Saturday Selections – Dec. 9, 2023

If you can choose your gender, can you choose your race? In this secular video, the presenter compares blackface – whites using black make-up to caricature blacks – with "womanface," where guys say they identify as women. The argument: it would be hypocritical to object to someone identifying as another race if you think it's okay for men to identify as women. A good point, and a fantastic video. But it has the same fundamental problem that all secular "apologetics" have – he's attacking a lie without presenting the Truth, which in this case is that God made us male and female (Gen. 1:27).  So when he confronts students with their hypocrisy, they are left knowing they have to make a choice, but not knowing which way to head. It's like the old joke about a man who insisted he was dead. His doctor asked him, "Do dead men bleed?" to which the man replied, "No, dead men don't bleed." The doctor then pricked the man's finger and, after the man saw the drop of blood forming, the patient shook his head, amazed: "I'm sorry doctor, I was totally wrong. It turns out...dead men do bleed." Similarly, these students might resolve their hypocrisy the wrong way and decide, "I guess blackface is okay." We don't want hypocrites to resolve their hypocrisy by being more consistently wrong – we don't want them to flip from one lie to another. If we're going to help them, Christians have to take this discussion one step further. Like this video, we can creatively highlight the world's silliness and tear down its lies, but we need to do so while standing unashamedly on God's Truth. Left using math to preach their worldview (10-min read) Even Christians will buy into the notion that some areas of life are basically neutral, and the subject of mathematics might well head that list. After all, it doesn't really matter whether you are Christian or non-Christian, 2+2 is still going to equal 4... right? True, sort of. As Christians, we know our Father is a God of order, and so because 2+2 equaled 4 yesterday, we have reason to trust that it will again tomorrow. But why would someone who thinks this is all random, pointless, and without design presume that order from one day should exist in the next? That they do just shows they aren't really living out their own worldview, but rather borrowing from the Christian worldview. Now, as this article details, we're seeing the world act more consistently with their own worldview, using even math to push their own agenda. "In 2022, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis banned 54 out of 132 school maths textbooks submitted for use in the State’s schools either because they did not meet various required standards or because, in his officials’ opinion, they were simply being used as vehicles for leftist propaganda – if you wish to transform this into a politicised maths problem of your own, that’s 41%." Free 24-page creationist activity booklet for kids Are your kids into word searches, spot-the-differences, coloring pages, code-breaking puzzles, and learning about all sorts of different animals? Then be sure to download and print off the latest Acts and Facts Kids edition! Not the way to help depressed teens Programs that schools are using to help kids with anxiety and depression may be making things worse instead. The fact that the State has co-opted the educational role God gave parents (Deut. 6:6-7, Prov. 22:6) means they are doing something God never intended for them, and we shouldn't be surprised if they do it badly. And we shouldn't grant them any grace, no matter how good their intentions might have been, when they hurt children doing a job that wasn't theirs in the first place. The State needs to learn humility, and step away from education altogether. (Not the Bee headline today: Teenagers more likely to be mentally healthy if their parents are conservative). A climate demonstration we'd like to see "To all the people gathering at COP28 wanting to get the public onside we have a piece of advice: plan a big demonstration. No, not of the Extinction Rebellion/Just Stop Oil kind. Rather....if you’re so sure this energy transition can work, and be fun exciting cheap easy and great, stop with the grand pontificating and finger-pointing, and show us a demonstration project. Show us just one large or even medium-sized jurisdiction that can run its economy on ‘green’ energy." Can Geert Wilders be an ally for Dutch Christians?  The November 22 Dutch elections resulted in Geert Wilders's "Party for Freedom" (PPV) gaining more seats than any other. Their Parliament seats 150, and the PPV's 37 seats leaves them with 12 more than the next nearest party, putting them in a position to form a coalition government. The media has labelled Wilders as far right for his stance against Islam, but as Jonathon Van Maren explains, it'd be more accurate to call him a liberal, for his stances on abortion and homosexuality. So how might Wilders' win impact the country's Christians? Red Green: Automated Fence Painter Red Green, with his own brand of dating advice: if the women don't find you handsome, they should at least find you handy. ...