Hello my friends,

I wanted to start today's newsletter off with an encouraging message I received from someone who follows me on Facebook. In a world like ours that can often feel like people don't change, I found his message so inspiring. I hope it encourages and inspires you as well.

"Rev Cremer, been following you on FB for a few weeks as I find you are eminently quotable -thank you for all the wisdom nuggets. I just read your comments on guns and wanted to encourage you by sharing my story briefly: I am 67 yo and was a lifelong "religious rightist" and NRA member until recently. With the help of thought leaders like you and Rob Schenk, Shane Claiborne and others, I have seen that I was guilty of the sin you describe here - my relationship with guns/rights was idolatrous & immoral. I have since resigned by membership in the NRA and become an advocate for sensible gun laws. If an old guy like me can listen and change, you know that you are influencing many others as well. Blessings and encouragement to you, Brother!" -Gary

You can read my writing about the gun problem within Christianity he was responding to here.​

On that encouraging note, I want to think with you today about what the “thoughts and prayers” response to mass shootings from those who claim to be Christians says about some of the deeper problems we are seeing in broader Christian culture as a whole. I then want to end today by thinking about the fruit of repentance and the role of restorative justice in our faith.

But first, here are some things that have me thinking recently.

RESOURCES TO CONSIDER

-More than 30 years ago, a Native American man named Al Smith was fired for ingesting peyote at a religious ceremony. When his battle made it all the way to the Supreme Court, the decision set off a thorny debate over when religious people get to sidestep the law — a debate we’re still having today. You can hear all about this on the recent episode of the podcast "More Perfect."

-I am currently re-reading "Christ the Center," by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It cogently presents the basis of Bonhoeffer’s thinking about Jesus Christ and offers the key to his entire theology. Since Bonhoeffer formulated these thoughts both during and after Hitler's rise to power in his country in an attempt to encourage the church to speak truth to the abuse of power unfolding, this book is an helpful guide to faith and action in uncertain and fearful times.

Okay, onto today's content.

Thoughts and Prayers vs Fruit of Repentance

I think one of the most important things to notice about this topic is when the phrase “thoughts and prayers” is invoked by Christians in politics and when it is not.

Imagine if “thoughts and prayers” was the pro-life movement’s response to abortion for the last 50+ years. Imagine if “thoughts and prayers” was the current response to “CRT,” certain books, immigration, public health guidelines, or drag shows.

If “thoughts and prayers” was the response to these issues and others, we would be in a completely different political landscape today, wouldn’t we?

“Thoughts and prayers” isn’t invoked towards numerous other political issues that our culture hears Christians speaking out loudly about. Yet, it is invoked every single time there is a mass shooting. Instead of Christians being heard advocating taking action and making policy changes as we hear on so many other political issues, we overwhelmingly hear “thoughts and prayers.”

While I do believe prayer and thinking critically about issues is so vital, I also believe that using “thoughts and prayers” as our only response not only spiritualizes apathy, but causes our culture to see us as hypocrites.

I think this says so much about how so many Christians approach so many different political issues than just gun violence. I think it reveals deeper issues that leads to hypocritical approaches to politics as a whole that our culture witnesses far too often.

I just want to touch on two of these characteristics today: absolutism and distrust.

ABSOLUTISM

Moral absolutism: the belief in absolute standards against which moral questions can be judged, regardless of context.

Have you ever noticed, especially online, how so many political issues are framed by Christians in the public eye in such stark, either/or, absolutist ways? As if the choices we have about gun control is either taking all the guns away or not changing anything about our relationship with guns as a culture at all. As if the choices we have about abortion is between women having the freedom to make their medical choices or millions of babies dying every day. As if the choices we have about learning American history is between loving our country and only reading the good parts of our history or hating our country and reading the terrible parts of our history too. As if the choices we have about police brutality is either supporting our police and ignoring police brutality or hating the police and confronting police brutality. As if the choices we had during the pandemic was no public health guidelines or all out tyranny. And the list goes on and on.

When we frame such complex and controversial issues in such absolutist, either/or, extreme ways, we literally lose the ability to think clearly about them let alone have honest, humble dialogue about them. It completely inhibits our ability to ever move forward with a shared sense of understanding together on these complicated issues of our time. Absolutism destroys unity.

While absolutism destroys unity, framing issues this way is very politically productive because it breeds fear in people’s hearts and plays on their authentic desires for good things to happen in our world. This is why we see it everywhere.

When those in power can convince people to fear things that are happening and that there are really only two choices on any given issue and they are on the right side of that issue, it makes their ability to get elected and gain power much easier.

As we have seen, unfortunately, this kind of absolutist rhetoric within Christian political dialogue spreads like a plague, shaping pastor’s sermons and even one on one conversations between family members and friends.

This contributes to those feelings of hopelessness we have all felt, as if it is impossible to see eye to eye with those we love on certain issues.

Absolutism can only exist within the confines of fear and fear is a deeply persuasive and powerful tool to use when you are trying to gain power and control.

This is at the heart of why I think it is so antithetical for Christians to deal in the currency of absolutism.

Not only because we are called to be a people who’s “fear is cast out by perfect love,” but we are also called to be a people of humble faith, not rigid certainty.

When we claim to follow Jesus, who taught not in absolutes, but with long parables and sermons to invoke further thought and wrestling with big issues, we should be the last people who resort to absolutism in our approach to such complicated issues that face our world today.

We Christians today should be seen as faithful disciples who are asking the right questions rather than absolutists who are claiming to have all the right answers for everyone else.

Instead of displaying the fruits of absolutism, which is fear, rigidity, pride, impatience, legalism, coercion, tribalism, bitterness, and animosity towards anyone who believes differently, we Christians are called to display the fruits of the Spirit, which are, as you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

DISTRUST

Distrust: the feeling that someone or something cannot be relied upon.

Absolutism goes hand in hand with distrust in so much of the public Christian political dialogue.

As is likely very obvious to you, so much of that distrust is directed towards the government. Now, I believe a level of skepticism towards political leaders and the government as a whole can be healthy. Yet the amount of absolute distrust towards the government I have see, especially from within Evangelicalism, is just as absolutist as the way so many other political issues are framed.

It is as if the choice we have is that we can either completely trust the government and fall into tyranny or distrust the government and maintain our freedom.

Probably the most famous summation of this distrust came from Ronald Reagan’s inaugural speech on January 20, 1981, where he said, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem."

Can you hear how fearful that perspective is? The government can’t be any kind of solution? It is only a problem and nothing else? Do we as Christians really want to be known for being that distrustful?

Again, this kind of distrust is based in an inaccurate perspective of reality. This distrust is based on the belief that government is inherently evil and can do absolutely nothing good so it must be kept as limited as possible.

It doesn’t take into account all the good things government has done, not only in our country, but countries around the world. It only exacerbates its faults as if evil is its only quality.

Yet, here again we also see Christian hypocrisy on display. Notice the wholesale support of government officials who claim to be Christian and favor Christianity? As if the government magically becomes good simply because Christians are in charge.

Moreover, look at how much government overreach and corruption is supported when it comes to issues championed by many Christians. Like the extreme measures against reproductive care for women and the attempts to overturn the election results in 2020 that was based on a lie, just to name two examples.

In Idaho for example, my home state where I was born, and now live and work, has some of the most restrictive and harshest abortion laws in the country (https://www.huffpost.com/entry/idaho-abortion-ban-crisis_n_6446c837e4b011a819c2f792). So much so that doctors are leaving our state and new doctors are refusing to come due to how vague the laws are and how easily someone could accuse them for helping with the complexities of reproductive care. This is causing a crisis of healthcare here. We have already closed two OBGYN clinics in rural parts of Idaho with more sure to close.

This is not only impacting reproductive care in deeply negative ways, but due to the decreasing amount of healthcare professionals, it is projected to cause extended wait times and delay for needed care for all people everywhere in the state, bringing negative ramifications I don’t even want to imagine to healthcare for everyone.

I don’t want babies to perish. I also don’t want women to perish. I also don’t believe in stripping women of their rights, including the freedom to make their own medical decisions. I also believe that the best way to prevent abortions is to dismantle systems of poverty, demand affordable childcare, paid family leave, better aid for those caught in domestic abuse, access to quality education, including reproductive education, increased access to quality medical care, and so many other ways that have been shown to make abortions unnecessary. I believe in trusting women, not distrusting them, demonizing them, and removing rights and freedoms from them.

With 7 out of 10 women who have had abortions identifying as Christian, this isn’t an issues of “the world.” This is an issue that impacts our very own. Yet, with the legalistic and harsh approach we are seeing in not only the rhetoric and legislation on this issue from those claiming to follow Jesus, one would be hard pressed to see how Christians are owning this as something impacting the very people they claim to love.

Note: you can read a Biblical reflection I wrote on abortion here.

As a husband, it scares me to think that if my wife were to become pregnant again and something unexpected happened that would require life saving reproductive care, her medical decisions would be in the hands of the state of Idaho, rather than between her and her doctor.

As a father, it scares me to think that Foster would not get adequate health care in the future with the depletion of trained medical professionals.

As a pastor, it scares me to think that members of my congregation might also experience the same deficit of medical attention in the future that many are projecting.

As a Christian, I am appalled that so many in my state protested covid protocols under the banner of “medical freedom,” and “opposing government overreach,” yet the exact opposite is true in their approach towards reproductive care in this state.

Keep in mind, this is the same legislature that recently passed a law to reinstitute the firing squad as a means of execution in Idaho and where conservatives are being censured by other conservatives for not being far-right enough!

This is just one area where the government is not only trusted without question, but overreach is supported and encouraged by those who would call it “tyranny” if the same were to happen on issues they oppose. We can see this in many other issues Christians tend to support as well.

It seems as though the government is trusted only when it comes to issues Christians support and when it comes to carrying out punitive measures against those Christians see as their enemies. It is very “eye for an eye.”

Yet, when it comes to helping the poor, the marginalized, the immigrants, the oppressed, or other vulnerable groups, or confronting something like gun violence in our country, the government is suddenly seen as not only incapable of helping, but an evil entity unworthy of anyone’s trust by many Christians.

This is the result of decades of political rhetoric, interestingly from free market fundamentalists in the early years of our country, who advocated deep distrust in any government regulations over industry and business. (You can read more about that history here). This rhetoric has turned into a foundational element of the religious right regarding many issues it opposes, as we saw in Raegan’s own words, one of the paragons of the religious right.

It is limited government for the things the religious right disagrees with and government overreach for the things the religious right agrees with.

Again, this seems so antithetical for a people who have been called by God to walk in humility, seek justice, and love mercy. This seems so antithetical for a people who have been called by Jesus to model his humility, his love, his compassion, and his use of power, which loos like a washbasin and a cross rather than a gavel or a sword.

If we Christians claim to follow Jesus, God incarnate, who used his power to lay down his life for the world, rather than making the world to obey him through force, why on earth would we have such a forceful and unmerciful approach to political power in our world ourselves?

This dynamic consistently baffles me and breaks my heart. It is so antithetical to the way of Jesus.

We need to instead produce fruit that shows we have changed our hearts and lives to look more like Jesus.

The Fruit of Repentance

During John the Baptist’s ministry, something incredibly relevant to this discussion happened.

In Matthew 3:7-9 we read, “Many Pharisees and Sadducees came to be baptized by John. He said to them, “You children of snakes! Who warned you to escape from the angry judgment that is coming soon? Produce fruit that shows you have changed your hearts and lives. And don’t even think about saying to yourselves, Abraham is our father. I tell you that God is able to raise up Abraham’s children from these stones.”

The Pharisees and Sadducees were among the religious and political elite of John the Baptist’s day. Comparable to many religious figures who have similar religious and political status we have in the United States today.

We Christians so often think of repentance as applying only to “non believers” let alone our religious leaders.

So why was John the Baptist call these religious leaders to bare the fruit of repentance?

Well, we get a little hint when he says, “don’t think of saying to yourselves that Abraham is your father for God could raise children of Abraham from these stones.”

Many religious and political elites of John’s day had used their pedigree and status as children of Abraham to not see any need for their own repentance and justification for how they were treating others.

The predatory economy that was being perpetrated by the Roman Empire and by the Temple practices were devouring the poor, the window and the orphan.

And it was all perfectly legal.

You see, in that context, which historians call the “Second Temple Period,” Jerusalem’s population was characterized by extreme social stratification, both economic and religious, which grew incredibly pronounced over the years.

There existed in the city a clear distinction between a rich and powerful elites and the wider poor population.

Many of the religious leaders were among the rich and powerful elites, who propagated and benefited from unjust practices against the poor.

This is the very reason Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, ruining a whole weekend of business. They were exploiting the poor.

Right here is why it is so important to make the distinction between keeping the peace and making peace.

Keeping the peace means maintaining the status quo, even if it means doing so by force and coercive laws. Even if it means exploiting others to do so.

Making peace on the other hand means proactively bringing an end to the practices that harm and hurt the most vulnerable and instituting measures that benefit them instead. Measures that actually “make peace.”

The Greek word for “repentance” used all over the New Testament is μετανοέω (metanoeó). It literally means “change of mind” or “change of purpose.” In fact, it is the same root word as metamorphosis, the process we use to talk about a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. It is a real shift of mind and of purpose to something radically different.

So, this is the “fruit” of a changed heart and life that John is asking for the religious leaders to produce is living in a way that is radically different from the systems in which they were currently participating.

They can’t just rely on their religious pedigree, social status, or political influence. No, they must produce fruit that is inline with the practices of the “kingdom of heaven.” The vision of the world we are promised through Christ Jesus.

As we Christians read this text, it is so important to understand that we are who John is talking about. We are the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Especially in the United States, we Christians are among the rich and powerful religious elites. We are the ones who have held privilege and power since the founding of the United States. We, as in mostly white Christian males such as myself, are the ones who have had a say in the direction of the economy, the laws, and the land in our country.

We have much more in common with Pharisees, Sadducees, and even the Romans than we do with John the Baptist or the rest of first century Israel.

With this long legacy of controlling wealth and power, what ways would John be calling us to collectively “produce fruit that shows you have changed your heart and lives” today?

You see, it is no secret that in the history of the United States, indigenous Americans, people of color, women, people of other religions, members of the LGBT community, people with disabilities, they have all been subject to discrimination and violence at the hands of Christians with a lot of wealth and power.

It is no secret that white supremacy, antisemitism, sexism, greed, patriarchy, and nationalism have all majorly influenced Christianity in periods of our nation’s history.

It is no secret that even now, as antisemitism, homophobia, and sexism swell in our culture along with the sentiments of Christian nationalism, it is hard not to see our lamentable past continue to collide with our present.

So, what ways would John be calling us to collectively “produce fruit that shows you have changed your heart and lives?”

Growing up Evangelical, I heard over and over again that I needed to call out sin. Yet sadly, when so many of us Christians call out the very real sins of antisemitism, racism, homophobia, sexism, greed, and political idolatry, we get called “progressive” pejoratively, rather than seen as calling out sin.

But, when we don’t reckon with these sins, when we don’t collectively repent from them, especially those of us in positions of privilege and power, the damaging ways are just allowed to continue on as they did before.

We will just keep responding with empty sentiments like “thoughts and prayers,” rather than producing by producing the fruit of repentance showing that our hearts and lives have been radically changed by Jesus.

We Christians can’t just rely on our pedigree, our claims of “being saved” or our social status, wealth, or power.

We Christians must follow Jesus away from the ways of fear, distrust, hostility, and violence into his ways of humility, justice, and mercy.

That is the fruit of repentance. It is not only seeing glimpses of the world prophesied about Jesus in the world around us, but through the way we live our very lives.

It is where the work of our lives contribute to the dismantling of violence and the flourishing of our fellow human beings.

I think what John is getting at is that the kingdom of God needs to start within ourselves. Within our own “hearts and lives.”

When we continue to allow ourselves to be shaped by the fear and hostility that seems so abundant in our world, we can’t help but treat others with fear and hostility as well, especially from our positions of power.

I deeply pray that this kind of repentance takes root within American Christianity and our culture begins to see us not as a people who only respond in harsh absolutes towards the issues we believe in and spiritualized apathy and even hypocrisy towards those we don’t, but as a people who pursue restorative justice in our world.

Christianity in America doesn’t need more political power and cultural influence. Christianity in America needs more humility, integrity, wisdom, kindness, compassion, consistency, and consideration of the needs of others in how it approaches political power and influencing culture.

Now I want to hear from you. How do you relate to this dynamic I am describing here? Do you feel like it rings true? What things would you have added that I may have missed about how it applies to our world today? Reply to this and let me know your thoughts.

Also, would you let me know what things are bringing you hope lately? What things bring you joy? Big or small, I would love to hear about the sources of hope and joy you see in the world.

If you benefit from this project and would like to support it through a recurring gift, you can do so here: There's a $5/mo, $10/mo, and a $15/mo available.

If you’d like to support it through a one time gift, you can do that here: one-time-gift.​

Thank you all for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every week.​

I look forward to talking with you.

Sincerely,

Ben

PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

​The Gospel Comforts the Disturbed and Disturbs the Comfortable​

​Symbolic Christianity vs Substantive Christianity​

​The Humility of God​

​Why We Need Resurrection​

​Trading Jesus for Barabbas​

​The Gun Problem is a Sin Problem​

​The Sin Of Christian Wrath​

​Hate Masquerading As Christian Love​

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