Josh Benner

Category: Ethics

  • Can a person truly have faith if their life doesn’t show it?

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    Vegans.

    When you’re a vegan, you don’t eat meat or use animal products. Being vegan is a lifestyle.

    Now if I said that I was vegan and invited you over to my place for dinner, and you said what are we having “surt and turt….we’re having some fish and steak” and then I was washing it down with a glass of milk, and my kitchen table was on a bearskin rug, and I was eating the meal with ivory handled silverware while wearing a fur coat, and we were facing my trophy wall that had deer heads….” You might start to think “you’re not vegan.”

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  • Best of 2018. #5 Parents allowing children to decide their gender: why?

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    As 2018 comes to a close, I am sharing some of my top posts from this year. 

    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. (more…)

  • Mary too? Professor argues Mary carried Jesus without consent

    Came across a story this morning about a recent Tweet from a college professor at the University of Minnesota Mankato.

    Eric Sprankle talked about the virgin birth of Jesus and said: “The virgin birth story is about an all-knowing, all-powrful deity impregnating a human teen. There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario. Happy Holidays.”

    “There is no definition of consent that would include that scenario?”

    First of all, he’s entirely missing the point. Second of all, he’s wrong. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary actually does say “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

    People have brought that up. But that doesn’t count, according to Dr. Sprankle who says, “The Biblical god regularly punished disobedience. The power difference (deith vs mortal) and the potential for violence for saying “no” negates her “yes.”

    Seriously?

    Christians believe that before the conception of Jesus, an angel of God appeared to Mary and told her that she had been chosen for this once in human history task of being able to carry the Lord.

    And this professor is essentially arguing that because of a power imbalance, she didn’t really have a choice?

    His Tweets are incoherent. In the first one, he says that God is all-powerful and all-knowing (both of which are true). But then he argues against the divine plan of an all-knowing God in choosing Mary to give birth to Jesus. She wasn’t chosen at random.

    And God is all-powerful. Men are not all-knowing nor are we all-powerful. We are unworthy of God. We are created for God. There is a power imbalance. We are not equal to God. And when I say the Tweets are incoherent, I mean that it’s incoherent to say that God is all-knowing and then to question his wisdom of morality and his plans.

    Sprankle’s definition of consent is so radical and limited that even giving consent doesn’t count. It’s intellectually dishonest. It’s referring to a once-in-human-history event. Also, this has nothing to do with sexual consent anyway!

    But if you continue to read in the gospel account, Mary continues to be perfectly happy with this situation.

    “My soul magnifies the Lord,
     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
    for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
    For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

    -Luke 1:46-48

    She didn’t give consent? Mary seems pretty ok with the arrangement. And it was through this act that the savior of the world came into the world to save the world from sin.

    One day we will all be held to account for our lives and actions. And there won’t be equality with God then either. God is awesomely powerful, righteous, and holy. We are not. We are sinful. We are so sinful that the only way we could be redeemed was for God to come into the world. The birth of Christ shows us that from beginning to end, Jesus had a divine ministry. Jesus came into a world that was so sinful that the world killed him. He did that so we could be forgiven. We are sinful and cannot make ourselves right with God. But Jesus came so that we could be with God. Not because we deserved it. Not because we are God’s peers. But out of his goodness and grace.

    Jesus did that to save sinners. Even sinners who mock the gospel and the righteousness of God. But we must repent of our sins and turn to Christ and trust in the life that he promises.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    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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  • The true test of love

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    Everyone loves love.

    But not everyone agrees on what love is.

    Much of society associates love with tolerance and acceptance.

    And while we can agree that love is good, truly having love for people is challenging. Yes, it’s easy to love family and good friends. Jesus addresses that in the Gospel of Luke: “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that (Luke 6:32-33).” 

    The Bible shows us what love is on the cross. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Romans 5:8).”

    In 1 John 3:16-17, the Apostle John says:

    By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?

    -1 John 3:16-17

    It’s easy to agree with that. It’s easy to see the virtue in that.

    But what an incredibly difficult picture of love that is. I don’t think that it exclusively means dying (the second half of the passage talks about helping those in need, which assumes someone is alive to do that).

    Being apathetic to what people do, and calling that love, is easy.

    Just saying you love people is easy.

    Actually loving people is hard. Actually serving people is hard.

    And perhaps the truest test of love is how we treat those who are hardest for us to love. Again, it’s easy to love those who are nice to us. It’s easy to love those we like.

    But we’re sinful. And we all have those who are harder for us to love. Who is it who is hard for you to love? Maybe it’s someone who believes differently politically. Maybe those of another religion. Maybe it’s those who are rich or those who are poor and on the bottom of society’s rungs. Maybe it’s criminals or those who battle an addiction or have a mental disorder. Maybe it’s more than one of these groups.

    Again, it’s easy, in theory, to agree that we should love everyone.

    But whoever it is who’s the hardest for you to love is who you need to love. It’s a message that makes no sense to the world. And it’s a message that Jesus died to bring to the world.

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    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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  • GoFraudMe – Viral story of homeless man using his last $20 to buy gas was an elaborate scam

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    This story is a fantastic illustration of the power of greed.

    If they had just split the money, no one would have ever known!

    I remember hearing about this when it happened. A nice story of a woman running out of gas in a dangerous part of Philadelphia. A kind hearted, homeless veteran saw her plight and went to get gas for her, spending the last $20 he had to buy gas for the lady.

    And so the lady setup a GoFundMe account to raise money in order to help get this selfless veteran back on his feet.

    And so people donated to the GoFundMe. A lot of people donated! 14,000 people donated. More than $400,000 was raised to help this man get back on his feet.

    But things took a turn earlier this year.

    The homeless man (Johnny Bobbitt) sued the woman and her boyfriend (Kate McClure and Mark D’Amico) for not giving him the proceeds of the GoFundMe campaign.

    At the time, people had mixed opinions. “You can’t just give a drug addict hundreds of thousands of dollars,” to “it’s his money.” There were allegations of the couple using some of the funds for themselves. GoFundMe promised to make it right.

    And then today, the couple AND Bobbitt are being charged with theft by deception. After an investigation, the authorities claim that the whole thing was made up! If convicted, they face up to 5-10 years in prison, according to CNN.

    GoFundMe has said they’ll refund the money that people donated. While the average person spent just $28 in this scam, I feel that what these people did is just as bad as robbing someone. They took people’s money by creating a ruse that preyed upon the good nature of people.

    GoFundMe is not above reproach. It’s not a perfect site. And there are certainly frivolous things which raise money on that site. But it’s also been a life changing blessing to many people in need. And this scam hurts the credibility of GoFundMe.

    It’s poetic justice that people who scammed others also tried to scam each other. Like I said in the beginning, had they just split the money amongst themselves, no one would have known!

    Thanks for reading! I’d love to hear what you think, and don’t forget to subscribe! 

    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. His hobbies include working out, watching sports, and photography. Josh and his wife Kari live in Minnesota.

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