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- Pastor Ben
- Nov 20
When the Church Pretends It’s Not Involved
Every year on November 20, we read the names of trans people murdered in the last twelve months.
We call it Trans Day of Remembrance.
We talk about “violence,” as if it just appears out of nowhere, like bad weather. We talk about “hate,” as if it lives only in the hearts of a handful of unstable strangers.
We almost never talk about the systems that trained that hate.We almost never talk about the pulpits.
- Pastor Ben
- Oct 5
Updated: Oct 6
Here is Pastor Ben's sermon from Oct 5, 2025
Texts: Luke 1:46–55; Luke 4:16–21
Over the last few months, the question I hear most is: “What do we do now?” People of faith—and our neighbors of different faiths or no faith—feel the same swirl: fear, anger, confusion, and fatigue. The news feels relentless. The problems feel bigger than our capacity.
When I don’t know what to do, I fix my eyes on Jesus. And when I do that in Luke’s Gospel, a word keeps rising to the surface: resistance. Not partisan combat. Not cynicism. But the way of Jesus—the holy, non-violent, love-rooted refusal to cooperate with fear, lies, and dehumanization, paired with the active practice of God’s kingdom: truth, mercy, justice, hospitality, and peace.
That’s the heart of my new book, RESIST. It’s political in the sense that Jesus’ good news has public consequences, but it’s not partisan. This is discipleship: following Jesus in a world that forms us every day to love our tribe, hoard our outrage, and ignore our neighbor. RESIST is about a different formation.
In the same way, today’s Gospel message calls us into holy resistance: a life shaped by Jesus’ good news in Luke—good news that frees captives, lifts the lowly, resets the guest list, and turns exploiters into restorers. The Days of Awe teach us to return (teshuvah) together; Luke shows us what we are returning to: a community where mercy reorders power, tables are widened, and neighbors are seen. What we pray in Avinu Malkeinu—our longing for belonging, justice, and repair—Jesus announces and embodies. That’s the road we’ll walk today.
Magnify: What We Aim Our Lives At
“My soul magnifies the Lord… He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly; He has filled the hungry with good things.” (Luke 1:46, 52–53)
Mary is not making God bigger; she is bringing God into focus. What we magnify forms us. If we magnify fear, we’ll be discipled by fear. If we magnify the Lord, we’ll be discipled by hope. Avinu Malkeinu and the Magnificat are songs that train our attention. They take our scattered hearts and tune them to mercy, justice, and kinship.
Howard Thurman warned, “Hatred destroys the core of the life of the hater.” If I magnify my enemies, I become their mirror. If I magnify the Lord, I become His witness.
Big Idea
Christian resistance is a spiritual practice—daily, communal, and public—where we refuse what dehumanizes and embody Jesus’ alternative: truth, mercy, justice, hospitality, and peace. It’s not partisan rage. It’s discipleship with public shape.
We are asking our Membership to affirm this letter of public witness, written by our Board.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere… Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” — Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail (1963).
“The church… must not simply bandage the victims under the wheel, but jam a spoke into the wheel itself.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “The Church and the Jewish Question” (1933).
Throughout its history, the Christian Church has recognized its sin in social and political affairs and sought a more faithful future. In light of rising authoritarianism and political violence in America, the perversion of the Christian faith by Christian Nationalism, and the temptation for Christians to align themselves with worldly power, we are compelled to raise our voices as one.
We, the members of Riverfront Family Church, speak as followers of Jesus and as American Baptists. We confess that the church has often failed in public life. We also claim our own tradition of confessing and resisting when the gospel is bent to serve unjust power. In 1934, confessing Christians gathered at Barmen to declare that the church belongs to Christ alone: “Jesus Christ … is the one Word of God which we have to hear … trust and obey.” They also drew a bright line against state idolatry: “We reject the false doctrine … [that] the state … should and could become the single and totalitarian order of human life.”
In 1985, South African Christians issued the Kairos Document and began with a summons we feel again today: “The time has come. The moment of truth has arrived.” They insisted that peace cannot bypass justice: “No reconciliation is possible … without justice.” These witnesses teach us to test politics by the gospel—not bend the gospel to politics.
Our biblical grounding:
• Scripture sets the plumb line.
• God announces good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed (Luke 4:18–19).
• The Lord requires justice, mercy, and humble walking (Micah 6:8).
• Let justice roll down like waters (Amos 5:24).
• We wrestle “not against flesh and blood” but against “the powers and principalities” (Ephesians 6:12).
• We honor the image of God in every person (Genesis 1:26–27; James 3:9–10)
• We confess that in Christ we belong to one another (Galatians 3:28).
Our Baptist convictions:
As American Baptists, we cherish religious liberty, freedom of conscience, and the separation of church and state. A free church in a free state protects faith from state control and protects the public square from religious coercion. Any movement—left or right—that seeks state privilege for religion, suppresses dissent, or coerces conscience contradicts our faith and Baptist history.
We affirm human dignity as a basic right and reject prejudice in all its forms—including racism, antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, sexism, and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Our Baptist policy statements commit us to human rights and denominational inclusiveness that “devalue no person.” We apply those commitments today to defend our transgender siblings’ safety, dignity, and full participation in civic life.
The present challenge:
Our struggle is not with individuals. We resist the powers and patterns that deform public life:
• Christian nationalism that seeks to merge state power with religious identity.
• Contempt for truth through disinformation and grievance politics.
• Authoritarian tactics that excuse political violence and undermine free elections.
• Policies that target immigrants and religious or racial minorities, restrict voting, or punish critics.
• Rhetoric and beliefs that perpetuate white supremacy and racism.
• Laws and practices that erase or endanger LGBTQ+ neighbors—especially transgender people— through discrimination, denial of healthcare, and public harassment.
Our commitments
Because Jesus is Lord—and because love is the measure of public faith—we commit to:
• Tell the truth. We reject conspiracy and dehumanizing speech; we practice truth-telling that builds trust. (Ephesians 4:25)
• Protect conscience and religious liberty for all. We oppose any fusion of church and state and any state use of religion to harm minorities.
• Defend democracy (“people-power”). We reject political violence and support the peaceful transfer of power, free and fair elections, and equal access to the vote. (Romans 13 read with Acts 5:29)
• Pursue racial justice. We dismantle white supremacist racist systems that perpetuate inequality in law, economy, education, and public safety.
• Welcome the stranger. We advocate humane immigration policy and the safety of immigrant families and houses of worship. (Leviticus 19:33–34; Matthew 25:35–40)
• Honor the image of God in LGBTQ+ neighbors. We stand against discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and public services. We speak and act for the dignity and safety of transgender people in particular. (Genesis 1:26–27; Galatians 3:28)
• Practice courageous love. We confront harmful powers while refusing to hate people. We seek justice with mercy, strength with humility. (Romans 12:9–21; Mark 10:42–45)
Our appeal to the church and to neighbors
We call Christians—and all people of good will—to reject politics built on resentment and fear, and to choose a public life shaped by the life and teaching of Jesus. We call congregations to pray, preach, disciple, and act in ways that align with core Christian commitments to religious liberty, human rights, and the refusal of prejudice. This is not a campaign against persons. This is a witness against the powers that harm our neighbors and our common life. We pledge to live this out here in Hartford: showing up for our neighbors, telling the truth, protecting conscience, sheltering the vulnerable, and doing justice with joy. By God’s grace, we will be known more for what we build than what we oppose—and we will oppose only what crushes people God loves.
— Members of Riverfront Family Church, Hartford, Connecticut
