Josh Benner

Tag: black lives matter

  • The virtue signal of all virtue signals: liberals compare themselves to heroes of all past generations

    Last week, legal scholar and philosopher Robert George had a thought-provoking series of Tweets on how people today would have responded to historical events had they lived through them.  

    George says: 

    “I sometimes ask students what their position on slavery would have been had they been white and living in the South before abolition. Guess what? They all would have been abolitionists! They all would have bravely spoken out against slavery, and worked tirelessly against it. Of course, this is nonsense. Only the tiniest fraction of them, or of any of us, would have spoken up against slavery or lifted a finger to free the slaves. Most of them—and us—would have gone along. Many would have supported the slave system and happily benefited from it.”

    It’s easy to look back at history and assume we would have been righteous. There’s a meme I’ve seen on online that says “If you’ve ever wondered what you’d do during slavery, the Holocaust, or civil rights movement, you’re doing it right now.” 

    Here’s a key difference for the social justice warriors of today. The popular culture supports you. There’s no pressure, or risk, or persecution to protest or be a social media activist. The media supports you, Hollywood supports you, athletes support you, academia supports you, and big corporations support you.  

    People want to compare this to the Civil Rights movement. Many of the protests and sit-ins were unpopular in public opinion from that era. The movement came at a cost. Where’s the cost in sharing a meme?

    To quote again from George, he gives a good ethical test for how we would have truly responded in previous eras: 

    I respond by saying that I will credit their claims if they can show evidence of the following: that in leading their lives today they have stood up for the rights of unpopular victims of injustice whose very humanity is denied, and where they have done so knowing: 

    (1) that it would make them unpopular with their peers, (2) that they would be loathed and ridiculed by powerful, influential individuals and institutions in our society; (3) that they would be abandoned by many of their friends, (4) that they would be called nasty names, and (5) that they would risk being denied valuable professional opportunities as a result of their moral witness. In short, my challenge is to show where they have at risk to themselves and their futures stood up for a cause that is unpopular in elite sectors of our culture today.

    This is an important distinction. When we act like we would have been leading the charge in previous eras, when we want to say that we would have been virtuous in previous eras, we need to consider the context of that time and the cost of our beliefs. Because there’s little real cost in the current climate. For instance, when people want to talk about this as being similar to how they would have responded to the Holocaust consider that during the Holocaust and the Third Reich, almost 80,000 Germans were executed for being part of the resistance. People paid the ultimate price to stand up against Hitler. Where’s the cost in a hashtag?  

    People want to compare this to how they would have responded in the Civil War. 360,000 soldiers died for the Union. That was roughly one percent of the entire U.S. population at the time. Men paid the ultimate price to preserve our nation and end slavery. Where’s the cost in telling people a bunch of books they should read or in watching a documentary?  

    People want to compare this to the Civil Rights movement. Many of the protests and sit-ins were unpopular in public opinion from that era. The movement came at a cost. Where’s the cost in sharing a meme?  

    In the civil rights movement, they protested against actual systemic racism. Today social justice warriors fight against inequality which they say is the result of current systematic racism, and there are people who want to compare the two eras as being moral equivalents. 

    When people want to compare their efforts today to past social movements, it’s showing an ignorance of history and it’s also showing delusions of grandeur. Progressives like to believe that everyone is immoral except for them and that they would have been righteous at all times.  

    We judge people form the past because they don’t adhere to our current standards. And when I say current, I mean that literally. Current as in today because the standards of progressivism are an ever-moving target. There weren’t serious efforts to defund, or dismantle, or destroy the police a year ago. There weren’t major popular efforts to tear down monuments five years ago. There was not a major war on our history ten years ago. But progressives continue to shift their values and they fight a culture war where there is no grace or redemption given to past people who did not perfectly adhere to these standards of today while progressives allow themselves to continue changing what matters and what’s right.

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  • Institutions under attack – progressive politics are not the answer

    Racism is a terrible scourge upon humanity and a sin that is in the hearts of way too many of our fellow citizens.

    Much has been said over the last few weeks on the subject of race in America. 

    There’s been a vocal group (who’s small relative to the size of our population) who’s called to defund police, some have called to disband police forces. And while it’s not the view of most people, these radical views are dominating the public discourse and national conversation. As have been the vocal fringe who’s justified rioting and looting and those who are calling to bring down statues. 

    These people are a threat to our institutions and while they do not speak for most Americans (they don’t even speak for most democrats), far too many people make excuses or ignore this behavior. It is not helpful or constructive towards building a better world. It’s destructive towards our current world and society.

    I don’t support tearing down statues because I don’t believe it makes a difference in anyone’s actual life. I think there are actual things that can be done which will make life better for all people, and that’s not it. I think it’s better to be aware of our history than to ignore or rewrite it. 

    I don’t support the rioting and looting because I think it’s immoral but also because I think that the consequences of it are the exact opposite of what is desired. I don’t think it wakes people up, I think it turns people off. I don’t support it because it disproportionately impacts urban communities. It disproportionality impacts minority groups when businesses within their communities are damaged and destroyed. It disproportionately impacts minority business owners. It makes these urban areas less appealing to other businesses and investment. It doesn’t make life better, it makes it worse. I don’t think the rioting is righteous, it’s immoral and foolish. 

    I don’t support defunding the police for many of the same reasons. A narrative is being pushed that the police are going to war on minority groups. The statics don’t bear that out. Are there injustices? Yes. Are there bad cops? Yes, and those issues need to be dealt with, but I again fear that diminishing law enforcement is not the key to a utopia with less crime. It increases crime and will cause more death and again those who are most severely impacted are minority groups. It causes more crime in areas which already have high crime rates. 

    I see the browbeating. I see the woke people. I see the social justice warriors who paint a utopian picture of tearing down a system, undermining authority, erasing history. And they twist the narrative as if you don’t care about minorities and you’re a racist if you don’t wholesale buy their version of reality.

    There are too many progressives who are willing to tolerate a lot of collateral damage to push a political agenda. I find that unacceptable. I think you can be a conservative and have black lives matter more to you than they do to many on the other side of the political spectrum. I look at the destruction of progressive polices and rhetoric and think of how many more minorities are going to die as a result of the rhetoric and policy decisions, and find myself asking if Black Lives truly Matter to those groups? 

    Social justice has become a quasi-religion. The social justice warriors have their public atonement rituals, they proselytize to their “gospel,” they have their affirmations (article I is that America is bad and systemically racist) they have their scriptures as I see person after person giving lists of books. 

    I don’t agree that progressivism and liberalism are the solution to these issues. Because they’ve largely caused these issues. We hear how racist the city governments and police forces are in our major cities. Who runs almost every major city in America? Democrats. Year after year. Minneapolis, Baltimore, Detroit, and San Francisco haven’t had republican mayors since the 60s, Philadelphia hasn’t since the 50s, Chicago hasn’t since the 30s, Atlanta hasn’t since the 1880s. 

    It was democratic politicians who created redlining. It was a democratic president who engined the major crime bill of the 90s which led to stricter sentencing. And it was a democrat who pushed the Great Society and the unintended consequences of that bill have been dire for many in minority communities and led to catastrophic erosion of the family.

    As I said in the beginning, tearing down history; riots and looting; and withdrawing law enforcement are not the solution. It’s the solution that progressives want but there are actual things that can be done. We should all want reforms that will make life safer for all citizens. Police unions should not be as powerful as they are. Qualified immunity needs to be scaled back. There should be a national order for officers to wear body cams. 

    Families should have more options with school choice, especially in areas with failing public school systems. While we’re taking power from police unions, we need to also take power away from teachers unions. 

    And what society needs most is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not a social gospel. Not a social justice gospel. Not a Marxist gospel. But the gospel. It is the gospel which changes hearts. It is the gospel which calls us to love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s the gospel which points to true justice. It’s the gospel which gives us reason to hope. It’s the gospel that lifts up the worth of all mankind as those created in the image of God.

    Thanks for reading. I invite comments and don’t forget to share and subscribe.

  • Man dies in police custody while begging for his life

    The footage of George Floyd being held to the ground and struggling to breathe, repeatedly telling the police he can’t breathe, begging for his life, and telling the police that he was about to die, is incredibly disturbing.

    It’s murder.

    There will be those who blame the victim. I’ve heard people try to make excuses in these situations before. “Well he shouldn’t have broken the law” (if he even did). “Well he shouldn’t have resisted.”

    It’s murder.

    Neither of those is something that justified a man losing his life. Neither of those are justifications for the absolute inhumanity of the officer who ignored Floyd begging for his life. Of course you’re going to struggle when you literally have your life escaping from you. There’s no justification for any of this.

    On Monday night, police were called for a forgery in progress on the allegation that Floyd had attempted to use a counterfeit $20 bill at a grocery store. A non-violent crime. A couple minutes after Floyd is no longer struggling, no longer conscious, yet the officer still won’t let his knee off of his neck. The officer isn’t in danger (Floyd wasn’t armed). There’s no reason as to why they can’t let him up, let him breathe.

    Several bystanders begged the arresting officer to let the man up. He refused to listen.

    I appreciate law enforcement. I understand that they have a difficult job. I can also acknowledge that I could not do their job. But none of that justifies killing another person. The officer was not in danger. The situation was under control. There is no reason why the arresting officer should have kept his knee in Floyd’s neck. Law enforcement experts say that maneuver is no longer sanctioned in Minnesota.

    The officer should not get special treatment because he’s a police officer. If anyone else did this and it was filmed, they’d be in jail. The offending officer and three others have been fired from the Minneapolis Police Department. The mayor of Minneapolis has spoken out against what happened. There does need to be justice for George Floyd because he lost his life in an unjust manner. And we should always want justice to be served as it is an inherent good.

  • Nike ad says Colin Kaepernick is “sacrificing everything.” We should all agree that that’s absurd

    DmMVEk3WsAACHq1.jpg-large.jpeg“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything. Just do it.”

    Sacrificing everything?

    This is the slogan on a new Nike ad featuring former Colin Kaerpnick, former NFL quarterback who was the first in the NFL to kneel during the National Anthem as a protest. The ad is on a new marketing campaign from Nike as they celebrate the 30th anniversary of their famed “Just do it” slogan.

    There are varying opinions on football players kneeling. In general, most Americans do not support this and see it as offensive and disrespectful. 63 percent of people responded unfavorably in a poll conducted by Quinnipiac University.

    But I feel like we should all agree that he most certainly did not “sacrifice everything.” People go off to wars and die. But Colin Kaepernick is in an ad for a shoe company that says he “sacrificed everything?” People in other parts of the world stand up to barbaric dictators and pay with their lives (and sometimes the lives of their own families). But Colin Kaepernick not playing football anymore is him sacrificing everything.

    That’s absurd.

    Kaepernick has far more fame and notoriety for his protest than he ever would have had for being an ok NFL quarterback. He made millions playing football.

    He’s going to make millions with Nike. According to the New York Times: “Nike will produce new Kaepernick apparel, including a shoe and a T-shirt, and if the merchandise sells well, the value of the deal will rival those of other top N.F.L. players, according to people close to the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because Nike had not formally announced it. Nike will also donate money to Kaepernick’s “Know Your Rights” campaign.”

    I think it hurts the cause. Sports writer Jason Whitlock, who’s been critical of Kapernick’s protests commented: “Told y’all from Day One this has always been about the money. All of it. Revolutionaries aren’t sponsored by major corporations. It’s been a hustle from the giddy-up.”

    I agree with Whitlock. Gandhi wasn’t saying, “Be the change you wish to see in the world. Obey your thirst.”

    I think Kaepernick cashing in on his protest (first of all, that totally undermines the idea of sacrifice) hurts his message. He’s trying to address real issues and he’s going to attach his name to an apparel line? Obviously that’s his right too. But it also makes him look like a corporate shill.

    It doesn’t seem to be a very successful means of rallying support to a cause or advancing a public discussion on the issues. A lot of Americans find the display disrespectful and offensive. And that’s fine. You can do something that offends people. But then what’s the end game for actually being an agent of change? If you turn off people whom you’re trying to reach and they don’t want to listen to the message, how do you achieve anything?

    These are complicated matters and there are a number of thoughtful opinions. The issue for me has never been kneeling for the national anthem. My biggest issue is that he’s getting treated like he’s some sort of martyr. Kaepernick has certainly received lots of criticism for his protest but many also celebrate him as a hero, he’s been given a huge platform, and he’s going to profit greatly off of this. This isn’t what it looks like to sacrifice everything.

    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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  • No charges filed in Alton Sterling death

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    Of the many deaths we have footage of where police have used deadly force, there’s few that appear as egregious as the 2016 killing of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

    In the video, the officers have him held down. They’re on top of him. Sterling allegedly reached for his pocked (he was armed at the time). From the video, it’s hard to see if he was reaching for a weapon. He appears to be immobilized. But what’s not hard to see is an officer on top of him, with Sterling pinned to the ground repeatedly shooting him

    The State of Louisiana announced today that they are not going to charge the officers who were involved in Sterling’s death.

    As with so many of these other cases, no one is going to be held accountable.

    I think it’s important to acknowledge that this event was a tragedy. That the officers were trigger happy. That this death was unnecessary and senseless.

    I think it is important to look at cases like this and other incidents where African American men were killed by police officers and where no one was ever held to account, where no one was ever sent to prison, and to stop trying to save face or find justifications, or attack the character of the victim but to look at these situations and to have empathy for the anger and frustration that African Americans have over these events. It should be an anger and frustration which everyone has.

    For many in this country, it’s not even a surprise that this is the outcome. And when groups of people can count on justice not being served, it’s a sad day for America.

    When these shootings happen, and there’s an outcry, there’s so often this call to “get the facts, let’s get it sorted out.” But after that happens, it is so common for nothing to materialize legally.

    Police have an extremely difficult job. No one would argue that. And the vast majority are wonderful public servants. But there are times when people go too far and when they do not act appropriately. A system cannot be just if those who enforce justice can act unjustly.

    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.