Josh Benner

Tag: tolerance

  • Cal student withholds support for transgenderism. People lose their minds

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    Isabella Chow is a student at University of California, Berkley. She serves on the Associated Students University of California, the university’s undergraduate student government. Recently, the student government voted on resolutions which condemned Trump Administration policies regarding Title IX and recognition of transgenderism. One consideration of the Trump Administration is not recognizing a person’s preferred gender if it is contrary to the sex with which they were born. Chow is a Christian and does not support the resolution. Instead of voting against the resolution, she decided to abstain. She later elaborated on her decision.

    Her choice has not been well received.

    (more…)

  • Tim Keller on an underlying motivation for tolerance

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    Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons @Frank Licorice

    I was reading an old sermon from Tim Keller, and was blown away by an observation he made regarding acceptance.

    “Some of us are extremely accepting. People will come to you and talk to you about their problems because you are so accepting. You are so non-judgmental. The reason you’re non-judgmental is … You’re gentle. The reason you’re gentle is because you have no self-control in your own life. You’re always falling down, and you’re always lapsing. You’re always breaking your own promises. You’re always breaking promises to others. That’s the reason why you’re so tolerant and accepting. You have no discipline of your own. That’s why you’re so open.

    In other words, your tolerance and your acceptance are not coming from humility and peace and joy. It’s just a way of dealing with your own conscience. Some people are incredibly unflappable. They seem to have peace, but they’re not gentle, and they’re not kind. Where did they get their peace from? They don’t care. They don’t care! That’s not real peace. These things will all break down.”

    -Tim Keller “New hope, new family”

    Acceptance and tolerance are popular ideas in our society. They’re basically the cardinal virtues of 21st century America.

    No matter what people do, accept and tolerate it. We call that love.

    I think Keller is onto something. We don’t want to acknowledge our own failures and sins and shortcomings and so we instead want to justify the actions of others so we can feel better about our own actions.

    The problem is that it doesn’t make us feel better. On the outside, it might, but we know our sinfulness in our own hearts. We know we often don’t even measure up to our own standards, let alone those of God.

    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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  • The Christian law school that wasn’t: Canadian Supreme Court rules against Trinity Western University

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    Today the Supreme Court of Canada ruled against Trinity Western University, a Christian liberal arts college which has been trying to establish a law school.
    From the legal brief:

    The Law Societies of British Columbia and Ontario had the power to deny approval to a proposed law school that would have required students to follow a religiously-based code of conduct restricting sexual behaviour, the Supreme Court has ruled.

    Students and faculty at TWU are required to follow a code of conduct. Among other things, this code of conduct forbids any sexual relations except for in a marriage between a man and a woman.

    After the school was turned down by the two law societies, TWU appealed the decision, which worked its way up to the Supreme Court who ruled against them today.

    Quoting again from the legal brief:

    The “public interest” included promoting equality by ensuring equal access to the legal profession, supporting diversity within the bar, and preventing harm to LGBTQ law students. Neither Law Society was stopping someone from following his or her own religious beliefs (including following the covenant if s/he wanted to). They only prevented TWU from enforcing beliefs on other members of the law school community.

    That last sentence is striking to me. Part of the issue is that TWU would have been “enforcing beliefs on other members of the law school community.” It’s not doing that because people have choice on if they go to that school or not. No other law school in Canada has that policy.
    This is a loss for religious liberty in Canada.
    Why can’t a law student have an option (one option) to go to a law school with a university that has Christian values at the core of its mission?
    Traditional Christian values are often criticize for being intolerant.
    In Canada (and largely in the United States), there is this push for LGBT tolerance that is increasing becoming intolerant of views that disagree, especially Christians who disagree.
    If you don’t support what they’re doing, then don’t go to school there. But don’t take the option away entirely.

    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.