Josh Benner

Tag: tyranny

  • British judge orders woman to have abortion

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    Update: A British appeals court has overturned this decision. I’m pleased by that result, however this story is still a chilling reminder of the control a government can try to exercise over citizens. 
    A British court has ordered a British woman to have an abortion. The unnamed woman is in her 20s, but due to a mental disability, has the mental capacity of a child between the ages of six and nine.
    The judge called the decision “heartbreaking” but also believes that the ruling is in the best interest of the mother.
    According to reports, the woman wanted to keep the baby. Her mother, a former midwife, had said she would help her daughter raise the child. Yet the judge still ruled against her.

    (more…)

  • Shattered peace: 80th anniversary of Nazi’s “Night of Broken Glass”

    From National Holocaust Memorial Museum
    From National Holocaust Memorial Museum

    Throughout Germany and Austria, riots broke out on this night 80 years ago in a night which is infamously referred to as Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, after the destruction done to Jewish businesses and properties.

    At least 91 Jewish people were killed; 30,000 men were arrested; hundreds of businesses were damaged or destroyed. Nearly every synagogue in Germany or Austria was damaged or destroyed. (more…)

  • 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.