Originally published August 22, 2017
“Atonement” is a theological word that gets mentioned. In short, atonement refers to the work that Christ has done for those who have faith in Him to earn their salvation.
I think people sometimes approach the gospel with skepticism. Jesus died for the sins of all who believe in him.
I know I used to ask was “why do we need this? Why do we have to believe in Jesus? Is sin such a big deal? Why is he the only way?” (more…)
A recent article from NBC talks about a Massachusetts family who are raising their twin boys without a gender. The idea behind this parenting philosophy is to allow the twins to decide for themselves when they’re older.
In the story, the mother made the fair point about how we do have ways how we stereotype little boys and little girls that aren’t always helpful. Many raise girls to be prissy and “girlie,” while boys are raised to be tough and to not cry. These aren’t necessary aspects of masculinity and femininity, on that point, I agree. However to combat those stereotypes, we don’t need to raise children without gender. There are other, healthier approaches.
It’s absolutely unnecessary for a person to take an otherwise normal, healthy baby and to then introduce confusion into their child’s life. Is letting a person “decide” their gender so important?
I hear people talk about how complicated gender is.
For the vast majority of people, it’s pretty simple. And so I return to my question, why introduce confusion? Why introduce additional complexity?
I know to some this seems progressive and enlightened.
It’s unwise.
I saw a video a few years ago of a British woman who was doing this with her son. It’s heartbreaking.
If your approach to parenting is doing something that society has historically not done and which contradicts the wisdom of human experience: it’s wrong. Raising a child is not the time to try new experiments.
The idea that you can raise a kid without gender and then let them decide their gender is self-defeating.
The idea that you can take a baby boy or girl and raise this child neutral of gender, and later let them decide their gender, it’ll be in the context of them having been raised as unaware to their gender. When they decide which gender they want to be, it’ll be from a context of not having been raised according to a particular gender. It’s not like you’ll decide you want to be a boy and instantly know how to do it. You weren’t shown! You weren’t taught! You were intentionally kept in the dark.
Part of the justification that I’ve seen is that this helps a child to embrace their identity. I would argue that it actually raises a child ignorant of an important aspect of their identity. This style of parenting takes away the foundation of manhood and womanhood.
And for what purpose?
According to a 2016 study by the Williams Institute, transgendered people make up just over one half of one percent of the American population. And the transgender life is not an easy one. Tragically, the rate of attempted suicides within that community is 40% according to The Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey.
With the Massachusetts family, the mother is an engineer and talks of the gender stereotypes in her field, how it is often male-dominated. That’s probably true. But how does it help that to raise boys as if they’re not?
Gender comes from God. It’s fundamental to his creation of humanity. God made men and women and we are both created in his image. We should celebrate masculinity and femininity. Men and women compliment each other.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
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I was listening to the BreakPoint podcast today and they told the story of an Oregon couple who was just sentenced to six years in prison for the death of their daughter, Ginnifer.
The baby was prematurely born at 32 weeks and died several hours later of complications which were treatable. The parents are members of a Pentecostal church that relies on praying and faith healing and did not seek medical attention.
This is truly tragic. This little girl should be alive today. The parents were rightly prosecuted and that they acted immorally and inappropriately.
In the BreakPoint commentary, John Stonestreet sums up the frustration well:
Now let me be clear, the Mitchells were rightly prosecuted for allowing their baby girl to die, even though they prayed for her to live. But had they wanted to kill Ginnifer, they could have driven to the nearest abortion clinic an hour before her birth—and get this—the state of Oregon would have paid for it.
This is the issue. Ginnifer was born March 5, 2017. Her parents could have had her aborted earlier in that day. As Stonestreet points out, it would have been paid for by the state and would have been perfectly legal.
Why do babies so often have no rights until they’re born?
The hypocrisy and irrationality of these standards carries over into states that have feticide laws (laws in regards to legal recourse when a person’s actions result in the death of a fetus). 38 states recognize situations where a fetus is killed as homicide (unless it’s aborted and then it’s legally allowed).
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
President Trump visited the United Kingdom this week. I saw a few posts and articles this morning in regards to the president’s meeting with Queen Elizabeth II.
Many are complaining about the president breaking protocols with the monarch. For instance, there is a tradition that people walk slightly behind the queen. At one point, the president was in front of the queen during her ceremonial inspection of the guard at Windsor Castle.
Oh the humanity!
The comments online talked about how this was an embarrassment, a sign of disrespect, and a president who lacked manners.
There are all of these protocols for meeting a royal.
Men are supposed to bow, women are supposed to curtsy. You’re supposed to walk behind her. You’re not supposed to turn your back to the queen. On first meeting, the queen is supposed to be addressed as “your majesty.”
And as we saw with President Trump breaching some of these protocols, there was criticism.
And that’s just for meeting a person. Think about the respect that Americans have for the queen of a different country. There is an expectation of this reverence for the queen. There’s this expectation of following the rules.
Yet we often have a very casual view of what it would be like to be in the presence of God. God is righteous, holy, set apart. He is awesomely mighty and glorious. And being in his presence also has its own protocols. You don’t just approach the King in any way you want. You approach God on his terms, not yours.
God requires perfection to enter his presence. It takes holiness to be with a holy God. We bristle at that, thrash against that, complain about that. But that is God’s standard.
We are not worthy of that.
You wouldn’t just go to Buckingham Palace and demand an audience with the queen. We don’t approach God on our terms.
It is faith in Jesus who gives us access to God. We are unholy, but Jesus makes a person holy. We are unrighteous, but Jesus makes a person righteous.
The Prophet Isaiah reports one of the great heavenly visions of the Bible in chapter 6.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”
4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
-Isaiah 6:1-5
The presence of God is always depicted as being an awesome and overwhelming experience. As people realize their unworthiness, it’s often a terrifying experience to be in the presence of this holiness.
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus brings us in.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
Sometimes we get so caught up in trying to relive the moment that we don’t really live it the first time.
I was watching Evel Live Sunday night, when daredevil Travis Pastrana was breaking some of Evel Knievel’s records. The culmination of the event was Pastrana taking a ramp and jumping the fountains at Ceasar’s Palace, something Knievel was seriously injured attempting in 1967.
Look at this picture.
It’s like a Where’s Waldo for anyone who’s actually watching without looking at this stunt through a screen.
We miss out on so much because we get so focused on trying to capture moments that I worry we don’t really live them at the time. I’m not saying this to judge. I can be terrible with this.
I love photography and capturing pictures. And obviously there’s nothing wrong with pictures. But I feel like our culture (especially my generation and the younger generation), if we don’t have some sort of video or photo of commemorating an event, it’s almost not worth doing. And thats’ a sad thing.
For the people who were at Evel Live, how much time will they really spend rewatching their video? I’m sure they’ll share it on Facebook and Instagram. I’m sure it’ll get likes. But then more things will get shared, and people will forget. And you’ll forget.
There are some great moments where a photo or video will just never do it justice. There are some things that will always be better preserved as a memory. I remember one time when I was in seminary. There was a lockdown on campus (someone had robbed a nearby hotel and there was concern he had come onto campus). I was in class at the time and so the professor had us exit and wait for the all clear in a teacher’s lounge. So what do a bunch of people in seminary do during a lockdown?
We sang hymns. There were a bunch of hymnals in the teachers lounge and we sang various songs. But the one that I remember from that night is “It is well,” one of the most popular Christian hymns in the English language. I don’t have a video of it. I don’t have the audio of it. But to me, the best rendition I’ve ever heard of that song will always be with my class that night.
Was it really that great? Probably not. But in my memory, it sounded almost like an angelic chorus.
Sometimes things are better as memories.
I watched a TED talk a couple weeks ago called “Hello my name is Alecia and I’m a recovering photoholic.” I think she hits the nail on the head when she says that a big part of our obsession with photos isn’t always about capturing a moment for ourselves, but that it’s taking a photo to share on social media just to show people we were there.
Smart phones are an incredible tool that would have been the pride of virtually all of human history. It’s like something out of the future that we have constant connection to the world, news, information, and entertainment in a device that fits in our pocket.
There are rising rates of depression, loneliness, and suicidal thoughts in teenagers and some researchers believe that smart phones are part of the reason in this spike. Smart phones should bring freedom but they often bring self imposed tyranny into our lives. Constantly needing to broadcast ourselves, our thoughts, our pictures and videos. The likes we receive giving us small hits of dopamine, and we get addicted and need more and more.
But it’s not helping us, it’s hurting us.
My point isn’t that we shouldn’t have photos or videos of anything. But do we need them of everything? I see friends who have portraits taking of their kids for a first birthday. Obviously that makes sense. Little kids grow up fast and commemorating moments. For me, I can’t imagine not having photos of my wedding day.
But are the photos we take usually of monumental events?
I’m also not saying that photos are only worth taking on a special occasion. Nor am I judging because I’m terrible with how much time I spend on my phone. It’s something where I see that I need to personally do better. I’ve been trying to do better in the evening at putting my phone away. I’ve deleted certain apps from my phone where I’m prone to spend a lot of time.
I think we need to evaluate the roles that cell phones and technology are playing in our daily lives. I think a good starting place is for us to take more time living in the moment.
Josh Benner is the associate pastor at Cornerstone Evangelical Free Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in Minnesota.
