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News

Saturday Selections – August 24, 2024

Abe Lincoln with a lesson on lying

The smartest politicians don't break promises; like Abe here, they try not to make any promises at all.

Pro-life voters need to watch out lest their votes go to politicians who won't be pinned down as to what they'll actually do for the unborn.

Aging peacefully

It comes to all of us, that moment when we realize that there's that certain something that we enjoyed before, but we have to let go of now because of age. This is a mom writing, but I think guys will empathize too.

An old challenge to old earth assumptions

20 years ago creationists sent coal samples to secular labs to test for Carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,730 years, and shouldn't exist in coal beds that are said to be 50 million, 100 million, and 300 million years old. And yet, it was found. So either those coal beds are much, much younger or.... Well, two decades later, evolutionists still don't have much of an answer to offer.

How to minimize digital distractions in your marriage

"Do you struggle with digital distractions? Is it sleeping next to your phone? Watching TV at night to 'wind' down? Most of our time is spent in front of a screen instead of being in front of real people – most importantly, our spouses – who are looking to us for connection."

When “helping” kids hurts them

Christians should be wary of secular psychology (and any Christian counseling that leans heavily on it) as it understands us as minds but not also as souls. It also doesn't recognize our true purpose and true identity (as created by God to glorify and enjoy Him forever) and so can't offer any sort of corrective to patients confused about these most important matters. It's lack of any firm footing means it's liable to fall for the latest thing, as it has in siding with the transgender agenda, pushing the impossible notion of "transitioning" on already troubled patients. And it also means that, as this article details:

"...over 40% of young adults have a mental health diagnosis, twice the rate of the general population. So, the generation most treated for psychological well-being is doing the worst psychologically."

More unintended consequences

One of the premises behind government-run economies is that people are simple. The socialists don't put it quite that way, of course, but that's what they'd need if their governments were to have any chance at managing the economy: citizen's interests, desires, and actions would need to be easy to predict and easy to direct with just a push or pull of the right political lever.

But what this video, and the many others in this series, show, is that leaders is government and industry too repeatedly fail at properly predicting how folks are going to act.

And if people are complex, then the best government is going to be the one that recognizes its own inability to know, let alone meet, those less than predictable, desires.

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Dying Well

Let the little children come

Children can’t be sheltered from the death of a loved one. But they can be comforted. ***** Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and...
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News

Saturday Selections – August 17, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... The wrong folk think God, the Bible, and Christianity are relevant in the political sphere ...
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News, Pro-life - Euthanasia

State-sanctioned murder now the 5th leading cause of death in Canada
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News

Saturday Selections – August 10, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Red Green's pit crew "You know when a flatbed gets ahead of you in a race it's not going w...
Closeup of a woman's feet in high heels next to a car in the dark.
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News

Prostitution laws challenged at Supreme Court of Canada

In 2014 Parliament passed a new prostitution law that ARPA Canada called “the most significant piece of legislation on a social issue passed during the nine years that Stephen Harper was prime minister.” It criminalized the purchase of sexual services while making it easier for prostitutes, most of whom are being exploited, to exit the sex trade. The goal was to target the demand – the men purchasing sex – rather than the women and men supplying it, but with the end goal of having the supply dwindle. That law has since been challenged from multiple angles by those wishing to legalize and normalize prostitution. One case - Mikhail Kloubakov, et al. v. His Majesty the King – is now before Canada’s highest court. The case finds its origins in a 2021 conviction of two men from Calgary who worked for an escort agency and financially benefited from prostitution and procuring women into the sex trade. These men are challenging these laws as unconstitutional. They won their case in the lower court but lost at the Court of Appeal in Alberta. This summer, ARPA Canada and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada worked together to submit legal arguments to the Supreme Court of Canada, urging the court to uphold the law. They noted that criminal law protects foundational norms and this law in particular protects the norms of dignity and equality. At the core of prostitution law, “is the normative judgment that the exchange of sexual services for consideration is contrary to these norms, inherently exploitative, unavoidably damaging to individuals and society, and deserving of criminal prohibition.” The Supreme Court of Canada is scheduled to hear the case in November....

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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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Dying Well

A funeral is a community event

Your presence alone can be a comfort ***** Not long ago I was directing a funeral, and the service was about to begin. The doors to the sanctuary opened to myself and the pastor, and, most importantly, the grieving widower and his family. Waiting for us were 400 guests in attendance. There was an audible gasp and fresh tears from the family, followed by a brief pause as they took in this overwhelming show of support. We walked down the aisle to the reserved pews, surrounded by a sea of compassionate faces, an earthly cloud of witnesses. I was struck by the visible comfort this community gave the family simply by showing up. Their presence was a gift I don’t think the family will ever forget. An experience like this highlights how funerals are community events. It also shows us the opportunity, and with that the responsibility, we have to be a support system. We can learn here, too, some practical ways we can care for the grieving family among us. Practical advice In our church tradition, it is typical that a family would choose to have a time of visitation prior to the funeral event. The visitation is often our first opportunity to show up for the family. This is a time where you are invited to share in the family’s burden of missing their loved one. It is a time to mourn with those who mourn, but also an opportunity to reflect on God’s faithfulness in their loved one’s life. In many ways, it is a sacred time. Maybe you have found yourself at visitation for someone with a particularly tragic circumstance surrounding their death: perhaps a child has died, or a sudden accident or illness has occurred, rocking the community and stirring your heart to express your condolences. Especially in those circumstances you may find you don’t have the right words to say. Know that first and foremost, your presence alone can be a comfort to the family member. Second, you may be at a loss for words, and that is okay. At times we don’t understand why God gives and takes away, and we can be tempted to overcompensate with our words, even though that may do more harm than good. While it may be tempting to say, “they’re in a better place” or “all in God’s timing” – even though these might be true – I find it more effective to keep things simple and say something along the lines of, “my condolences to you,” and maybe share a short memory about their loved one. If words escape you, do not be discouraged. Consider Job’s friends, who sat with him in silence for seven days and seven nights upon seeing his grief-stricken state. A grieving family needs your constancy and listening ear, not your ability to take their pain away. A visitation gathering is a visual representation of one’s community. It can be a vulnerable position for a family to receive visitors, while they are mourning and processing their grief, whatever that may look like, but it is healthy for them to see and experience that visible show of support. While your presence can provide comfort to the family, there are also benefits for the community that attends the visitation. Often times at these events, the casket is present and open for the public to pay their respects to the deceased. In this moment, we are encouraged not only to reflect on God’s faithfulness to this individual, but also His great promises to us in our mortality if we have surrendered our lives to Him. We can be reminded that when we ourselves suffer a great loss, this is the same community that will serve as a hand and foot to us in our time of need. Our gathering together becomes an illustration of something much greater and eternal! Our responsibility to the family does not necessarily stop at showing our support at the visitation. Attending the funeral also allows you the opportunity to experience the family’s memories shared in eulogies, as well as hear about God’s promises for His children through the words of Scripture read and meditated upon at the funeral service. Typically, you are also invited to share in a meal after the funeral events. Just as Jesus shared food and fellowship with many during His life leading up to His death, you are invited to break bread with the family, ensure they are nourished physically, and perhaps share stories about their loved one and offer words of encouragement for the days ahead. Mutual encouragement In my experience, I have noticed that our seniors in the community show up to visitations faithfully. I would encourage our younger generation to continue this tradition. While perhaps standing in line, or taking a night off from watching a show after work and coming to visitation instead may not sound appealing, this is a calling and responsibility we have as brothers and sisters in Christ. It is equally encouraging for the children and grandchildren of the deceased to have their friends share in their loss. Often these family members will comment to us how appreciative they were of their friends taking the time to show up for them. I remember a basketball coach being particularly moved when her whole team of grade 9 and 10 students came to the visitation for her late father. You may be thinking that these practical ways to support the family sound daunting and beyond your abilities. Perhaps you are anxious and don’t know where to begin in supporting the grieving. While I encourage you to attend the events, there are many roles behind the scenes that we witness at every funeral as well. There are individuals such as childcare providers at the church to support little ones in the grieving family, the livestream/AV technicians for the service, the individuals who make food and serve it for the reception, and the list goes one. Be encouraged then, to find your role when it comes to funerals and visitations in your congregation and your community: “As it is, there are many parts but one body” (1 Cor. 12:20). I would like to leave you with an excerpt from a prayer in Douglas Kaine McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy (Volume II). The title of this prayer is: “A Liturgy Interceding for Those Who Will Gather to Grieve for Me.” And so may the fellowship of those who assemble to grieve my passing become a sharing of sorrow’s burdens, and a celebration of your long faithfulness in my life, and still more a warm recollection of the gifts we were ever intended to be to one another. Kayla Ruggi is funeral director at Kitching, Steepe & Ludwig Funeral Home in Hamilton, Ontario. You can email her at [email protected]....

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News

Reformed book publisher changes hands

Reformed book publisher Paideia Press, which has published over 400 titles since it started in the late 1970’s, has been gifted to the Cántaro Institute. Many Dutch Reformed readers will be familiar with Paideia titles like Scout, Journey Through the Night and the well-loved devotional Daylight by Rev. Andrew Kuyvenhoven. After some quiet years, the publisher resurfaced in the past decade, and while S.G. DeGraaf’s fantastic four-volume Promise and Deliverance series might be the only holdover from those former days, they have a slew of new titles promoting “reformational thinking.” Paideia Press was the effort of Niagara-based entrepreneur John Hultink. He has now gifted all the titles and copyrights to Cántaro Institute, which bills itself as a “reformed confessional organization committed to the advancement of the Christian worldview for the reformation and renewal of the church and culture.” The institute is based on the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689). What might be of most interest to our readership is the Institute’s own publishing efforts defending creation which includes titles like Jerry Bergman’s Evolution’s Dangerous Ideas and C.S. Lewis’s War Against Scientism & Naturalism. They have also made e-book versions of Promise and Deliverance available for free, which is a great quick study aid for parents and teachers trying to share Bible stories with children. You can find all four volumes by searching for “Promise and Deliverance” at CantaroInstitute.org....

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Saturday Selections – August 3, 2024

Click on the titles below to go to the linked articles... Are memories stored in the brain? History shows that the deeper we delve into how wondrous...
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In a Nutshell

Tidbits – August 2024

English is a funny language Have you ever seen: • a shoe box? • a kitchen sink? • a ball park? • a home run? • a hot dog stand? • a...
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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...
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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 qu...
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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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News

Saturday Selections – July 20, 2024

Reagan's deeply personal argument for a Creator (10 min read / 1 min video) It was an analogy he returned to frequently, with students at an evangelism camp, and even with the leader of the Soviet Union... Syphilis is up this year. What can a godless government do? "Just as smoking a cigar is bad but puffing on a joint is OK, so spreading illnesses by being unvaccinated is evil while spreading disease through sexual indulgence is a mere technical problem." Christian nationalism is a much discussed topics these days, and while this article doesn't make the case for it, it does highlight the problem with the opposite: a godless government simply isn't able to offer the moral answer needed to stop the spread of a sickness that is caused by immoral choices. US women to be draft eligible? US men over 18 have to register for the draft so that, should a war occur, the government will have a list at the ready of fighting-age men. And now they want women to register too, pretending that women are just as capable as men of being mean, green, fighting machines. But when most women failed the required fitness standards, the problem was addressed by lowering the standards. Why does the world cling so desperately to the pretense that men and women are not simply equal, but identical in all abilities? It's because ability is their basis for equality. We don't normally treat dissimilar things the same – a kid's art is hung up on a fridge, and a Rembrandt is hung up in a museum even though both are art. So on what basis would we treat men and women – obviously dissimilar in many ways – the same? All the world's got is pretending that they are equal in all abilities...even though they are obviously not. Christians too, believe in an equality of the sexes, but we have a firm foundation for it – one that does not require us to willfully blind ourselves to reality. God made us male and female, and our worth comes not from being identical in ability, but in us all being made in God's Image (Gen. 1:27). Thus, the argument we have to offer against women in the draft is also the evangelistic one: to point people to reality as God defines it.  Best predictor of happiness? Marriage More than money, location, or education, the God-given gift of marriage turns out to be the best predictor of happiness. Archeology shows the Bible was telling the truth All sorts of experts have critiqued the Bible as not being based in history. And when such a critique is first offered, it might be hard to counter it. But, eventually, the truth comes out: "a recent article in Britain’s The Daily Mail suggested that the prophets Amos and Zechariah may have had something right." Rachel Holt's heartbreaking pro-life song, "I was gonna be" This young lady's first big song had a hundred thousand hits this past month. ...

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Assorted

7 articles on aging well

Our society is uncomfortable with aging, but as Christians we know every year is a blessing – not just to ourselves, but also to others. Here are some articles on aging well that we’ve shared throughout the years, and they’re all worth sharing again! To read any of them, just click on the title. 1. Seniors: Florida does not exist The Christian faith depends on transmission from older to younger, which means “Florida” (ie: a life of leisure without responsibilities) does not exist, even if you happen to live there. Here’s how seniors can pass their wisdom on. 2. How important is “nothing”? How many of us plan to do “nothing” in retirement, and what other options are there? We're made for more than nothing, and shifting gears is different than stopping. 3. Aging in hope! When we realize we are aging, we don’t need to deny it or cling to our youth. Here’s where our hope lies. 4. Older women have much to give What roles can older women specifically take on? There are many, as Titus 2 lays out! 5. Older men still have a job to do What roles can older men specifically take on? Find out what Titus 2 has for older men to do as well. 6. What my grandma taught me The impact one grandma had on her grandchildren's lives is incredible, even as her body and mind grew weaker. 7. Getting old(er) Growing older is often difficult, but here is how God continues to carry His people through the years....

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News

The attempted assassination of a President

The roles of divine providence and the human condition **** Saturday marked the end of the longest span between domestic assassination attempts of U...
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News

Saturday Selections – July 13, 2024

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... One thing Trump and Biden agree on: tariffs Both Trump and Biden want to protect American produ...
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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. Th...
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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 discr...
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News

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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News

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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Young men building a home for the Reformed confessions

Some ambitious young men can fix their own vehicles, and others can help frame a home or build an impressive app. But two young men from Southern Alberta, who have impressive tech and video skills, have channeled their energy towards advancing something else entirely – the Reformed confessions, including the Heidelberg Catechism, Belgic Confession, Canons of Dort, and Westminster Standards. The Reformed creeds and confessions aren’t owned by any particular person or church. That is a good thing, but it comes with a challenge for those looking to read and understand them better online. Although there are many sites that list the text of the confessions, or provide commentary on various aspects of these confessions, it can be a dizzying experience. “These documents are at the core of our Reformed faith and yet they have no true home. No location with everything you could want on our confessions,” explain David Visser and Kyle Vasas, the men behind Faith to Film which is working to change this with an impressive new project: ReformedConfessions.org. Not only does the site include the confessions in an easy-to-navigate layout, it also provides extended commentary and sermon libraries on these confessions. The project is just the latest from Faith to Film. They have also done a documentary on Calvinism and a large video series on the “essential truths” of the Christian faith. As well, they have produced some excellent videos for Reformed Perspective. And this website is just the start of their vision for the Reformed Confessions project. Faith to Film’s next goal is to create a high-quality video series on the Heidelberg Catechism, with one short video introducing each Lord’s Day, utilizing animation and featuring different pastors from different denominations. The two young men behind Faith to Film have the ability and the drive and but rely on others who have the financial means to sponsor these videos. If you are interested in helping, check out ReformedConfessions.org or FaithToFilm.ca....

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Saturday Selections – June 29, 2024

Click on the titles below for the linked articles... Presidential debate was between a pro-choice candidate and a pro-abortion one Two US presidents debated each other this past week, both competing for a second term. It was a debate like no other, without a studio audience or even the White House press corp in attendance, and both presidents' mikes were muted when it wasn't their turn to speak. Commerical breaks – not normally a feature of these debates – were also inserted, giving both participants breaks to regroup. It might have been the most managed of all presidential debates. The Christian kids' news site World Watch explains it for kids below. And for a deeper dive, click on the article link above for Jonathon Van Maren's take. Why can't men give birth to puppies? (10-min read) Some folks in India really believe that if they are bitten by a rabid dog, that will impregnate them with little puppies. The only cure? Talk to your local witch doctor who has a 100% success rate. Why are we talking about something so ridiculous? Because our culture needs some clarity about how believing something doesn't make it so. We've fallen for "Man, I feel like a woman" being somehow a transformative belief. But why does that belief transform reality, and not the sincerely held belief that some men have that they are in danger of giving birth to dogs? CRC calls its LGBT-affirming congregations to repent Welcome news from a denomination many readers are familiar with. Its call to repentance was passed by a vote of 134-50. Are we more anxious, or is this term usage being expanded? Or might it be both? There is a general trend in the world to empty words of their meaning. Think of terms like "marriage" and "gender" that have been expanded to mean whatever each individual wants them to mean. The definition of "woman" has become so uncertain that even a US Supreme Court Justice has trouble defining it. This article charts how the terms "anxiety" and "depression" are also undergoing a change, expanding who they each cover. So are new technologies like smartphones really making us more anxious, or have these terms simply been expanded to include people they didn't include before? Or might it be a case of both happening at once? Doctor Who and how bad TV can get When the BBC show Doctor Who first premiered in 1963, it was a cheesy but slightly educational show, as the time-traveling alien could visit all sorts of historical figures. But in recent years the show has gotten almost comically bad, the normalizaiton of the LGBT agenda now its primary raison d'être. And they are not the only ones – a recent Star Wars Tales of the Empire episode had two inquisitors murder a Jedi, but both were careful to call him by his desired "they/them" pronouns. More and more often, "this is the way." Super awkward abortion conversation at Walgreens... (4 min) Pro-life groups are getting more creative about not just who unborn babies are, but what it means to be be an adult male. ...

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