Josh Benner

Category: News

  • Popular pastor John Ortberg resigns from church

    Popular pastor John Ortberg resigns from church

    John Ortberg is a popular Christian author and has spent the last 17 years as the pastor of Menlo Park, a megachurch in the San Fransisco Bay Area. Before that, Ortberg had served as the teaching pastor of Willow Creek Community Church in suburban Chicago. But today, Ortberg announced his resignation, effective August 2.

    The impetus of Ortber’s resignation is a complicated story that has unfolded over the last several months. In November, it came to light that a youth volunteer at Meno Park had confessed to Ortberg an “unwanted thought pattern of attraction to minors.” To my knowledge, there’s no evidence of any illegal activity ever occurring on the part of the youth leader, but Ortberg (1) failed to remove this leader from a position where he was working with students and (2) kept this secret from the elders of his church.

    Both of these were abysmal failures of leadership and judgment on Ortberg’s fault. At the time, I was of the opinion that it was hard to justify him remaining as the pastor. Those were very serious failures. Ortberg had learned of the volunteer’s attraction in 2018.

    After a few weeks of being on leave, the church’s leadership cleared Ortberg and he returned to the pulpit.

    The reason why this had become known in was not because of a sudden desire on Ortberg’s part to be transparent. Rather, it came to light in February that Ortberg’s daughter (who identifies as a man) informed the church’s leadership.

    As the story continued to unfold over the past few months, it was revealed earlier this month that the youth volunteer was another one of Ortberg’s children. This might have explained why it wasn’t disclosed. If it had been dealt with properly in the beginning, there were a lot of constructive things which could have been done. Instead, it’s brought down a very gifted pastor, it put students at risk, he failed to look out for his son’s best interest by allowing him to remain in a vulnerable position. He tried to keep it secret, but now the whole situation is known by far more people outside of his church.

    It’s a terrible situation all the way around.

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  • Leading theologian J.I. Pakcer dies at 93

    James Innell (J.I.) Packer passed on into glory last Friday, less than a week shy of his 94th birthday. Packer was a workhorse who wrote over 300 books, articles, and reviews in his lifetime. Packer was a British born Anglican and an expert in the theology of the Puritans.

    He attended Oxford and heard lectures from C.S. Lewis. While at Oxford, Packer attended the church of one of the 20th centuries greatest preachers, Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was in league with some of the great Christian thinkers of the last century and himself became one of the giants of Evangelical theology for over half a century.

    I appreciate theologians and Biblical scholars who can present their ideas with humility and gentleness. While he was a seminary professor and imminent theologian, Packer also wrote books for popular audiences, most famously, his 1973 classic “Knowing God,” which sold over 1 million copies. It’s intellectual but approachable. It’s theologically deep but personally applicable. Knowing God is a great introduction to the Christian faith.

    Writing in straightforward language is a quality that alludes many of our great theologians but Packer had that gift. His work was not just about great intellectual knowledge of God, but about pointing us to greater relationship with the Lord.

    As Justin Taylor of the Gospel Coalition remembers Packer, he says:
    He called for the church to take holiness and repentance seriously by walking in the Spirit and fighting against indwelling sin. He defended biblical authority and championed the cause of disciple-making catechesis.

    In seminary, I remember reading another of (what I consider) his classics “Evangelism and the sovereignty of God” which explored the complexities of God’s sovereignty over creation and his call on the world to share the gospel.

    Writing for Christianity Today, scholar and Packer biographer Leyland Ryken calls to mind Packer’s words to the church: “Glorify Christ every way.”

    Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’
    -Matthew 25:23

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  • New York Times blames churches for being “major source” of Covid cases

    The New York Times ran an article today under the headline: “Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.”

    If you had just read the headline, that sounds like a pretty severe indictment. The article goes on to say that more than 650 cases of Coronavirus have been linked to churches. Not 650 a day. There were 60,000 cases today. Not 650 this week, or since Memorial Day. But 650 cases since the beginning of Coronavirus.

    More than 3 million Americans have been diagnosed with the virus.

    It’s misleading to say that around .02 percent of cases being linked to churches means that churches are a “major source.”

    The anti-intellectual contortions the mainstream media has done over the past few weeks is truly incredible. CNN, NBC, Forbes, the Associated Press, and numerous other news sources have all argued that attending protest rallied did not lead to increased numbers of cases. But if you want to go to church, or a beach, that’s a major contributor. States like New York that had tremendous loss of life did a wonderful job of handling the virus. States like Florida and Texas who are seeing large increases in cases are reckless and their governors are to blame.

    It’s all political.

    The Times article says: “Weeks after President Trump demanded that America’s shuttered houses of worship be allowed to reopen, new outbreaks of the coronavirus are surging through churches across the country where services have resumed.”

    And that’s really the heart of the piece. President Trump had pushed for governors to lift restrictions on churches and now a few cases can be linked to churches, so the Times can go after Trump and also publish propaganda about churches being a “major source” of the spread of the virus.

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  • Supreme Court strikes down abortion restrictions

    United States Supreme Court Building

    In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has struck down June Medical Services v Russo, a Louisiana law which required doctors who provide abortions to have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. Chief Justice John Roberts sided with the court’s four liberal justices. Roberts said he disagreed with the ruling but voted with the majority because of a legal doctrine of stare decisis which calls for following establish precedents.

    Opponents of the law argue that admitting privileges are unnecessary and that it adds an extra layer of difficulty for abortion providers and reduces wren’s ability to pursue abortions.

    In 2016, the Supreme Court overturned a nearly identical Texas law. For that decision, Roberts had ruled against the majority but overturned his prior ruling to go along with precedent. While the laws of the two states were similar, it has been argued that the situation of the states was different as Louisiana hospitals do not have the same admittance standards as Texas.

    Roberts wrote:
    “The legal doctrine of stare decisis requires us, absent special circumstances, to treat like cases alike. The Louisiana law imposes a burden on access to abortion just as severe as that imposed by the Texas law, for the same reasons. Therefore Louisiana’s law cannot stand under our precedents.”

    I’m not a lawyer or a jurist. I understand that precedents matter. But it’s a bad precedent. States don’t have a right to decide minimum healthcare standards for doctors who perform abortions?

    Daniel Horowitz of Conservative Review points out: states regulate the standards for licensed professionals all the time – everything from lemonade stands to mowing grass – even when “an objective assessment might suggest that those same tasks could be performed by others.” But when it comes to the sacred ideals of abortion, the state is somehow powerless to regulate.

    He says that a precedent can’t be changed without special circumstances.

    We can’t overturn a bad decision from four years ago for a ruling which favors life, and safety, and state’s rights? Precedent matters but it’s not the end all be all.

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  • Supreme Court applies Civil Rights Law to LGBT workers

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    The 1964 Civil Rights Act made it federal law that: It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. (more…)