On Monday, the Supreme Court vacated a decision regarding a 2013 case of a Christian couple in Oregon who owned a bakery and refused to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding.
The matter was taken to a state agency who fined the bakery owners $135,000. It was said that the owners illegally discriminated based on sexual orientation. An Oregon appeals court upheld the ruling. (more…)
Alabama, Oregon, West Virginia.
All three states had state ballot issues related to abortion. The ballot issue narrowly passed in West Virginia, soundly passed in Alabama and was soundly defeated in Oregon.
The Alabama and West Virginia amendments both included the phrase: “Nothing in this Constitution secures or protects a right to abortion or requires the funding of an abortion.”
Based on the new state constitutional amendments, if Roe v Wade were overturned by the Supreme Court, there would not be a right within those states to have an abortion. The new law also potentially enables state legislatures more freedom in passing laws that help preserve the life and rights of the unborn.
These two amendments are based off of another pro life amendment that Tennessee passed in 2014. Writing for the Huffington Post, Marina Fang argues that these laws “would likely face legal action and would be unenforceable because Roe v. Wade ensures a woman’s right to an abortion.” She goes on to mention that it’s possible that Roe would be overturned.
But even if it’s not overturned, it’s also not a foregone conclusion that these laws would be judged as unconstitutional. Last month, the Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to the Tennessee amendment.
The West Virginia and Alabama laws also are set to eliminate funding for abortions.
In recent years, several states have been active in proposing legislation and constitutional amendments that protect the rights of the unborn.
These are big wins for the pro life movement and for the rights of the unborn. Many lives will be saved as a result of these new laws. It is important that other states pick up the baton and keep fighting for the rights of the unborn. When states fill to pass amendments, as was the case with Oregon, people need to keep fighting.
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.
Rape is one of the worst things that a person can do to someone.
As I consider the allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, there’s something that bothers me. The narrative has been spun as if a person doesn’t care about sexual assault or doesn’t care about women if they want evidence a crime actually happened.
The penalties for these crimes are sickeningly lenient. It’s a major societal problem.
But there still needs to be evidence. (more…)
I spent a few hours watching testimonies from Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford. Many will have conclusions that align with what they believed going into today’s hearing.
It was a lot of political grandstanding. The vote is still tomorrow. Half the country will be happy that Kavanaugh made it through. Half the country will be disgusted. And Saturday will be a new day to debate and argue and tear ourselves apart politically.
I don’t know what really did or didn’t happen. It doesn’t bother me to acknowledge that. I wasn’t there. I don’t personally know these people. I think some people make the mistakes of inherently dismissing the allegations. I think others make the mistake of taking the allegations as if they’re absolute facts.
I don’t know. I think we get so committed to wanting to be right that we don’t care about the truth. Truth is inherently good and worth knowing. And the goal of justice should always be to do the absolute best we can to evaluate things based on truth. Because these are real people who have real families and lives.
I do think that one of the great strengths of our criminal justice system is that people are innocent until proven guilty (I realize the hearing was not a criminal trial). I do think there needed to be some proof of the allegations before potentially destroying a man.
In the Bible, God is a God of truth. The world spreads a lot of lies and often finds reasons to put an agenda ahead of truth. We often look for confirmation rather than reality.
Jesus came full of grace and truth (John 1:17). The Word of God is truth (John 17:17). Jesus is called THE truth (John 14:6).
Truth is true regardless of if we want it to be. Truth is true regardless of if it’s hard. Truth is true regardless of if we don’t want it to be. For the sake of our society, truth needs to be a virtue that we never stop pursuing.
For all of us, I think that’s important to keep in mind. Not just in this case, but whenever we have an opinion, think critically, have a disagreement. Our love of truth needs to matter more than a desire to “win.”
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.
Few people can say that they’ve had a case go to the Supreme Court. Jack Phillips can. He’s the Colorado baker who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same sex couple in 2012. The couple took this to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission who ruled in favor of the couple.
According to the Supreme Court, the case addressed whether Colorado’s public accommodations law “violates the First Amendment as applied to an individual who declines to design and create custom wedding cakes for same-sex wedding celebrations that violate his sincerely held religious beliefs.”
In a 7-2 ruling, the court ruled in favor of Phillips. (more…)
