Stand, by Jon Benzinger
Week by week, Californians have moved to Middle Tennessee, and many of them have shown up at our SBC church, Redemption City in Franklin, Tennessee, where my son Jedidiah is pastor. James and Susan Hawley are a couple of West Coast expats who’ve joined our church, and we’ve come to learn they are remarkable people. For one thing, James is the son of a Disney screenwriter, who did the screenplay for the 1960 version of Swiss Family Robinson. Through the Hawleys, we’ve met their son-in-law, Jon Benzinger, the lead pastor of Redeemer Bible Church in Gilbert, Arizona. When I learned that he was writing a book critiquing “social justice” and had a chance to read the manuscript, I was more than happy to supply a word of commendation. And I was pleased to see that my old colleague at SBTS, Owen Strachan, wrote the foreword.
“Stand provides us a plain-spoken and persuasive case against the conceits of “social justice,” which is, in fact, anti-social (nurturing perpetual, destructive resentment) injustice (hostile to impartiality and other cognate virtues). Though bold and pointed in his critique, Benzinger shuns a no-holds-barred approach, for he takes pains to bind himself to the essential protocols of biblical fidelity, rational discourse, and both tough and tender love. And for those who want to press on in this study, the bibliography is choice and extensive.”