Josh Benner

Tag: college

  • Ohio high school eliminates valedictorian

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    Mason High School in Mason, OH announced last week that they will be discontinuing their awards of valedictorian and salutatorian next year.

    In a statement from the school, they talk about research they’ve done as well as focus groups among students, faculty, and parents. They argue that class rank is not

    Mason High School principal Bobby Dodd argued, “We have researched the reasons why students take a large number of AP courses. While there are some students who take a large number of courses because of their general interest in the subject area, there is a disturbingly large number of students who take AP courses to increase their grade point average.” (more…)

  • People oppose Christian prayer gathering at the day of prayer

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    Today is the National Day of Prayer. It’s a day set aside to turn to God in prayer. The modern day National Day of Prayer was established by an act of congress in 1952, although similar themed days in American government go back to the 1770s.

    I came across an article in my former college’s newspaper this week talking about some division within the Bowling Green, Ohio community over this year’s day of prayer.

    Bowling Green has an annual prayer gathering in front of the Wood County courthouse. This specific prayer gathering is organized by a privately funded Christian task force. The Christian task force (prepare to be shocked) keeps their prayer gathering as a Christian prayer meeting with Christian speakers.

    This is the heart of the controversy because some think that it’s wrong that the event is excluding other faiths.

    One of the wonderful things about our nation is the freedom to assemble and associate. Anyone of any other faith is welcome to setup a similar event for the day of prayer (or every day, for that matter). But a Christian group has every right to keep their event as a Christian event. The job of the privately funded task force is not to setup an event that equally represents all faiths.

    Literally hundreds of thousands of churches meet in a similar fashion every week. They’re also not meeting to pray to the deities of other religions.

    Part of the argument against this exclusively Christian prayer gathering is that it gets away from the heart of the meaning of the day of prayer. We can agree to disagree over that, but it doesn’t change that this specific group has decided to make their prayer service an exclusively Christian service.

    I ask: would anyone take offense at Buddhists having a Buddhist only prayer service? Would there be objections to Jewish people having a Jewish prayer service? Absolutely anyone is welcome to attend this Christian prayer service so long as they understand that it is a Christian prayer service, and that involves praying to Jesus in the name of Jesus. And that’s the heart of the issue. The Christian task force isn’t interested in generic prayers.

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

    Josh Benner  has a Master of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has served churches in Minnesota and Illinois. He enjoys writing about faith and culture. He lives with his wife Kari in St. Louis.

  • Best of 2018. #1 Researchers troll academic journals with ridiculous hoax papers, they still get published

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

    A trio of concerned academics has published seven intentionally absurd papers in leading scholarly journals as part of an investigation to expose extreme bias in fields that study race, gender, sexuality, and other politically-charged topics.

    The trio say the papers, which used fabricated authors and credentials, highlight that these fields are being misled by politically-motivated research and biased methodologies.

    –Media Release – James Lindsay, Peter Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose

    This is the summary from a group of researchers who set out to expose some of the pitfalls within humanities and liberal studies academic disciplines. They submitted a series of papers to various journals. There work was published in seven of them. (more…)

  • College graduation 10 years later

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    It’s crazy that I graduated from college a decade ago.

    I still remember so many events from that time like they were yesterday. I can still see the map of campus in my memory.

    So much of the person I am today I trace back to my time in college. So many of the friendships I made in those years I still maintain.

    I think of myself as a freshman. So shy and quiet. I had very little self-reliance. I grew up in college. I went from someone who was always a loner, to being in a fraternity and becoming president of one of the largest student organizations on campus (and involved in what felt like every other student group there was). I never even went to any of our dances in high school and in college, I was popular.

    I think about my fraternity. That community was what made college college for me.

    I think of all of those philosophy classes. People make fun of philosophy as being a “useless major,” but I still take a lot of pride in having a philosophy degree. I think a background in philosophy gave me some tools that I’ve continued to use.

    I struggled a lot at first. I had always managed to get decent grades in high school without really having to try, but college was different. Looking back, I doubt most of those 100 level classes in which I struggled were even that intellectually rigorous, I just had no idea how to take a college class.

    Like many freshman, I would come home whenever I had the opportunity, I procrastinated with my work, and my grades suffered. After that first semester, I was sincerely considering leaving Bowling Green and trying to enroll elsewhere.

    It wasn’t until my second semester that I had my first taste of Greek Life. That experience made me feel like I was truly a part of the university. For me and the rest of my time at Bowling Green, the rest was history.

    Ironically, as a young student, I would go home every chance I got. When I first graduated, I’d go back every chance I got. But the years went on, younger friends graduated, I went back less.

    My life has gone in directions I never would have expected. I cherish those experiences and memories. I will always be thankful for Bowling Green. Roll Along! 

    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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  • 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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