Magazine, Past Issue
The July/August 2026 issue
The 2026 “Log out. Look up.” 10-day screen-fast is here, and we’re doing this together again! Find all the details inside this issue, including how to sign up and the answers to these five Ws:
• When it is
• Why you should join
• Who you should get to do it with you
• What you can do with all of the extra time you’ll have on your hands
• and How your fasting can help raise $20,000 for charity
This month's highlights:
- Join the summer screen-fast!: Get all the details and sign up here.
- More of Your Turn: More wonderful entries from the Your Turn contest, including a comic, four poems, and more!
- Have you heard of the dumbphone?: Check out these alternatives to the smartphone that can help you take back your time.
Choose how you'd like to read:
- Flip through the Digital Edition for a classic magazine experience
- View the PDF directly in your browser
- Click here to download the PDF (12 mb) to read offline
INDEX: Love thy neighbor. Love thy neighborhood encampment...? / Why I'm grateful for the notwithstanding clause / RP's screen-fast challenge / "What can I do?" Part II / On being smartphone free for five years / What I like about my dumbphone / Give your kids a superpower / Don't. Just. Read. / Can I watch a move during my screenfast? ...and other FAQs answered / The day is not an age /Is AI helping you, or dumbing you down? Yes. / Teachers lead the way in adopting, and sometimes restraining, tech / 9 in 10 Canadian women in their 20s who "practical a religion" are now childless / Federal spending increases under Carney / Opposing rainbow crosswalk results in human rights trial in Alberta / Radicalized and Reformed? Someone we know tried to kill the president / 1 in 7 dog owners would give up their partner to prolong Fido's life / "Transition" victims and supporters decry conversion therapy law / BC midwives now allowed to kill / Greener pastures? East losing residents to Alberta & BC / Thoughts from tulips on TULIP / If we confess our sins / Trust and anxiety / Borrowed language to thank my dearest Friend / Because / The ring / Sonnet for an unknown God / Made New / Lessons from the dirt / Parenting – it's not about me / Laura Kroesbergen's hyperrealistic animals / ED update: Blessed through the US / Come and explore: The map / Another reason everyone should study economics / Do you like being corrected? David did. / Presuppositions / When John MacArthur visited a philosophy class / Big brother can't be father or mother / Berra-isms / Are we conservatives? / Showing and telling / Never read a Bible verse / If dad told only dinosaur jokes / How he learned he needed to preach Mark 2:28 / Movie review: Mr. Smith goes to Washington / Book review: Graphic novels of all sorts
News
Saturday Selections – June 20, 2026
Calvin vs Arminius: the predestination rock battle
Though they never met in real life, what if John Calvin and Jacob Arminius would have gone head to head.... with a driving rock rhythm backing them? Thanks to AI, now we can know!
What Christians need to know about Islam and the Quran (10 minute read)
Muslims' sacred text has mistakes: "the Quran includes Mary in the Trinity (5:72–75; 116) and also confuses her with Miriam, the sister of Moses and Aaron (19:27–28)."
Inside the climate cult: former climate activist Lucy Biggers
Lucy Biggers helped get plastic straws banned, she interviewed Greta Thunberg, she pushed the Green New Deal, and she got 100 million views. I don't know if the former climate activist is now Christian but this interview highlights how secular ideology can blind people to reality – it can stop them from asking obvious questions.
A time to dance?
There's an old revealing joke about why Dutch Reformed folk are against premarital sex: "Because it might lead to dancing." Such was the opposition to dancing, more so in decades past, and still to a degree today.
And not without reason. What reason? Well, a lot of the dancing done then and now is, in a word, sleazy. Dance programs on TV feature men and women in revealing outfits, and trying out moves that are sexually charged – bedroom material put out for public consumption. So no wonder that some good godly Reformed parents and grandparents didn't want the next generation engaged in these kinds of contortions.
But is that what dancing has to be? No, it really doesn't. The Bible speaks specifically of how dancing can be done in God-honoring ways (2 Sam. 6:14, Ps. 149:3, Ps. 150:4, Eccl. 3:4). So there are both dances to avoid, and dances to embrace. And one good reason to dance is to teach young people rules of etiquette, like how a gentleman would approach the opposite sex and ask for a dance, and how a young lady might say yes to most such initial requests, but also feel very welcome to say no to a second. This would require some education and coaching – every kid is born knowing how to wag their booty – so if we're going to do this right and refined, they'll need to be taught.
5 myths about C.S. Lewis
Even when these myths get it wrong about Lewis, they are still interesting, like that he never read a newspaper because if anything important happened someone was bound to tell him. Turns out not to be true, but it did still highlight how Lewis wasn't a reactionary – very unlike today's hot take culture, he responded to trends that went back centuries, not seconds.
Something changed in 2010, and don't we all know it?
There might be some hype to this – this is one man's testimony and should be taken as that – but doesn't it match with your own experience? Don't you, as an adult, feel stupider than you used to, more distractible than you used to, less able to concentrate on the sermon than you used to be? It's worth noting too, that he attributes to evolution what we can attribute to God's intent – that we learn relationally.
I didn't post this to promote RP's July 13-22 screen-fast, but I can't help but mention it now. It's an opportunity to put away the tech for 10 days, if only to be able to assess its impact on you and your family.
Today's Devotional
June 23 - Counterfeit joy (I)
“By faith Moses… refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” - Hebrews 11:24-25
Scripture reading:Hebrews 11:23-28
Hebrews 11 is an entire chapter that focuses on the faith of Old Testament believers. And speaking about Moses, the writer says that Moses rejected the “fleeting >
Today's Manna Podcast
How do we respond to God's revelation?: The Belgic Confession
Serving #1247 of Manna, prepared by Raymond Sikkema, is called "How do we respond to God's revelation?" (The Belgic Confession).
