I have spent the majority of my life in Evangelical Christian spaces. I have experienced a lot of church hurt. I now write to explore topics that often are at the intersection of politics and Christianity. My desire is to discover how we can move away from Christian nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and church hurt to reclaim the Gospel of Jesus together. I'm glad you're here to join the conversation. I look forward to talking with you.
When Faith Refuses Silence.
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Hello my friends, Given all that transpired this last week, at the intersection of Christianity and politics, from the nature of the National Prayer Breakfast and House Speaker Mike Johnson using scripture to frame the administration's position on immigration, I thought it would be fitting to reflect on the kind the kind of community Jesus is called his followers to embody in Matthew 5:13-20. Before we move on to our reflection, with Lent beginning on February 18th, I wanted to let you know that my re-release of my Lent devotional, "When Love Gets The Last Word" is now available, both as an ebook and an audiobook! You can read more about each one below. If you're interested in both, you can get them at a discount at checkout. I hope they are an encouragement to you.
My Other Articles This Week -Please Church, Wake Up. In this article, I reflect on the dissonance of how the president was praised as the greatest champion of Christianity our country has ever had in the White House at the National Prayer Breakfast in the morning of February 5th, then posting an overtly racist depiction of the Obamas as apes that night, and the state of American Christianity. -Mike Johnson’s Recent Use of the Bible. In this article, I reflect more at depth at how the speaker of the house frames the issue of immigration and supports the administration's position with scripture. -We are seeing the “mark of the beast” play out in real time before our eyes. In this article, I take a deep dive into the historical and linguistic context of the Book of Revelation and what I believe it is teaching us about our world today. When Faith Refuses Silence.Matthew 5:13-20 “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." As we remember from last week, Jesus spoke these words from a hillside on the margins of the Roman Empire. He is surrounded by peasants, the indebted, the grieving, the sick, and those ground down by those with great wealth and power. In the chapter right before this, he provided healing and care for their needs, beginning with compassion before instruction. The people he was speaking to live under heavy taxation they did not consent to, courts they couldn't trust, and a political order that called itself peace while sustaining itself by violence. Into this world, a world that looks eerily familiar to our own, Jesus begins to describe what a faithful community looks like. Jesus begins this teaching by giving people a vocation. You are the salt of the earth In the ancient world, salt was heavily used to preserve what was good from decay. It seasoned what was bland. It purified what was contaminated. It was small, ordinary, and yet indispensable. Jesus does not say to them, “Try to become salt.” Jesus says, You are salt. This means that the people most tempted to feel powerless are, in fact, entrusted with a quiet, transforming power. Such an important reminder for us today as well. Salt works by entering what is corrupt and slowing its rot. It does not conquer from above, it changes from within. So, Jesus is calling those who would follow him not to mirror the cruelty of the world, but to season it with justice, mercy, and truth. Themes he is constantly preaching on throughout the gospels. So, when dehumanizing language and images are shared from the highest office in the land, such as comparing Black people to apes, a centuries-old lie used to justify slavery and lynching, we are reminded why salt is desperately needed. Racism is a coercive form of decay. To stay silent in its presence is to let such toxic corruption spread. To speak truth, lament publicly, and refuse dehumanization is to be salt in the world. When Christian leaders baptize cruelty with scripture, when power is praised as godliness now matter how corrupt it might be, and when worship becomes a public spectacle rather than a fidelity to love, it is clear the salt of discipleship is losing its flavor. Jesus warns us that when the church becomes indistinguishable from the empire, it becomes useless to God’s purposes (Matthew 5:13). Salt is not meant to preserve unjust power structures. You are the light of the world Rome called itself “the light of the world.” Cicero often used that very phrase. In that context, Jesus skillfully transfers this identity to his small, vulnerable community. Instead of the grand empire, he is designating the community knit together by love to be the light of the world. As we know, light does two things. It reveals truth and it guides action. Light exposes what is hidden, not only literally, as in being able to navigate in the darkness, but spiritually as well. As when lies, cruelty, propaganda, abuse of power, silencing of victims, and the dehumanization of the vulnerable are brought into the light. This is why authoritarian systems fear light. They depend on secrecy, intimidation, and silence in order to secure and maintain their power. A city on a hill cannot be hidden (Matthew 5:14). Neither can a community of people that refuses complicity. To speak out against injustice in an unjust world will be as visible as a light on a stand. To let our light shine then does not mean self-righteous performance. Jesus says the light shines through good deeds, acts of mercy, courage, hospitality, and solidarity with the suffering (Matthew 5:16). When immigrants are terrorized, when families are separated, when witnesses are detained, when citizens are dragged from their homes half-naked into the snow, when legislation crushes the vulnerable, the sick, the hungry, the poor, being the light means showing up, speaking out, documenting truth, holding power accountable, and standing alongside those who cannot stand for themselves. And Jesus tells us why this matters. So that others may glorify a transforming divine power that is far beyond ourselves (Matthew 5:16). Faithful witness points beyond itself to a God who defends the oppressed and loves the marginalized. Not abolished, but fulfilled In a moment like ours, when some Christians use Scripture to defend cruelty rather than oppose it, it is crucial to hear Jesus clearly. So many of the issues in our time are often framed as a false binary. We are told that we have two choices: law and order or chaos and anarchy. When in reality, those who hold the highest positions of power, who write and enforce the law can cause just as much damage in their abuse of the law as those who break the law, if not more. Jesus was being criticized in a similar way in his time. Because he was constantly interpreting and applying the scriptures and God's law in ways that were different from the religious leaders, he was often framed as abandoning the law of God. In response to this, he states that he does not discard the Law, he fulfills it (Matthew 5:17). Fulfillment does not mean tightening rules, as the teachers of the law were doing. It means revealing God’s heart within them. The heart behind why the law was created and given in the first place. Throughout Matthew, Jesus interprets the Law through justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). The Law was always meant to protect the vulnerable, restrain violence, and nurture communal life, not to sanctify domination by the wealthy and powerful few. This is why appeals to Romans 13 that demand obedience to those in power without accountability distort Scripture. Paul himself was imprisoned and executed by the state for refusing unjust commands. The Hebrew midwives defied Pharaoh and were blessed by God (Exodus 1:17–21). Daniel resisted royal decrees (Daniel 6). Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused imperial worship (Daniel 3). Rahab protected the vulnerable against the king’s orders (Joshua 2). And the list goes on and on. Faithfulness to God sometimes requires holy, nonviolent resistance to unjust power. Jesus insists that not even the smallest letter of the Law will pass away (Matthew 5:18), because God’s justice endures forever. But Jesus’ fulfillment reveals that the deepest intent of the Law is love of God and neighbor (Matthew 22:37–40). As Paul himself states so eloquently in Romans 13:8-10, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,”and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” A righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees Towards the end of this discussion of the law, Jesus delivers a a rather shocking line: unless your righteousness exceeds that of the religious leaders and teachers of the law, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because while their righteousness followed the letter of the law, it so often denied the spirit of the law. Their righteousness was often performative, selective, and aligned with power. They tithed meticulously but neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23). They honored God with their lips while abandoning the suffering (Isaiah 29:13, cited by Jesus in Matthew 15:8–9). They were close to Rome and far from the poor. Surpassing their righteousness does not mean being more religiously strict. It means becoming more merciful, more courageous, more truthful, and more willing to stand with the least of these (Matthew 25:40). It means refusing to bless racism, refusing to sanctify cruelty, refusing to worship power, and refusing to let fear silence our conscience. What this means for us now Jesus calls us to be: Salt that resists decay, speaking truth where lies reign. Light that refuses darkness, revealing injustice and embodying mercy. A people shaped by a Law fulfilled in love, defending the vulnerable rather than fawning over the powerful. A righteousness marked by justice, mercy, and faithfulness, not spectacle or partisanship. This is not about seizing political power for ourselves. It is about bearing witness to a crucified Messiah whose kingdom subverts every empire built on fear. It is about holding power accountable to love while speaking truth to the love of power. As Amos thundered: God rejects worship that masks oppression and calls for justice to roll like a river (Amos 5:21–24). As Jesus said so plainly, the world will know his disciples by love (John 13:35). Love must be our reputation. It is a community of people who are committed to embody and to be known by love that our world desperately needs today. May it begin with those who claim to be followers of Jesus. A Prayer for Salt and Light Jesus, Make us salt that heals, Make us light that cannot be hidden, Forgive us when we have traded your gospel Teach us your fulfilled law, Give us courage to stand with the least of these, May our witness be gentle, our resistance nonviolent, And when the night feels long, In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Rev. Benjamin Cremer
I have spent the majority of my life in Evangelical Christian spaces. I have experienced a lot of church hurt. I now write to explore topics that often are at the intersection of politics and Christianity. My desire is to discover how we can move away from Christian nationalism, religious fundamentalism, and church hurt to reclaim the Gospel of Jesus together. I'm glad you're here to join the conversation. I look forward to talking with you.
We are seeing the “mark of the beast” play out in real time before our eyes. Let me explain. Revelation 13 talks about two beasts, not just one. This is really important. Probably one of the best ways I have learned to think about this passage is through word pictures. The author is inviting us into grand imagery to make a point. He is asking us to engage our imaginations fully. The “beasts” aren’t the point in and of themselves. What the beasts represent is the point. So, in Revelation 13,...
Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, recently used the Bible to uphold the administration’s position on immigration enforcement (Link to his post is below). What is most troubling about his defense of the administration’s immigration enforcement is not simply his conclusions, but the way the argument itself is framed. Again and again, opposition to current immigration policy and enforcement is caricatured as a desire for “open borders,” lawlessness, or disregard for public safety. That framing...
Thursday night, February 5th, the president of the United States shared a video on his Truth Social account  portraying the Obamas as apes. I want to be unmistakably clear about why this matters. This is not a joke. This is not “edgy humor.” This is not politics as usual. Comparing Black people to apes is one of the oldest, most poisonous lies in the history of racism. It is the foundational myth that has been used to justify slavery, segregation, lynching, and ongoing dehumanization. It is...