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Pornography

A church response is needed to stop the porn crisis

Parental controls are not enough

*****

Over the past several years, I have spoken in dozens of Christian communities to thousands of students and parents on the issue of digital porn addiction. Ten years ago, many parents thought the warnings about the digital porn threat were well-intentioned, but exaggerated. These days, most people are aware that porn use is swiftly becoming a norm in Christian communities. Not a single Christian high school I have spoken at did not have a significant number of students struggling with pornography.

Protecting your home doesn’t protect your kids

So, how do parents take steps to effectively porn-proof their homes? Many parents try to do just that. They install internet filters. They monitor the devices their children have or have access to. They use Covenant Eyes, Qustodio, or other accountability software. But time and again, frustrated parents tell me that their children have been exposed to explicit content anyways, because the parents of the friends their children hang out with do not take these precautions. Additionally, parents who actively monitor the internet access of their children by not giving them a smartphone face constant fights with their children if they are among the few who do not have one.

The reality is that if Christian communities are going to respond effectively to the crisis of porn addiction among the young, it will take a community response. Yes, it is essential that individual households ensure that internet access is both restricted and closely monitored. But this is clearly not enough.

In fact, secular governments are for the most part ahead of church leaders in recognizing this reality, which is why American state legislatures, the UK government, and other governments across Europe are grappling with the problem of how to keep pornography away from children. They recognize that this is a social problem requiring a robust collective solution, and Christian communities must recognize this, as well. Christian communities are, for the most part, lagging behind secular leaders in recognizing this problem and considering collective solutions.

This needs to be “all in”

In a recent essay in First Things titled “Parents Can’t Fight Porn Alone,” in which they make the case for government restrictions on digital pornography, Clare Morell and Brad Littlejohn explain why communities need to work together:

“Pornography’s addictive properties raise the stakes. Not only are children ill equipped to make rational choices about whether to consume a product, but their developing brains are more likely than adult brains to become hooked, with lifelong consequences. Adults may abuse alcohol, tobacco, and porn (indeed, for porn, there is no good “use,” but the law cannot suppress every vice), but they are less likely to become addicted if the first exposure occurs after age eighteen, when their brains are more fully developed. And the addictive qualities of porn make a mockery of parental controls: Once a child has encountered porn for the first time (perhaps through a friend, or on a parent’s device, or before the parents realized they needed to put controls on the child’s device), his or her brain will be programmed to hunt for it again and again, so that any and every loophole or glitch is an opening to ongoing porn consumption.

“Too often, portals to porn come in the form of friends. For many American children, the dark journey with pornography begins on the school bus, at recess, or even at youth group. Even when parents set up content-filtering regimes for their own families, they cannot control what other families in their communities are doing. With 95 percent of teens carrying around mini-computers in their pockets, it is all too easy for a peer with an unfiltered smartphone to expose another child to pornography. An Oxford Internet Institute study thus estimated that for a single child to be shielded from online pornography in any given year, at least seventeen households in his or her network (and possibly as many as seventy-seven) would need to be employing filters.”

Porn is looking for them

Re-read that for a moment: At least seventeen households in the network of a single child need to be monitoring and restricting internet usage in order to protect him or her from online porn for a single year. And as I emphasize in my presentations, it doesn’t matter whether your kids are looking for porn – if they’re online, porn is looking for them. As Morell and Littlejohn put it:

“Today, the average home has multiple internet-connected devices: smart TVs, laptops, iPads, gaming consoles, and smartphones for every member of the family, not to mention school-issued devices. Each of these ‘smart’ technologies may have hundreds of individual apps, many with their own in-app internet browsers, which means there may be thousands of points of entry to the internet in a single home. A minor using Snapchat, for instance, can reach Pornhub in just five clicks without ever leaving the app.

“The abundance of portals requires several different parental control solutions, few of which are intuitive or wholly reliable. Apple’s Screen Time filter, one of the best, requires seventeen steps to set up properly, has been known to stop working without warning, and even when fully functional can be hacked by tech-savvy teens. Better-designed third-party parental control apps are barred from accessing and regulating many of the most popular – and dangerous – apps, such as Discord, Snapchat, and TikTok. And if a parent, recognizing that no one solution is comprehensive, tries to install more than one external control app on the same device, the apps will often conflict with one another.

“Parents thus find themselves losing the arms race against Big Tech and Big Porn. This is dire, since children do not need to go looking for pornography; it finds them on social media. The porn industry has adopted the social media influencer model, with porn performers promoting their content on platforms such as TikTok, YouTube, X, Facebook, and Instagram, in order to entice users (many of them minors) to click through to their own sites.”

Unsurprisingly, many parents despair. Plenty of parents eventually give up, worn down by the begging and badgering of their children and the lack of community support for their decisions about smartphones and internet-capable devices. If all the other kids have them, they can’t be that bad, right? Porn has been around forever, and most people turned out okay, didn’t they? If we are taking this problem more seriously than our community leadership, we’re probably being paranoid or going overboard, aren’t we? It is far easier to cave, cover our eyes, and hope for the best – but this invariably has devastating consequences, many of which I detail in a comprehensive chapter in my recent book How We Got Here: A Guide to Our Anti-Christian Culture.

A growing problem

If we are to protect our children from being exposed to explicit content and developing porn addictions – and again, I emphasize that this is a significant and growing problem in every Christian community I have visited – we will need to work together. Christian communities should treat pornography addiction with the same level of seriousness we would apply to a wave of addiction to other drugs. Pornography is more insidious because its effects, at first, are less visible – but they are no less destructive. They rewire and fundamentally transform the mind, alter our ability to relate to the opposite sex, and profoundly poison our ability to have healthy relationships.

Thus, community leaders should address the pornography crisis head on. Yes, parents should ensure that every internet-capable device is locked down and monitored. But we must also work with other parents and ensure that the networks we are a part of are pulling in the same direction. (As the American psychologist Dr. Leonard Sax put it in a presentation I attended recently, it is the task of parents to find out if the household their child is visiting has unrestricted internet access.)

Christian schools should develop and enforce rigid policies on smartphone use at school and, ideally, cultivate a community with a collective standard that recognizes the dangers of giving teenagers smartphones to begin with. We are all in this together, and we cannot protect our children from pornography if other parents are not willing to do the same.

Time to catch up

Again, secular experts are ahead of most Christian communities on this issue. Intellectuals such as Jonathan Haidt (The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness) are driving a new consensus: Giving a child (and that very much includes teenagers) a smartphone (or device with unfiltered internet access) is one of the most damaging decisions a parent can make. Morell and Littlejohn are right: Parents cannot do this alone. But they shouldn’t have to, either. Christian communities are lagging behind secular governments and experts on this issue. It is time we caught up.

This is reprinted with permission from TheBridgehead.ca where it was first published under the title “Parental controls are not enough: A community response is needed to stop the porn crisis” and where Jonathon Van Maren blogs and also hosts a regular podcast.

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News, Pornography

Free video series to protect families from porn

Parents who want to keep pornography away from their family received a gift early this year. John-Michael Bout and Jacob Valk have produced two new series of videos to do exactly that. Under the banner of their Into the Light ministry, their nine-episode Parenting & Pornography series helps parents talk to their children about sexuality and pornography from a biblical perspective. As the group shared on their website: “You may feel nervous, ashamed, scared, or like it’s too late when you approach this topic. Don’t count yourself out. This series is for you.” And realizing the frustration that many families encounter when trying to take steps to block porn, the group also produced a practical series called TechSafe, featuring tutorials to “equip you to safely live with and enjoy your technology to the glory of God.” Bout and Valk, both Canadians, previously teamed up to produce the Into the Light documentary, and shared their story on RP’s Real Talk podcast. Both men are currently pursuing higher education at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. To access both series for free, all you’ll need to do is provide them with your name and email at www.intothelightministries.ca. You can watch the TechSafe trailer below. ...

Pro-life - Euthanasia

Euthanasia changed the abortion battle

Dozens of pro-life volunteers spent the summer talking to strangers about the unborn ***** In 2016 euthanasia was legalized. That was also the summer I did my first pro-life internship with the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform (endthekilling.ca). After that I was involved for several years, and then, after a bit of a break, I returned – my sister and I interned for the summer. We spent our time door-knocking, having conversations, and showing abortion victim photography in the streets of Calgary. One heart at a time One young man I talked to said abortion was okay earlier on in the pregnancy, and in difficult circumstances. I agreed with him about how difficult those situations would be, and then I asked him to consider a girl who ends up in a difficult situation once the child was born. I asked if he thought we could ever kill that child, because of her situation. Then we talked about the humanity of the preborn – that if abortion ends the life of a biological human being, then it’s a human rights violation. At the end of the conversation, he agreed that abortion was never okay, and he took a pamphlet with resources to share with his friends. That was one of three conversations I had during that one hour of activism. And throughout the city about 20 other activists were having similar conversations! So many people change their minds when they see the signs and hear the arguments. And many of them end the conversation saying, "Thank you for being here." Euthanasia changed things It's still shocking to me how many times we hear "I had an abortion," "My girlfriend had an abortion," and "I drove my friend to the abortion clinic." Everyone has been affected in some way or another. I’m also stunned that we live in a society where so many people think it's better to die than to live through suffering. There's so much need for the gospel. We can show the inconsistencies in pro-abortion logic, and when we do, even the most philosophical nutcases will agree (at least in theory). But when people don't even value themselves, how can we expect them to value other human life? This summer is showing me clearly what a hurting society we live in – and how that brokenness has progressed even since I started in 2016. When I first did pro-life work, euthanasia rarely came up, which is why I clearly remember one instance where it did. A man came up to me and shared that he had helped his mom get euthanized in the Netherlands, when it wasn’t accessible in Canada. It was a good thing, he argued, because she hadn’t wanted to be a burden on the rest of the family. I was shocked. Now, eight years later and euthanasia is widespread. A few months ago, a friend shared with me that his grandma chose MAiD – and she had considered herself a Christian. They used to meet us halfway We’re no longer just talking with people who think it’s okay to kill preborn babies; we’re talking with people who want to be killed themselves if their life no longer seems worthwhile. Beliefs are a bit different person to person, but the equation goes something like this: a person’s life is worth living, if (and only if) they have awareness of what’s going on around them, they aren’t suffering, and they aren’t a burden to society. One of our strongest anti-abortion arguments concludes: “If we’d never kill a born person for (X) situation, why is it okay to kill a pre-born human for the same situation?” The underlying principle is that we don’t kill people, regardless of situations. The foundation of our pro-life arguments is built on two premises: 1) that the pre-born are human 2) and that killing humans is wrong. Now we’re having a rising number of people challenge the second premise. If life has no meaning death becomes attractive Why should we be surprised when a generation that’s okay with killing babies decides that it’s also okay to kill parents? Abortion and euthanasia are symptoms (and certainly not the only serious ones) of materialism and abstract spiritualism. You live for personal happiness, you don’t judge, and have only personal morals and religion – don’t impose those on others. It’s an echo of an earlier time when “everyone did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The root issue here is a loss of values of our nation; virtue itself is no longer a virtue, and suffering is seen as the ultimate evil. Victor Frankl talks about suffering in his book Man’s Search for Meaning, where he reflects on his time during the Holocaust. He observed that some people shut down while others became more determined to live, and he found that meaning (purpose) was the ultimate difference. For some, meaning was the literal difference between life and death. 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Our society lives for pleasure and comfort, but it is also craving purpose and meaning. And because it can’t find meaning, it’s not shocking that we find ourselves in a culture of death. Going all Prophet Nathan on them (2 Sam. 12) While doing activism, I met a woman named Janice. Her sister had died of a terminal illness a few years ago, and she cried as she said, “They wouldn't let her have MAiD, so I had to watch her suffer.” I had nowhere to go but the Gospel, and I was able to bring it in. Logic and truth are also essential and effective in ending abortion – I've seen the fruits over and over again. Our nation’s moral conscience can only be numbed so much; the Law is still written on our calloused hearts (Romans 2:15). We might obscure the Law and justify ourselves, but everyone still knows that it’s wrong to kill innocent humans. To show that abortion is wrong, we draw out an analogy that makes it real. I often say, “I know of a baby named Laura. Laura’s mom was on drugs while she was pregnant, but she thought she could handle it. After Laura was born, her mom realized she couldn’t handle it, and she abandoned her. Now, just a few months old, Laura is suffering from neglect and from drugs in her system. She may end up in foster care her whole life. Would it be okay to kill Laura to spare her from a difficult life?” When this picture is drawn, murder is harder to justify. In the same way, it’s much more difficult to justify abortion after looking at an abortion image, and much easier to justify it if the discussion is kept in the abstract. This is the reason everything gets covered in euphemisms – euphemisms help us to forget what we are actually talking about. With euthanasia, we can use the same type of argument. We appeal to cases where it’s clearly wrong, and use that to show our listeners that they are creating a hierarchy of value. “You’re saying that there’s one category of people to whom we should offer help, and another group that we can kill.” And if there’s one thing this culture likes, it’s equality. So, there are ways to humanize the victims and to change minds. It’s a heart issue In pro-life apologetics, we recognize some conversations as “heart conversations.” When we deal with a heart issue, we check in with the person and hear their story. We show them that we care. And then, gently but with full truth, we bring the conversation back to abortion – they can't heal until they acknowledge the wrong. The reality is that every person you and I ever talk to has a heart issue; we’ve all hurt and been hurt. And what sin is heavier than killing your own child or grandparent? That's the burden of guilt weighing down on our nation. And who else can take away this burden, than the One who died to save us? As Christians we convict and grieve, but we aren't stuck there – we can share the Gospel of redemption and forgiveness. My brief encounters on the street are one step in pointing people to a higher morality and a higher purpose. Most often it’s a first step, but sometimes it’s a later one. But especially in a world where it's so countercultural to just love your neighbor, we have a profound opportunity to show the difference of living with the Gospel. Conclusion Early Christians in Rome were set apart by the Gospel they preached and by the Gospel they lived. In that culture, it was normal and socially acceptable to abandon babies outdoors so that they would die of exposure. There was no question on the humanity of those children but in Rome a child that wasn’t wanted didn’t have value. Value was assigned, not inherent. Where were the Christians? Rescuing those they could and raising them as their own. Eventually, culture changed so much that exposure became a crime. When I walk through downtown Calgary, there’s little that makes me think of Rome. On the surface, we’re extremely civilized. But our values aren’t too different – we just hide it better. Whether we’re headed for destruction or revival, our calling as Christians is clear: Be salt and light; defend the orphan; share the Good News. To find out more about the work of the Canadian Centre for Bioethical Reform, or if you want to investigate spending a summer working for them, go to EndTheKilling.ca....

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 25, 2025

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Evangelism

It's necessary: use words!

I hadn’t expected to meet a witch on the bus, what with their alternative form of transportation. Yet there she was, not a wart to be seen, sitting across the aisle. She had started the ride buried in a book, but her head came up when my friend and I discussed a particular point of theology in a slightly louder than normal fashion. This friend was on his way to becoming a minister, and theological topics always had the effect of cranking up his volume. I suspected that this was a conscious decision, rather than just an outburst of enthusiasm, since he always talked about how Christians had to be more of a light to the world. And he was a light: a roaring, exploding bonfire of light that could not be ignored by anyone within earshot. Whether we were sitting in a steam room, or hanging out at a coffee house, or sitting on the bus, he provoked obviously unchristian people into talking with us. This time around it was the witch. A few minutes into the ride she interrupted us to ask us what religion we followed. My friend was happy to explain, and then asked her what church she went to. “Oh, I don’t go to a church,” she said, “I worship my personal goddess at home.” The way she explained it, witches (or Wiccans) sounded a lot like New Agers. They did try and cast the occasional spell, but only love spells, and the central tenet of their religion was a respect for all of nature. It was just mumbo jumbo, nothing shocking or new for us, until she started talking about her personal goddess. After listing all sorts of benefits that came from having a goddess on call, she admitted it was nothing but a fabrication. That admission left both me and my conversationally-endowed buddy at a loss for words; we just couldn’t understand how someone could knowingly choose a delusion over a real, caring, and powerful God. So we asked. They don't understand The question surprised her. “You guys have to understand,” she blurted, “You pray and that makes you feel better, right? So what’s the difference between what you do and what I do?” The basic fact she didn’t understand, the thing no one had told her before, was that we Christians serve the one real God. This woman had never heard that before. Her Wiccan experience with religion was an openly delusional one, so she, quite logically, assumed that all other religions were similarly based. I found her ignorance surprising, but since then I’ve found it isn’t unusual. In fact, I had a similar sort of encounter less than a month later. This time my friend and I were making our semi-regular pilgrimage to a display sponsored by our university’s pro-choice club. I always went to pick up as many free brochures as possible, which, once I was out of sight, I would gleefully destroy. It was a small thing – a very small thing – but I thought it was at least as good an approach as the one my friend tried time and time again. He always debated with the pro-choicers. But what was usually a waste of breath turned out a differently that day. After a heated five-minute exchange one of the young ladies at the table asked for clarification, “Do you mean you really, honestly think it’s a baby?” “Of course,” my friend replied, “Why else would we even care?” Well, that just didn’t fit with what she had been told, “I thought you religious types were just using this issue to try to control women.” Her friend nodded in agreement. They didn’t understand – they were utterly ignorant. Conclusion I’ve always wanted to believe that evangelism was as simple as living a good Christian life. I wanted to believe I didn’t actually have to talk about God as long as people could see His presence in my life. Actions are louder than words, right? The problem is, in this post-Christian age people don’t have the background – they don’t know the basics of Christianity – to understand our actions. A Christian who doesn’t work on Sunday is just a guy who gets the day off. No sex before marriage becomes the rational act of someone who’s scared of sexually transmitted diseases. Action against abortion is understood as a power grab against women, and even prayer can be explained away as nothing more than a type of meditation or some psychological self-talk exercise. Actions only speak louder than words when the reasons for the actions are understood. And the world doesn’t have a clue anymore. So, as John MacArthur once put it, we need to “Preach the Gospel and always use words.” The world doesn’t understand so we all have to start talking and explaining. If you already are, you may have to start talking a little louder. And if you’re uncomfortable with cranking up the volume maybe you can just hang out with a conversationally-endowed buddy who isn’t. A version of this article first appear in the January 1999 issue under the title "Dumb, but not deaf"...

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 18, 2025

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Gender roles

Striving to be godly men

A men's conference that had to turn hundreds away can now be watched online ***** I don’t think I can quite grasp the measure of tension that must have seized the hearts of those three young men on the morning of November 2. Months before they had together hatched the concept of a Men’s Conference pitched to encourage men to provide support to one another in the abundant strife of this mortal life. They’d cobbled together a web presence to push out the concept, had highlighted the featured speakers and invited expressions of intent to join the effort. Slowly momentum for the event had grown. A few dozen said they’d come…, then a hundred, two hundred…, five hundred – and ultimately more than 750 men from across Ontario (and beyond!) raised a finger to commit to coming to Smithville to attend the 2024 Strive Conference! But the venue could seat only 550; the three spearheading the initiative had to tell more than 200 men that they were placed on a waiting list. Why would three family men expend the effort to organize a Men’s Conference? Why seek to capture its purpose under the term Strive? And why would so many men give up their normal Saturday routines to seek encouragement to strive together? What was this huge interest saying? This was autumn 2024. For months and years already Christian straight men had been told to sit down and shut up; it was time for women to give leadership, for people of alternate sexual orientation to shine, for minorities of all sorts to take the reins. How were the sidelined meant to respond to that signal? The three men who birthed this Strive Conference saw the need to encourage men to push back against this effort to emasculate Christian men. As the autumn of 2024 unfolded, awareness grew across our civilization that men needed to dare to be men. Instead of sitting down placidly and passively, men should boldly strive to be the men God created us to be. More than 750 men from some 14 denominations understood the need and sought encouragement in the battle. But planning a conference is one thing. Making sure it runs smoothly is another, especially when attendance demonstrates the Strive concept hit a nerve. Would the plans deliver?? I dare to say that Scott, Dan & Kevin had to be men to handle the nervous tension that invariably dominated their collective persona that morning. Strive The term “strive” appears in numerous passages of Scripture in the context of encouraging Christians in the battles of faith. The passage that featured in this Strive Conference was Phil 1:27f, where the apostle Paul instructed his readers: “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.” The concept of Christian men battling alongside each other in the face of serious opposition lies at the heart of God’s will for His people as we live in our present world. Such striving needs encouragement, equipping, arming. Three speakers had been lined up to open the Word of God for us listeners eager to understand better how we can best strive side by side to be the men God wants us to be. Speakers Dr Will denHollander, professor of New Testament at the Canadian Reformed Theological Seminary, started us off with an address under the promising title: “Be Complete: the Word of God for the Man of God” (asking our attention for 2 Tim 3:16f). On the basis of that Scripture, he drew out that the “man of God” has all the resources he needs to “be complete, equipped for every good work” – for the Lord God has given us a God-breathing Bible that prepares us to handle all the hard questions of our day. The obstacle we face is not a lack of resources to handle the battles of life but is rather that we too often choose to give some other activity greater priority over reading and wrestling with God’s divine Word in the face of today’s challenges. So we end up floundering in the dark in the midst of those challenges, unable to function as the men of God we otherwise can be. The speaker’s public admission to his own personal struggles added considerable credence to his encouragement to us to be men of the Word – both personally and side-by-side. Dr. Ian Wildeboer, pastor at Mercy Christian Church in Hamilton, followed with an address that could not help but hold the attention of today’s men: "Men in covenant with God: Guarding our hearts and those we love from Sodom." He ably laid a finger on the fact that Lot chose to live in Sodom and made his decision on the basis of present-day comforts. The potential price to his family did not seem to play a role in making the decision or in sticking with it. We cannot get out of our world, but we can certainly take responsibility for how living in our world impacts our families. Here was a challenge to us to have our eyes wide open to the abundant attacks of our families and how we men can best strive side by side to protect those whom God has entrusted to our care so that in turn they flourish in God’s service. After a hearty lunch of pulled pork on a bun capably served by a number of ladies from the John Calvin Christian School in Smithville (and the bonus of lots of valuable heart-to-heart conversations among the attendees), a third talk followed; Rev Al Besuyen, pastor of Zion United Reformed Church in Sheffield, encouraged us to “Strive for Godliness in our leisure time.” Speaking from personal experience, he pressed on us that misuse of leisure time can become a trap that takes us to places where we cannot strive side by side as men of God. He urged us to recognize that the time we receive has purpose: it’s not for self and personal preferences but is opportunity to serve the other in service to the Master of all time. In service to others we’re also making ourselves available for another to encourage ourself. A panel discussion followed the three speeches, under the capable leadership of Rev Rolf denHollander from Living Light Canadian Reformed Church of Grimsby. As he pulled the material of the day together with the assistance of the three speakers, perhaps the most unforgettable moment was when a brother, once a slave to alcohol, expressed the fervent hope that soon he could drink the wine new in the kingdom of God with Christ himself. Till then, total abstinence. Yes, it’s a fight, one in which we need one another. His public testimony was distinctly an inspiration to many. Singing Interspersed throughout the day were multiple opportunities for the assembled men to sing the praises of the God in whose service we battle. 550 men on their feet, under the leadership of capable musicians using various instruments – it truly was momentous, stirring, most heartening. And then the accompaniment ceased… and 550 men were on their own, side by side leaning into the privilege of raising voices and hearts to God Most High with eager abandon, each line building on the previous in volume and joy and enthusiasm – as here and there men reached up a hand to dry an eye at the sheer beauty and majesty of together delighting in the God whose servants we may be. To so many of us Ps. 150 will never be sung the same again. Example In concluding remarks, a grateful participant made mention of the fact that God’s first words to the man Adam was the instruction to guard and keep the garden – for God knew there was an enemy out there intent on hijacking God’s world. Where Adam failed, Christ Jesus did not. Now the task still to guard God’s world remains. Organizers Dan and Kevin and Scott set us an example in doing precisely that, striving side by side to pull off an excellent conference! The 550 men then headed out in all directions. I dare say the conference sparked in every participant a renewed determination never to sit down and shut up, but instead to stand tall together in the battle, striving side by side in struggles against pornography, gambling, alcohol misuse, drug abuse, slothfulness and countless other vices seeking to emasculate men of God. May Strive 2025 be just as successful. Information on the 2025 Strive Conference will be posted to www.StriveMensConference.com as it is developed. ...

News

Trudeau resigned and Parliament prorogued – now what?

“I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister… This country deserves a real choice in the next election and it has become clear to me that if I'm having to fight internal battles, I cannot be the best option in that election.” – Justin Trudeau, Jan. 6, 2025 With those words, Trudeau announced that his time as prime minister will soon come to a close. But his resignation, his announcement that Parliament is prorogued, and uncertainty around upcoming confidence votes in Parliament have sparked all sorts of changes. Some are good. Some are bad. And some are simply opportunities for Reformed Christians to take action. Historical moment Justin Trudeau’s resignation is the eleventh time in 158 years of Canadian history that a prime minister has resigned in office. John Abbott (1892), Robert Borden (1920), and William Lyon Mackenzie King (1948) all resigned because of poor personal health. John A. Macdonald (1873), Mackenzie Bowell (1896), William Lyon Mackenzie King (1926), Lester Pearson (1968), Pierre Trudeau (1984), Brian Mulroney (1993), and Jean Chrétien (2003) all resigned mid-term in the face of political turmoil or scandal. So, a prime minister resigning instead of losing an election is hardly unprecedented. Because of the Prime Minister’s resignation, the Liberal party will select a new leader who will then become Canada’s 24th prime minister. When Parliament reconvenes on March 24, the new prime minister will outline his or her priorities, subject to a confidence motion. What is unprecedented is how short Trudeau’s successor’s time in office could be. To date, Sir Charles Tupper was Canada’s shortest-tenured prime minister, serving only 68 days. Justin Trudeau’s replacement will be selected on March 9 and Parliament returns on March 24. If the Liberal government loses a confidence vote soon after Parliament reconvenes, the new prime minister might also be the prime minister with the shortest term in office. Trudeau’s resignation so close to a potential election is not too dissimilar from Joe Biden’s recent decision to drop out of the presidential race so close to the American presidential election. Effects of prorogation If the Prime Minister had chosen to dissolve Parliament, parliamentary business would have been terminated and a general election would ensue. Prorogation, on the other hand, gives no indication regarding the timeline of the next election. However, the minority Liberal government will need the support of at least one other party following prorogation to be able to govern. The main effect of prorogation is to end the current session of Parliament – there can, at least in theory, be multiple sessions for each elected Parliament, but to this point there had just been one session going on since the 2021 election. But the effect of this prorogation is that bills that have not yet become law are now terminated, committees cannot proceed, and members of parliament are released from their parliamentary duties until the new session. The final effect is that, instead of reconvening on January 27 as planned (and likely facing a non-confidence vote that could force an election), Parliament won’t meet again until March 24. Prorogation of Parliament is a little more common than prime ministerial resignations. I was somewhat surprised that Parliament has been prorogued nine times in my lifetime (versus only one other prime ministerial resignation). But what makes this occasion more unique is its connection to the Prime Minister’s upcoming resignation. Government bills All government bills that have not received Royal Assent are terminated by prorogation, and in some cases, this is excellent news. For example, Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, was filled with bad policy ideas, particularly around hate speech and hate crime. Such hate speech provisions would be potentially problematic for Christians who seek to speak truth about various controversial issues in our society. Free speech has already been under attack through conversion therapy laws that ban talking about biblical truths on gender and sexuality in some settings, or bubble zone laws that prevent pro-life expression in designated areas. The Online Harms Act would have made Canada’s free speech climate worse. But because Parliament is prorogued, Bill C-63 is now dead. If the government, in a new session, wishes to move forward with this legislation, they will need to start the law-making process all over again and re-introduce it for another first, second, and third reading, all of which take time. Late in 2024, the government also said it would introduce legislation to require pregnancy care centres to publicly disclose that they do not provide or assist with abortions. These organizations could also risk losing charitable status. The House of Commons Finance Committee also recommended that the government strip religious organizations of their charitable status broadly. The government had not yet introduced any bills regarding charitable status, and prorogation means it will be delayed in doing so. In a Parliamentary session that passed laws including conversion therapy bans, increased regulation of what people say online, and universal child care, we can be thankful that laws around hate speech and charitable status have been (at least temporarily) stopped before advancing further. Private members’ bills Unlike government bills, private members’ bills introduced in the House of Commons are not automatically terminated by prorogation. Instead, when Parliament resumes, they are automatically deemed to have passed all stages previously completed. Four bills in particular stand out as ones we would love to see proceed when Parliament resumes. These bills deal with issues of protecting minors from pornography, sexual exploitation, and human trafficking, and protecting political expression. Each of these bills could be reinstated immediately following prorogation. For example, Bill C-270, the Stopping Internet Sexual Exploitation Act, is focused on combatting illegal pornography and would require pornography companies to verify the age and consent of those depicted. The bill has already completed consideration in committee and might be reinstated past that stage. On the flip side, other private members’ bills, focused on allowing advance requests for euthanasia and on banning corporal discipline in Canada, might also be reinstated. Private members’ bills introduced by Senators, however, cannot be automatically carried over into the new session. Only through a special process can these bills be reinstated at their previous stage. Bill S-210, for example, would have required pornography companies to verify the age of potential viewers on their sites. However, the bill had one stage left before receiving Royal Assent and will be terminated in a new session. The bill was introduced over three years ago, and it is difficult to see such an important bill terminated so close to the end of the legislative process. Political uncertainty Of course, if Canada does go to an election shortly after Parliament resumes, none of these bills will advance anyways. It seems unlikely that the government will be able to pass any bills, given the stated intentions of other parties to defeat the government in a non-confidence vote. The Conservatives, Bloc Québécois, and NDP have all said they will vote for a motion of non-confidence against the government at the next possible opportunity and force an election. So, unless the new prime minister can convince one of these political parties to prop up the Liberal minority government, we will likely have a federal election sometime this spring. Looking ahead While political change includes uncertainty about the future, it also allows for new opportunities – opportunities to influence a new prime minister, to communicate with candidates prior to the next election, and to elect MPs who are committed to good policies. A new government also means new priorities and new agendas. Political change creates new avenues to witness to God’s truth and show how that truth also applies in the political arena. Groen van Prinsterer, the 19th-century Dutch historian and statesman, wrote prior to a period of political revival that: “Even in unfavorable circumstances, however, one can witness to the truth; and this continuous witness itself is already a real application and a powerful practice.” And we know that, in whatever political circumstances we find ourselves, Christ is on His throne, sovereign over all that is happening in our nation right now. And as Canadian Christians advocate for biblical principles in public policy, we pray with the Psalmist Moses: “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and establish the work of our hands upon us; yes, establish the work of our hands!” (Ps. 90:17)...

News

Charitable status of churches and religious charities threatened

While the country’s attention was focused on the conflict within the Liberal Party and the threat of new tariffs from south of the border, the Finance Committee tabled a report in the House of Commons with their recommendations for the next budget. Among 462 recommendations, one called on the government to drop “advancement of religion” as a basis for charitable status. If adopted in the next federal budget, this would threaten over 30,000 charities, making up over 40 percent of all Canadian charities. This includes an estimated 23,000 congregations, as well as many Christian non-profits. Losing charitable status would mean that churches and religious charities wouldn't be able to give charitable tax receipts for donations, or accept donations from foundations and other charities. In a call to action for its members, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) noted that this is also significant because “it indicates that members of the committee, from all the major political parties, supported the idea.” They explained that although the Conservative Party wrote a dissenting opinion on the report, they didn’t specifically mention opposition to this recommendation. In their own letter to the Minister of Finance, the EFC made a passionate case for retaining charitable status based on the advancement of religion. “Religious charities foster vibrant social networks, mobilize outreach, spark local volunteerism, and foster community resiliency,” they explained. “More and more Canadians are grappling with loneliness and social isolation. Polarization and lack of social cohesion are increasing concerns. This is a time to encourage the presence and participation of religious charities, which foster hope, mutual support and belonging, rather than taking steps to destabilize them.” ARPA Canada noted that: “In some ways, the favorable tax treatment of religious organizations is also a recognition of sphere sovereignty. It represents respect and appreciation by the civil government for the mission and work of the church and other institutions, to disciple people in the way of God and to minister to the poor and needy.” The EFC explained that “committee recommendations can function as a trial balloon. If a recommendation seems widely supported, or at least not opposed, it may encourage the government to move ahead with it.” While it looks likely we’re heading for an election, Christians still need to contact their MPs on this now, in case the Liberal government should survive long enough to present a budget this spring. And regardless of whether this recommendation is adopted this spring, it should serve as a wake-up call to Christians that we live in a political climate that has shifted from supportive towards faith-based organizations, to lukewarm, and now even hostile at times. This underscores the importance of churches taking the time to build a relationship of mutual trust and respect with their government officials, regardless of which party they are from....

News

Saturday Selections – Jan. 11, 2025

Music as the fingerprints of God (6 min) George Steiner here is lecturing on the wonder of music and is not trying to argue that music points us to God. But he does believe it points us beyond materialism – our response to music shows that we are more than what we are made of. " speaks to us that there is something else which, paradoxically, belongs to us profoundly but somehow touches on a universal meaning and possibility that we are not only an electrochemical and neuro-physiological assemblage; that there is more in consciousness than electronic wiring." Evolution can't explain eggs This is a bit of a technical one, but even if you get only the gist, you'll understand just how amazing the seemingly simplest things around us really are. It's only because we take God's engineering for granted that we can overlook the wonder that is an egg shell. Evolution has to explain how they could come to be in some step-by-step evolutionary process? As if. Trudeau is gone, so who is going to replace him? The Liberals are about to run a leadership campaign, but have this worry: "One of the key concerns that is out there is that the party could be prone to something approaching a takeover, or could be prone to a lot of people who don't give a hoot about the Liberal party who might be termed single-interest activists signing up and having a very real impact on the selection of our next leader." Is anyone plotting a pro-life takeover? Should we be? Abortion was the leading cause of death worldwide in 2024. And it wasn't even close. 45 million unborn babies were aborted last year – so relayed Jonathon Van Maren. That number is more than the population of all of Canada. In the US abortion accounts for 60% of all African American deaths. To put this number in a different context, COVID killed approximately 7 million in total over 4 years and in response we shut down the world. Six times more die each year from abortion and no notice is paid. Who will stand up for the unborn? Will you? Will any politician? Will you vote for a politician who won't? The danger of being a sermon critic As Tim Challies explains, if you focus on what you think should have been there, you run the risk of missing the fruit that is there. Amazing information packed inside you (12 min) This video makes the point your DNA coding is more incredible than even the most complicated computer code, but it also kind of reduces us to just that information.... as if we could make a human if we only managed this same level of programming. So, as you watch, recall that we are more than our matter, being both body and an immaterial, eternal soul. ...

Assorted

How to be happier

Keep long lists, and short accounts ***** As I pad down the hallway to my home office, sometimes I’ll look down and remember that the laminate pla...

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – January 2025

Flying Duck Orchid God's inventiveness is sometimes so shockingly inventive, it might make you laugh out loud. This is a real flower called the "Flyi...

News

Saturday Selections – Jan. 4, 2025

"Are you Christian?" (3 min) In this "sermon jam" Paul Washer challenges his listeners to really examine their lives. Why Christians should be ...

Assorted

How to look forward to the future

Hopefulness is a skill we can learn, because… God ***** Doomerism: despair and apathy caused by a disbelief that anything can get better; most oft...

History

Don’t overlook the blessings of today

Our children are actually wealthier than the very richest of 100 years ago ***** You stir in your bed as the strains of an orchestra tickle at the edge of your still sleeping consciousness. The volume increases little by little, and you wake up in your warm cozy bed. You stick your toes out of bed onto the floor: even though it’s January, it’s warm and pleasant inside your bedroom, as the furnace has been programmed by your smart thermostat to warm the house fifteen minutes before you need to get up. You share the bathroom upstairs with your sister, but she won’t be up for another half hour, so you turn on the tap to your preferred setting, and warm water instantly gushes out: you luxuriate in the shower an extra few minutes as you think about the day ahead. Your mom has put out a delicious breakfast: bacon and eggs on toast, with sliced oranges and a cup of hot tea, just the way you like it. Dad reads the morning devotions, and leads your family in prayer; then you’re off to take on the challenges of a day at work. You drive yourself in the car your parents sold you for much less than it was worth: it’s been sitting in the garage, not outside in the cold, so you don’t even need to scrape frost off the windshield. You’re new at your job, but the work is interesting and challenging, and your co-workers are mostly kind. The office is always kept at the perfect temperature for working, and the company provides snacks and gourmet coffee for your morning and afternoon breaks: they hope to make the work environment as comfortable as possible, because paying well is not enough to keep associates engaged in their work; people also need to feel appreciated and well cared for! When lunch hour arrives, you make your way to the company gym for a work out – after a few hours of mental toil, it feels so good to put your body through some physical tests! After a quick shower, you’re back at your desk at 1 pm to continue your tasks through the end of the work day at 5:00. It was a productive day, and you feel good about what you’ve accomplished. You make your way home, stopping at the sports store to pick up a hockey stick for tonight’s game. At $250, it’s a bit more than you usually spend, but you’ve been saving up for quite a while and it’s time to treat yourself a little bit – and maybe it will help solve your goal scoring drought! After the game, you relax with your friends in the dressing room, limiting yourself to one beer so you can feel sharp in the morning, but enjoying the camaraderie and fun with your teammates. Home at a decent hour, you chat with your parents before bed time, check the football scores on your iPhone, and head upstairs for a good night’s sleep. Then before you know it, the music starts again… Life in the modern world Most of our readers could relate to some of what’s written above: a hardly unusual day for a modern citizen of the western world (although this fictional teenager will be adding many responsibilities in the coming years if he or she is blessed with a spouse and family in due time!) But what you have just read, and, very likely, what you experienced today in your own daily routine, would be unimaginable luxury for 99% of the world’s population over the past 6,000 years. Waking up in your own private bedroom and having access to running hot water? That would be a luxury reserved for only the wealthiest in centuries past. Your usage might be limited to checking the weather and texting your friends, but that phone in your pocket has access to more information than the largest libraries of the ancient world. What we consider a typical work week of 40 or 45 hours would be laughably brief for our grandparents and their parents. And the way our bosses pamper us? Our ancestors would be stunned… 100 years ago Many of our readers have family trees with roots in the Netherlands: my own grandparents were born early in the 1900s, and so would have been in their twenties a century ago. Perhaps you only know your family members from this time frame as gloomy faces in faded black and white pictures: but they were of course real people with real struggles, joys and sorrows. If we transport ourselves back in time one hundred years, to the Netherlands of the 1920s, we might be shocked at living conditions. As in most of the world, the infant mortality rate in Holland was very high: it was not uncommon for a couple to bury two or three children before they had reached their teenage years. If you look at the genealogies of your family, you might see multiple children with the same name: if baby Geert died, the next male son might also be named Geert, so that the name of one’s relatives would live on in the family line. Between 1900 and 1930, the population of Holland increased from 5 million to 8 million, a 60 percent increase in just 30 years. The Netherlands had stayed out of “The Great War” of 1914 to 1918, which we now know as the First World War, and so the country was spared the devastation that swept over other European countries. During that same time frame, average life expectancy in the nation increased from around fifty to around sixty. It was not at all uncommon for adults to die much earlier than today: with less modern medicine and antibiotics, some diseases that would be relatively minor today would be fatal a hundred years ago. Despite the Netherlands status as the sixth wealthiest country in the world in the 1920’s, the average working family lived without most of the comforts that we consider commonplace today. In the cities, electricity was starting to become more common as a source of light and power in homes, but indoor plumbing was still hit and miss. In the country and small towns, laborers lived in very humble conditions; sometimes even in sod huts (shelters built of turf, or dug into a hillside), with a fireplace burning dried peat – compressed moss – for heating and cooking. Of course, not everyone in the 1920s lived in such humble circumstances, but even the middle class made do with far less than we would consider a minimum standard. For clothing, most children would have one set of clothes and shoes for the weekdays, and a special “Sunday” dress or suit, often worn with the same shoes. Absent the assistance of a washing machine and dryer, moms would wash all the households clothing by hand (or using a manually powered washing machine), and laundry would be hung out to dry on the clothesline. And in inclement weather, it would be strung up across the attic. The 1950s Perhaps 100 years ago seems far removed – how about we move forward a generation and make a comparison with the world of your parents and grandparents in the 1950s? Everything in the world had changed in 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland, igniting the Second World War. Unlike the first “Great War,” this time the Netherlands could not stay neutral, as German forces swept through the low countries in the spring of 1940, conquering their neighbor in just a few days. The Nazis treated the Dutch reasonably well at first, but soon began a campaign to eradicate the Jewish population, and to bring food, manpower, and raw material back to Germany for the war machine to continue its fight. The last months of the war, known as the “Hunger Winter,” was the pinnacle of suffering for the Dutch population, as the last gasps of the German forces left little food available, and left behind much trauma and despair. After the war, many Europeans wanted to get out of the Old World, away from the new dangers of Communism, and towards the freedom, opportunity, and prosperity of western countries. The USA, Canada, Australia, and South Africa opened their doors to immigrants, especially those with a background in agriculture who were willing to work in the farms and fields. Perhaps you’ve heard stories from your parents or grandparents about the difficult early years in their new homeland, learning a new language, and often living in very difficult circumstances. While every family’s story is different, you can imagine your family’s own history. You wake up and it’s so cold! As usual, your brother has grabbed most of the blankets, and the brick you took out of the fireplace and wrapped in rags to warm your bed last night has now lost its warmth. It’s your chore to start the fire this morning, so you flick on the single light switch and get dressed in the cold, teeth chattering. The house only has one bathroom, and it’s occupied – you wonder who could be awake before you? Off you head to the kitchen to stoke up the fire, and when you peek inside the wood stove, there are a few embers still glowing. You’re able to get the fire going again and soon the room begins to warm up. Next, you head outside for your morning chores: Dad has been hired as a farm hand for the Canadian farmer who sponsored your family, and this means the whole clan has to pitch in! The first milking is at 4:30 a.m., and Dad is already out there getting the milking pails ready for you and your brother. After a few hours of hard work in the cold, you head back inside for the breakfast that Mom has prepared. Dad reads the Bible, and then you and your siblings head off to the road to wait for a ride from the neighbors who will take you to school. You’re all crammed in the old four-door Ford; with no seatbelts required, it doesn’t really matter how many are in the back seat! Dad has already told you that ninth grade will be your last year of schooling: you’re going to need to work full time to help the family out! If you want more education than that, you might be able to go to night school, but your parents don’t really think that is necessary. Your older sister is already working at the shoe factory down the road; she gives all her wages to Dad and Mom, and they give her an allowance in return. This will be the way it is until you leave the parental home! When you get home from school, there is more work around the farm needing to be done. Dad is often working late nights, especially during the harvest, and you are expected to pitch in every afternoon, and often after supper as well. Sunday is the day of rest, but the cows still need to be milked, and chores have to be done! Your church is a 45-minute drive away, but there’s no way your parents are not taking the whole family to both morning and evening services. Sundays are a wonderful time to connect with fellow immigrants, to socialize, to compare notes about work opportunities, to marvel at the blessings the Lord has given to your community. While life is not easy, there is so much more opportunity in Canada than there was for you in Holland, and you are grateful to God for His provision and goodness. Despite the hard conditions, you know the Lord is looking after His people, and that in all circumstances, you may lean on Him for all you need for body and soul. Reflection While your grandparents may look back with fondness on their early years in North America, and might even miss some of the struggles they had to go through, there is no doubt that life was more difficult than it is today. In 2025, we enjoy and appreciate Christian schools in most of our communities; we have many post-secondary opportunities for our youth; we have incredible economic and employment options in our free market nations, and we are free to worship our God without persecution. We are collectively the beneficiaries of the sacrifices made by the previous generations in working hard for their families and for their communities. The Lord has been so good to us! We do not need to feel guilty about these blessings, but we should use them wisely for the good of our neighbors, and to the glory of our great God....

News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 28, 2024

Click on the headings below to go to the linked articles... Scientist discovers “Cellular origami” This is insane: these cells can expand from just 40 microns long to 1,500 microns in length in an instant. That's the equivalent of a 6-foot-tall guy suddenly stretching from the baseline on the end of one basketball court to then, without moving, dunk the ball, not even on the opposite net, but twice that distance to the practice hoop 200 feet away. Click on the heading above to read the article or the video below to see this cell stretch. Hospitality: another command that's good for us Hospitality can still be intimidating, but this article assures us that "with practice, you’ll grow more comfortable with your guests, and there are tips and tricks that make it easier." Vetting kids’ entertainment isn’t a one-and-done As Brett McCracken highlights, there really are no kids' shows that you can rely on to stay safely propaganda-free. How divorce never ends A child of divorce on why divorce should be a last resort: "...divorce will affect your kids for the rest of their lives, well into adulthood. They will have split holidays and summers. They will have stepparents. Their kids will have step-grandparents. Whatever inheritance they would have been entitled to is often being divvied up with other spouses and their kids. More important than the money, however, is the attention they’ll never get because their parents are dating or remarrying or whatever. They will only be with one parent half of the year — if they’re lucky: we only saw my dad twice a year. They will have to choose who gets Christmas, forever. Or they will be bouncing around at holiday time with their kids, just like the old days." Where did the Flood's water go? Some critical questions get asked and answered so often they become "a PRATT. That is, A Point Refuted A Thousand Times." This is one of those. Interestingly enough, the unbelieving world has their own flood questions to answer. Why you should use the Socratic method when you witness (7 min) Ray Comfort shows the importance of questions when talking and witnessing to folks in the world. ...

Book Reviews, Graphic novels

Sir Ladybug

by Corey R. Tabor 2022 / 68 pages Pell is a roly-poly bug with a mission: he wants everyone to know just how important his friend is. Who is his friend? As Pell puts it, he is "duke of the dandelion patch," "the champion of truth and justice," "the one, the only, Sir Ladybug!" Sir Ladybug is different from most other bugs in that he has a sword. Pell is his self-appointed herald, and their snail friend Sterling serves as Sir Ladybug's very slow, but trusty, squire. More importantly, in a Dr. Who-ish quirk, Sterling's shell seems to be bigger inside than out, with bedrooms for all three, a kitchen, hot tub, and, of course, a video game room. In this, their first adventure, Sir Ladybug is recruited to stop a chickadee from eating a caterpillar. Now, birds gotta eat, and caterpillars aren't wild about getting eaten, so how is this dilemma going to be solved? Well, not wanting to give it all away, I will note that Sir Ladybug doesn't have to unleash his fierce swordsmanship skills... though he does have to get baking. And, of course, by comic's conclusion, everyone is friends. Caution The word "poop" makes an appearance, when a couple of worms pop up, and one notes that the chickadee shouldn't eat them either, because "Worms are very important to the ecosystem, you know. We aerate the soil. The whole world is built on our poop." There is also a "gosh" in the second book in the series, Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee, and a mention of "bum" when Pell notes that the queen "has a very sharp stinger on her bum." In the third book, Sir Ladybug and the Bookworms, they briefly help a dung beetle, who is – as dung beetles do – rolling a dung ball around. So, a smidge of potty humor, but again, as with the instances above, the juvenility here is in keeping with reality, so I find it pretty inconsequential. Conclusion There are two others in this charming series of graphic novels for young readers. In Sir Ladybug and the Queen Bee they have to deal with a queen who is a bully, and in Sir Ladybug and the Bookworms our favorite bug knight sets out on a quest to return an almost overdue library book. Speaking of libraries, these come in hardcover, so they will stand up to some library usage. This trio of Sir Ladybug adventures are sweet, goofy, and have just a bit of quirk that'll appeal to parents too – these would make for a fun read together on the couch with your little ones. I sure hope the author keeps creating more....

News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 21, 2024

The perfection of beauty Even if rap isn't a favorite musical genre, you may well be impressed by this, from Blair Linne, wife of Reformed rapper Shai Linne, with her introduction to his Attributes of God album.... It's amazing what happens when you repeat pro-aborts' arguments back to them In this exchange between a pro-lifer and a passerby, we see that we don't all have to be brilliant debaters to stand up for the unborn. The pro-choice side is horrible, so sometimes the best argument can simply be to get them to plainly state their position. And they may well be shocked at what they hear themselves say. Pastoral Q&A: How often should I confess my sins? "You could also simply take the two great commandments and ask: how did I fare in loving God with all my being and my neighbour as myself? Or you could think in terms of sins of omission and commission. Where did I fail to do what God commands today (sinning by omission)? Where did I directly contravene what God positively commands (sinning by commission)?" Does biblical submission of a wife position her to be abused by her husband? The biblical doctrine of male headship in marriage is being denounced as simply a means for abusive men to dominate and abuse women. But that's not true. You are your body "It’s odd that after years of being accused by atheists and materialists of being trapped in our spiritual fantasies and ignoring the real world, Christians now find themselves as the ones saying that the physical world – especially the human body – matters, is real, and is of utmost significance. But here we are. If Christ came in the likeness of men, if He promised to redeem humanity, and if our humanity includes the body, then our bodies really do matter." Russ Tamblyn’s unforgettable “Shovel Dance” (3 min) This is an absolute must-see (even if the movie it is from is not). ...

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Pornography

A church response is needed to stop the porn crisis

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Tidbits – February 2025

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Saturday Selections – Feb. 1, 2025

News

Blind guides can’t suppress Dutch MP sharing truth about the unborn

News

Poilievre answers a fool according to his folly

News, Pornography

Free video series to protect families from porn

Pro-life - Euthanasia

Euthanasia changed the abortion battle

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 25, 2025

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It's necessary: use words!

Assorted

On the Truth, and the cost of lies

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Why write?

Economics - Home Finances

“Honey I blew the budget!”

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 18, 2025

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Striving to be godly men

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Trudeau resigned and Parliament prorogued – now what?

News

Charitable status of churches and religious charities threatened

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 11, 2025

Assorted

How to be happier

In a Nutshell

Tidbits – January 2025

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Saturday Selections – Jan. 4, 2025

Assorted

How to look forward to the future

History

Don’t overlook the blessings of today

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Saturday Selections – Dec. 28, 2024

Book Reviews, Graphic novels

Sir Ladybug

News

Saturday Selections – Dec. 21, 2024