Josh Benner

Tag: congress

  • Jon Stewart rips into congress. Shows some issues still transcend party lines

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    In a testimony that has gone viral this week, comedian Jon Stewart blasted the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for the absence of many members regarding a hearing for the continuation of a fund for 9/11 first responders.

    In the testimony, Stewart points out that many 9/11 first responders (who are not ailing from 9/11 related illnesses) made the trip from New York to Washington. Stewart blades the committee for this show of disrespect for these 9/11 heroes. (more…)

  • Election day: politics matter but not as much as we think

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    Another election day.

    A day when millions of Americans will breathe a sigh of relief and think “Ok, maybe it’ll be ok,” and where millions of other Americans will be despondent and thinking “It’s over. This was our last chance.”

    It’s utter nonsense.

    Certainly, this stuff matters.

    But it’s not all that matters.

    Political ads play to our fears, not to our hopes. They try to scare us. The media does the same thing. We hear how this is the most important election in history. (more…)

  • Pro-life: compromise vs practicality

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    Matt Walsh wrote an interesting piece for the DailyWire today. He was comparing the gun rights advocates to the pro-life movement.
    Walsh argues that the pro-life movement could learn from the gun rights advocates.
    The gun rights movement has a different attitude. They won’t give an inch. Ever. At all. They treat even the most mild gun restriction as a tyrannical assault on our way of life. They won’t agree that any gun should be banned. They won’t allow for any exceptions. They aren’t just in favor of gun rights. They are radically, absolutely, unequivocally in favor of gun rights. They are extremists about guns. And I don’t say that pejoratively. We ought to be extreme in our defense of our principles. Every gun rights advocate ought to be an extreme advocate. Every pro-lifer ought to be an extreme pro-lifer. That is the lesson here, I think.
    -Matt Walsh
    I normally agree with Matt Walsh but I think there’s a major flaw in his reasoning.
    Walsh argues that the gun rights advocates don’t budge, don’t give an inch, and that the pro life crowd celebrates seemingly small wins. But the gun advocates have the constitution on their side. Pro life advocates don’t (in fact, the supreme court precedent is against them).
    So the gun advocates are on top of a hill and defending their territory.
    The pro life crowd is on offense, trying to advance the agenda.
    The analogy is really rather that the gun rights advocates are similar to the pro-choice movement in that the pro-choice side also fights tooth and nail and doesn’t like to give an inch.
    Walsh criticizes the pro-life movement for being too quick to compromise. What’s the alternative? Especially when there is such vehement opposition? It’s not like a pro-life bill gets passed and the pro-choice advocates sit back and do nothing. States have passed laws requiring abortion clinics to educate women on alternative options. There’s a 2015 law in California which forces pro-life advocacy centers to post information about abortion. The battle rages on.
    You have to do things one step at a time. And so conservative state legislatures pass laws that help.  Walsh seems to call that “compromise,” but it’s utilitarian, it’s doing what you can today to save the unborn. Will it save them all? Sadly, no.
    Just because you can’t save everyone doesn’t mean you should give up at trying to save anyone in the pursuit of saving everyone. You do what you can.
    The pro-life side should most certainly not compromise or flinch from the value of all human lives, and having a deserve to protect the unborn. It should not compromise from the reality that life begins at conception. It should not compromise that abortion is wrong, because it is taking a life. And the pro-life side should continue beating the drum and fighting for new laws.

    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.

  • Eric Cantor’s humiliating defeat

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    Eric Cantor lost today. Pretty remarkable given his name recognition, given the fact that he is the house majority leader, given the fact that the congressional system is already setup to benefit incumbents, given the fact that he had the GOP machine backing him, given the fact that he outspent his challenger 5:1. Yet, he lost. And that’s wonderful. Because like so many of the other republicans in congress, Cantor is a disaster. John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and on and on. All of them are a bunch of big government, big spending RINO’s. All of them have been weak at standing up to Obama in terms of spending, in terms of him exceeding his power and working around congress to push his agenda. They all play political games while the country is driven further into the ground by an ever expanding and bloated federal government. (more…)