Josh Benner

Tag: constitution

  • SCOTUS gay marriage decision: 3 years later

    White_House_rainbow_colors_to_celebrate_June_2015_SCOTUS_same-sex_marriage_ruling.jpegIt was only three years ago today that the Supreme Court which guaranteed the right to marry for same-sex couples.

    It feels a lot longer ago than three years.
    It’s amazing how fast it all happened.
    Many years ago, the argument for recognizing the legal validity of same-sex marriages and unions was the “what if two people are in a loving relationship for many years and one is in the hospital. Their partner can’t visit them?”
    We’re so far beyond that now.
    A celebrity says something critical of same-sex marriage and there’s a backlash, efforts to boycott and essentially destroy the person.
    Tolerance has been traded for tyranny.
    The conversation has been crushed on this issue.

    State after state after state voted against it. 32 of 33 states where this was voted on, voted no. In 13 of those states, the vote wasn’t even close, with more than 70 percent of people voting to ultimately preserve the traditional American definition of a marriage.

    And now, it’s a fundamental right. And now, if a business owner doesn’t want to support it, he’s a hateful and bigoted. The public arena does not tolerate dissent, it doesn’t tolerate having any moral opinion on the matter other than enthusiastic support and affirmation.

    America has changed the definition of love, promoting the idea that you cannot love a person and simultaneously disagree with an aspect of his or her life. But love is not purely about affirmation. Everyone knows that. We see people do things all the time where we disagree with them but still love them.
    4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
    -1 Corinthians 13:4-7
    We flourish when we live in accordance with Godly wisdom. God’s ways are better than our ways. True joy and purpose is found in living for God, desiring to honor and follow God. Based on the Bible, it is my firm conviction that same-sex relationships are fundamentally inconsistent with this and are sinful.

    Love is meant to be unconditional. Love doesn’t mean to always love everything someone does but it means to love a person where they are today. Love is loving a person even if they never do live in agreement with what we think is moral or right.

    Love is also ultimately wanting the best for someone.
    In Evangelical circles, there have sadly been many examples of unloving treatment towards the LGBT community. This is tragic. Culturally, we’ve been losing the public discussion on LGBT issues.
    Part of the mistake that we make is we start at the wrong place. The Church shouldn’t be trying to save people to heterosexuality. We need to build relationships and spread the gospel. It is God who transforms souls and lives.

    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.

  • 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.