Hello my friends,

Thank you for being here today. Given the several inhumane and shocking events of this last week, I wanted to focus on a question posed in the Bible that I've written on before but doesn't seem to get a lot of attention. It is the question of why evil seems to prosper. My hope in this piece is to not only process the reality of all that is happening and ask this question together, but also to hopefully encourage you to continue forward in hope towards justice.

Recommended Resources

​-The rise of the Jim Crow theobros by Bob Smietana. I have been doing quite a bit of research lately on the New Christian Right. I encourage you to read this recent article that illuminates well the interior of the movement.

​-The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James H. Cone. This is one of the most impactful books I have ever read. It is such an important book. If you haven't read it, I highly encourage reading it if you haven't yet.

​-How to Make a Difference: Part 1 by Hidden Brain. This episode was so enlightening. I have always struggled with understanding my own agency and resilience. This really helped set things into perspective and I'm excited for Part 2.

​-The Other Side of Certainty: How to Follow Jesus When Easy Answers No Longer Work by Kristin Young. My Friend Kristin just published her first book! She is a very thoughtful and intentional pastor and thought leader. I encourage you to look into her new book.d

Why Do The Evil Succeed?

Jeremiah 12:1-2

"You are always righteous, O LORD, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit."

Job 21:7

"Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power?"

Psalm 73:3

"For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked."

Heartbreaking Headlines

Everyday feels like one more tragedy after another. Going through the news this last week, I felt the temptation to be hopeless as I read every article. The ongoing genocide in Gaza. The lack of justice for Nolan Wells. Another man shot by ICE then forced to stay in detention with a bullet lodged in his body. Another person dying in ICE detention after being denied insulin. The continued repercussions of the U.S.'s vote against equality and women's rights at the UN. The weakening of protections for endangered species. The potential threats to humanity from AI. And so much more.

It feels like it never ends. It feels like it's just getting worse everyday. I find myself asking God constantly why evil and those who perpetuate it seem to succeed.

I didn't always feel like I could be honest with God about questions like that. I felt like it would be disrespectful or put God's power into question. So, when I first encountered the scriptures I included above, I found them to be both refreshing and controversial at the same time. Internally, I thought these kinds of questions before, but I had never thought I could say them out loud let alone pray them to God! Yet there they were, right in the Bible. People doing just that. Asking God, "why do the wicked prosper?" It was encouraging to see that it has been a question as old as faith itself because it also always seems as current as the morning’s headlines.

It was also encouraging to see that God doesn't scold the one asking these questions for asking them. The practice of asking these tough questions as well as the posture of lament is instead encouraged all throughout scripture. It speaks to the timeless truth that a problem cannot begin to be addressed unless it is first acknowledged and confronted.

God is not a God who is so fragile as to be offended by hard questions. Only idols are that fragile.

Are you asking these questions too?

Many in our country are asking these questions today in so many different ways. Why does it seem that those who harm, lie, exploit, and dehumanize flourish while the vulnerable suffer?

Why are migrant children being mistreated and families torn apart by immigration enforcement?

Why are peaceful protestors being brutalized and people, citizens or not, dragged from their homes, cars, schools, and places of work, under the mere suspicion of being here illegally? Mostly due to the color of their skin.

Why are people being detained in conditions that strip human dignity in the name of "upholding the law"?

Why is healthcare and food assistance cut while those in power get richer?

Why is aid withdrawn, causing suffering and death beyond our borders, all by a party that claims to be "pro life?"

Why do we hear lie layered upon lie, propaganda endlessly repeated to make cruelty look necessary?

Why is such evil so often justified in the name of Christianity?

So we lament with the scriptures:

Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Why does injustice seem so efficient, so rewarded, so secure? Why do the wicked prosper?

The Bible gives answers to these questions but not as cleanly as we might like. It tells us first that asking questions like these is faithful and grieving the success of evil is not wavering in our faithfulness but rather it is revealing a moral clarity. It is being honest with God about what is breaking our hearts and asking the deeply truthful questions that pour out from our brokenness. The practice of lament refuses to normalize what God has called unjust. It refuses to confuse God's patience with approval, or delay with indifference. It is an act of resisting the evil that seems to be succeeding.

The Bible has many examples within its pages, like the book of Judges, that show injustice often seems to work. That violence can consolidate power and that lies can mobilize crowds. It shows us the hopelessness, especially of the oppressed, when those who exploit systems benefit from them and thrive from doing so. Like we are seeing now.

But Scripture also insists that this prosperity of evil is not proof of God's favor but rather, it is evidence of human free will and the use of it for evil rather than love.

The difficult call from God in the midst of watching evil succeed seems to be seeing it as an opportunity for renewal and pressing forward towards justice even though it feels like the walls are caving in. It is the call to trust that God’s patience is not God’s permission and that God is working towards dismantling evil, even though we can't see it. It is the call to see it as a space for repentance from those who are carrying out harm. A space for turning. A space for restoration. A hope that hard hearts might finally soften.

Thankfully, the Bible doesn't leave us in the space of witnessing the evil succeed as if that is all there is. Instead, it is unflinching about the end of the story. It tells us that the success of the wicked is always temporary and that while they seem to spring up quickly and thrive, their roots are shallow. That their wealth cannot shield them from truth and their power cannot outlast justice.

One of the very first examples of this in the Bible is Pharaoh, who ruled over ancient Israel, who had been enslaved for 400 years. Harsh working conditions, brutal laws, and not being treated with human dignity seemed to be all they would experience for generations to come. Yet even in the midst of this hopelessness, Exodus 3:7 breaks in and says, "The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering."

Perseverance Not Passivity

This tension between witnessing evil triumph and holding on to hope that we will overcome invites participation. While ultimate justice belongs to God, present faithfulness towards justice belongs to us and every moment is another opportunity to love and to advocate for healing and peace.

Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this with radical clarity as fascism rose around him in Nazi Germany, demanding total silence and compliance. In the midst of that reality, he preached in a sermon, saying:

“Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness and pride of power and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear rather than too much. Christendom adjusts itself far too easily to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now. Christians should take a stronger stand in favor of the weak rather than considering first the possible right of the strong."

You see, authoritarianism like fascism depends on something more than weapons, wealth, and laws. It depends on compliance through loyalty, fear, despair, or just apathy. It needs people who no longer trust their own conscience. People who outsource moral responsibility to systems and political figures that implement their way by force. People who are convinced that questioning is dangerous and total obedience to power is holy. People who are simply afraid of what will happen if they take a stand and speak truth to power.

The biblical story runs powerfully in the opposite direction. God consistently interrupts fear before confronting empires. Moses trembles and says he doesn't speak well, but he still walks into Pharaoh’s court and says "let my people go!" because fear does not get the final word.

The prophets spoke truth to power because silence would betray their calling, even when it cost them everything. Like when the prophet Isaiah spoke to those in power and said, "Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the orphan. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help Where will you leave your riches?" (10:1-3)

In Luke 1, Mary, the soon to be mother of Jesus, sings of thrones toppling before her son ever preaches a sermon, announcing that God’s revolution lifts up the lowly, fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich and proud away empty.

Jesus also refuses to be governed by fear. Fear of rejection, fear of suffering, even fear of death, and in doing so exposes how fragile and insecure violent, coercive power really is.

This is why authoritarianism fears hope and joy so deeply. Because hope sustains resistance. And joyful resistance, when it is nonviolent and grounded in love, cannot be crushed without revealing the truth at the heart of authoritarian domination. That it is temporary, insecure, fragile, and its control will not last.

This is where hope still lives. Not in denial, not in silence, but in faithful refusal. Hope looks like lament that tells the truth. Hope looks like nonviolent resistance that refuses to mirror the cruelty it opposes. Hope looks like compassion that does not grow numb but continues to advocate for the least among us by speaking truth to power. Hope looks like followers of Jesus who remember daily to love all our neighbors as ourselves.

If you are overwhelmed by all the cruelty and tempted into hopelessness, you are a good person and on the right side of history. Those in power want nothing more than to steal your hope and drive you into apathy. Keeping your empathy and hope alive is an act of resistance.

So we must press on. Not because it is easy. Not because we are certain that everything will be alright. But because love demands it of us. We have been called to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves, and that is what we must do.

Faithful Action in a Time Like This

• Practice public lament. Name injustice honestly in prayer, writing, conversation, and contacting your representatives. Refuse the spiritualization of injustice.
• Commit to nonviolent resistance. Support movements and practices that protect life without reproducing harm.
• Speak the truth clearly. Challenge lies, propaganda, and dehumanizing narratives wherever they appear.
• Stand with the vulnerable. Accompany immigrants, advocate for humane policies, protect those targeted by cruelty.
• Stay rooted in community. Isolation breeds despair. Shared courage sustains hope.
• Refuse the worship of power. Let allegiance to Christ shape conscience more than allegiance to any nation or leader. Encourage others to do the same.

A Prayer

God of justice and mercy,
we bring you our grief and our anger,
our confusion and our exhaustion.

We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer,
and our hearts ache with the weight of it.
How long, O Lord?

Keep us from despair that numbs the soul.
Keep us from fear that silences truth.
Give us courage that does not harden into hatred
and hope that does not drift into denial.

Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent,
to speak truth without losing love,
to stand with the weak without bowing to power.

Teach us to lament faithfully,
to act courageously,
and to trust that no injustice escapes your sight.

Until justice rolls down like waters
and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream,
keep us rooted in love.

Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Day Devotional: I wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus through the season of we are currently navigating together. You can find out more below: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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