Josh Benner

Category: News

  • President Trump meets with Kim Jong-un: let’s see what happens

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    Yesterday, President Trump met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
    Some are mocking this, others are celebrating it as a great political and diplomatic victory.
    At this point, it’s too early to tell of any longterm success in this meeting. Regardless of what Kim Jong-un has agreed to, the North Korean leadership has a history of not living up to agreements that they make.
    Time will tell.
    But regardless of a person’s politics, regardless of if someone likes or dislikes President Trump, we should all hope and pray that this meeting will lead to diplomatic success. For the sake of the North Korean people who are suffering under an iron fisted tyranny, for the security of the region, and for the overall safety of the world, we should all want this meeting to lead to good results.
    The welfare of the Korean people who are kept in abject poverty, who are fed propaganda and not food, who are kept in Soviet style gulags by the tens of thousands, needs to improve. And we need to see North Korea finally honor their commitments to dismantle their nuclear program. If those things don’t happen, the photo op, the political goodwill, it’s all meaningless.
    If this meeting doesn’t help lead to significant change, the photos will be infamous of a sitting president and a dictator. Sound bites of the president complimenting Kim for his leadership will forever be to Trump’s mockery.
    As others have pointed out, there is no middle ground in this deal. It will be a success or a total failure.
    Time will tell. Prayers for North Korea.


    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.

  • The meaning of life and the suicide rate in America

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

    This week, two celebrities committed suicide. Designer Kate Speed took her life on Tuesday. This morning, we learned that celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain took his life in France.

    It’s a tragic thing when a person is in despair to the point where that is seen as the only resort. If you happen to be reading this and you’re currently dealing with suicidal thoughts, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1800-273-8255 or visit their website at suicidepreventionlifeline.org.

    Suicide has many complicated factors. Mental illness and depression often times play a role. There has been a lot of discussion about mental illness in this country in recent years. As well there should be.

    Suicide is a sensitive issue. There were over 44,000 suicides in America in 2016. Tens of thousands more each year, impacting hundreds of thousands of families, spouses, children, and friends.

    Whenever there’s a high profile suicide, I read articles. And I see the comments that people make. People will talk about mental illness and depression (again, both very real and significant issues). But I feel that some people can be overly fatalistic about suicide. Like there was no other way that things could have turned out. Like there was nothing that could have been done. Like a person was so imprisoned to mental illness that they were beyond helping.

    I reject that idea.

    There is always hope. There are always people who care. There is always a reason to live.

    It’s a mental illness and it can impact judgment.  But the complex factors of suicide are deeper than only mental illness and depression. It’s also cultural. Suicide rates are not equal from one society to another. Rates fluctuate over time.

    There’s often a copycat element to these tragedies. Where one person commits suicide and another also makes that choice. Suicide doesn’t equally impact every group within society (another reason why I reject that it’s only about mental illness and a person has no mental faculties in getting help). In America, caucasians commit suicide at more than twice the rate of African Americans (despite having lower rates of depression).

    It’s a complicated issue.

    When people look at it purely as a result of mental illness, I think that undermines the morality of the issue. It is a moral issue because it impacts families and society. It’s immoral. And I feel like many in our society are afraid to acknowledge that.

    Rates have unfortunately increased in the United States. Rates are also going up in many other industrialized countries. It is a concern that as societies get more secular, they lose objective meaning in life. Some existentialists look at meaning as something someone can decide for themselves. But other philosophers took this to the opposite end of the spectrum and looked at life as futile.

    The only true source of meaning in life is found in God. He has created the world and made humanity and he’s made us with the purpose of knowing him and worshipping him.

    No matter what you’re going through, what you’re struggling with, God has a purpose for you and wants you to trust in him and to know him. Your life has meaning and Jesus showed that at the cross when he died to save sinful people. He died so that we could live.

    Viktor Frankl, who survived the Holocaust wrote: “Those who have a ‘why’ to live, can bear with almost any ‘how’.”

    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.

  • Supreme Court rules in favor of Christian baker

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    Today the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Jack Phillips, a Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a same-sex couple who was getting married.

    This decision only scratches the surface of the issue. It does not give every Christian who works in a creative field (baking, photography, etc) permission to refuse services for a same-sex wedding.

    I’m not a lawyer or a constitutional scholar but it appears to be on an inevitable crash course for another Supreme court decision. Is it a matter of individual liberty? Whereby a person reserves the right to refuse service? Or is it discrimination and the violation of law?

    People on both sides of this issue are very polarized. If private business owners do have the legal right to refuse service, some draw analogies to people refusing services to African Americans before passage of Civil Rights legislation in the 1960s.

    Persecution takes a variety of forms. There are absolutely people who seek to persecute Christians for their beliefs under the tyranny of law. With Jack Phillips, a couple attempted to force this man to comply. There have been numerous legal victories for the gay rights movement over the last few years. But some seek to crush any dissenters. There have been other businesses who have faced threats, backlash, and thousands of dollars in legal fees for standing by convictions.

    Today’s decision does not further enshrine religious liberty. It has more to do with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and their hostility towards Phillips than if Christians have a general liberty to refuse services in situations which conflict with their faith.

    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.

  • Your invitation to the greatest party of all time

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    Like the rest of the world, I watched the royal wedding yesterday as Prince Harry married Meghan Markle.

    It was an event.

    The pomp, the grand locations of the ceremony and various celebrations. The guest list was star studded including the likes of George Clooney, David Beckham, Sir Elton John, Idris Elba, and even Oprah.

    The media made such a fuss over the guests, the royal family, everyone’s outfits.

    The wedding of the year.

    I wasn’t invited. And you probably weren’t either. We don’t know the royal family and we’re not famous.

    At the end of the Bible, a great feast is depicted. The wedding supper of the lamb. What a fitting picture of the heavenly celebration. A wedding feast. A joyous occasion. And that will be the event of all eternity.

    And being royal, or rich, or famous is not the basis for a person’s invitation. All that matters is that you know Jesus and believe in him as Lord and savior.

    You’re invited! How will you RSVP?

    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.

  • Major step forward for pro-life movement as Iowa passes heartbeat bill

    DcYNoxhVwAAUDilYesterday, Iowa governor Kim Reynolds signed a bill into law that will ban most abortions in that state. The law, which passed the Iowa house 51-46 .

    The new law will ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected (roughly six weeks into gestation). This is the most restrictive abortion law on the books in the country. Some women don’t even realize they’re pregnant prior to six weeks. This new law gives a very short window when a pregnancy could e terminated in Iowa.

    This law is facing backlash and criticism from abortion advocates.

    NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue said that it was “a sad day for women and families in Iowa”

    In an official statement, governor Reynolds:

    “I believe that all innocent life is precious and sacred, and as governor, I pledged to do everything in my power to protect it…I understand that not everyone will agree with this decision. But if death is determined when a heart stops beating, then doesn’t a beating heart indicate life? For me, it is immoral to stop an innocent beating heart. For me, it is sickening to sell fetal body parts. For me, my faith leads me to protect every Iowan, no matter how small.”

    The law will undeniably face legal challenges and could potentially go before the supreme court.

    I applaud the Iowa governor of Iowa and the state’s legislature as they make a law that will protect unborn babies in their state.

    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.