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.
Why Do The Wicked Prosper?
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Hello my friends, Thank you for being here. I feel like I write "it has been another heavy week" every week now, sadly. Given the several inhumane and shocking events of this last week, I wanted to focus on a question posed in the Bible that doesn't seem to get a lot of attention. The question of why the wicked seem 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. Why Do The Wicked Prosper?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." When I first encountered these scriptures, it felt like a drink of fresh, cool water. I had quietly thought these kinds of questions before, but I had never thought to 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 is a question as old as faith itself because it also always seems as current as the morning’s headlines. Are you finding that you are asking these questions too? It is important to note that scripture does not scold these kinds of questions. The opposite is true. The authors of scripture preserved them for us. Because they learned that God knows that when injustice multiplies and cruelty is rewarded, silence is not faith, it is fracture. So speaking these things both to God and one another is not only faithfully honest, it is taking steps towards healing. Many in our country are asking this question today not as a theological exercise, but as a cry from the gut. Why does it seem that those who harm, lie, exploit, and dehumanize flourish while the vulnerable suffer? We have now seen horrific videos of Rene Good and Alex Pretti being shot and killed at point blank range in encounters with immigration enforcement that should never have turned deadly. We have witnessed children being mistreated and families torn apart by immigration enforcement marked more by terror than care. We witness peaceful protestors being brutalized and people, citizens or not, dragged from their homes into the cold under the mere suspicion of being here illegally. We read reports of people being detained in conditions that strip human dignity rather than uphold law. We see healthcare and food assistance cut while hunger and illness rise. We see aid withdrawn as suffering spreads far beyond our borders. We hear lie layered upon lie, propaganda repeated until cruelty is called necessity and violence is renamed as "law and order." And all the while, the powerful grow wealthier, more insulated, and more untouchable. So we lament with the scriptures: Why do the wicked live, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? The Bible gives answers to these question but not cleanly. It tells us first that this lament is faithful. To grieve the success of evil is not weakness, it is moral clarity. It is being honest with God about a deeply truthful question. Lament refuses to normalize what God has called unjust. It refuses to confuse God's patience with approval, or delay with indifference. Scripture acknowledges a rather unbearable paradox. That for a time, injustice often seems to work. That violence can consolidate power. That lies can mobilize crowds. That those who exploit systems often benefit from them and thrive from doing so. But Scripture also insists that this prosperity is not proof of God's favor. It is evidence of a world still groaning. It is evidence of human free will and the use of it for evil rather than love. The difficult call of this unbearable paradox is seeing it as an opportunity for renewal and pressing forward towards justice. To trust that God’s patience is not God’s permission. It is space for repentance from those who are carrying out harm. It is a space for turning. A space for restoration. A hope that hearts finally might soften. Scripture doesn't leave us in this paradox, though. It is also unflinching about the end of the story. It tells us that the success of the wicked is always temporary. That while they seem to spring up quickly and thrive, their roots are shallow. That their wealth cannot shield them from truth. That their power cannot outlast justice. Psalm 73 for example turns when the psalmist enters the sanctuary, not to escape reality, but to see it clearly. There, he realizes that what looked like permanence is actually vapor, and what looked like defeat was not the final word. Paradox Not Passivity This tension then does not invite passivity. It invites participation. Because while ultimate justice belongs to God, present faithfulness belongs to us. Every moment is another opportunity to love and to advocate for healing and peace. Pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer saw this with devastating clarity as authoritarianism rose around him in Nazi Germany, demanding silence and compliance. He preached in a sermon: “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." Bonhoeffer did not survive because of his resistance. He survived with it. His integrity was intact even when his life was taken from him in a concentration camp two weeks before America liberated the camp. You see, authoritarianism depends on something more than weapons and laws. It depends on compliance through fear and despair. It needs people who no longer trust their own conscience. People who outsource moral responsibility to slogans and systems that implement their way by force. People who are convinced that questioning is dangerous and total obedience to power is holy. But the biblical story runs in the opposite direction. God consistently interrupts fear before confronting empire. Moses trembles, but he still walks into Pharaoh’s court and says "let my people go!" because fear does not get the final word. The prophets speak truth to power because silence would betray their calling, even when it cost them everything. Mary sings of thrones toppling before her son Jesus 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 power really is. This is why authoritarianism fears hope so deeply. Because hope sustains resistance. And resistance, when it is nonviolent and grounded in love, cannot be crushed without revealing the lie at the heart of authoritarian domination. That it is temporary, insecure, 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 cruelty. Hope looks like compassion that does not grow numb. Hope looks like a church that remembers who it belongs to. So we must press on. Not because it is easy. Not because we are naïve. 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 will do. Faithful Action in a Time Like This
A PrayerGod of justice and mercy, We see the wicked prosper and the innocent suffer, Keep us from despair that numbs the soul. Strengthen our resolve to resist violence without becoming violent, Teach us to lament faithfully, Until justice rolls down like waters 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.
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