theological “insights” or moral pronouncements. Instead, He gave us a library of stories, proverbs, epistles, history, and authors, writing diverse types of literature over centuries, all of which comprise Holy Scripture. Part of what makes the Bible such a gift is the work and the humility God requires of us as we wrestle with It. Describing the slow and divinely blessed act of reading the Bible as a “waste of time” is a failure to grasp what it is, why it was given to us, and why we, as creatures, need it. And this is also true of many other books. To “free” us from this wonderfully inefficient process is to free us of our humanity. It is asking to be liberated from the nature given us by the God whose image we bear. To paraphrase the Psalmist, this will be how humans in this technocratic age become like our artificially intelligent idols. Novelist and songwriter Joseph Fasano wrote a poem entitled “For a Student Who Used AI to Write a Paper”: I know your days are precious on this earth. But what are you trying to be free of? The living? The miraculous task of it? Love is for the ones who love the work. The most important part of that work, in fact, reflects what it means to be made in the likeness of God instead of a computer. For more resources to live like a Christian in this cultural moment, go to Breakpoint.org. This is reprinted with permission from the Colson Center....

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Will AI replace reading?