Author: John Pavlovitz

We all know the real State of the Union. We know the version we’ll hear from one person — and we know the truth. We know, because we are here on the ground in the trenches of our daily lives here; in communities we love, living alongside people we know, building the America that actually is. And yes, we know well the horrors of these days; the human rights violations and the daily gaslighting and the abject cruelty of those holding power. We know their peerless corruption and their limitless enmity, and we know how sickening it all is...

I had just finished a speaking event a couple of months ago, and was meeting with people who had stayed after to say hello, have a copy of my book signed, or share some thoughts about the evening. After saying goodbye to the man I was been talking to, I lifted my head and my eyes locked with a middle-aged woman who had been standing behind him. Her wide smile dissolved almost immediately, and tears welled up in her eyes as she leaned in to speak. “I am a Fox News orphan,” she blurted out as she grabbed my...

You have probably seen the ubiquitous meme floating around, or at one point or another you’ve posted or expressed the thought contained in it: I CAN’T ADULT TODAY. It’s the idea that whatever it is that is required of proper responsible grown-up human beings, one is simply not presently capable of it. I have been a Christian for most of my forty-nine years, a pastor in the local church for twenty-two of them. And on far too many mornings recently, I’ve woken up, checked Twitter or watched the news or walked away from family conversations or church gatherings, and...

I really don’t care about him. I know you think I do, but my sadness really has nothing to do with him. I know who he is — and more accurately, I know what he is. I know that he is just a mirror. He has simply revealed clearly the disfigured ugliness of the place I call home and the people I live here alongside — and that is the thing I grieve over. And this is not the mourning over a singular loss, it is a daily grieving. I grieve when I see elementary school teachers dressed up...

As I watched the funeral and memorials for President George H.W. Bush, I couldn’t help but think about how powerless he was during it all. Conversations were taking place, tributes and critiques being offered, events of his life being dissected in great detail — and he couldn’t do a thing about any of it. He was being defined and summarized, all without his consent. You’re probably not a former President, but you will surely find yourself in a similar situation, albeit on a smaller scale. There will come a day, when you will cease to be. One day there...

Yes, there is a war on Christmas in America. The Evangelicals were right. The pulpit-pounding preachers were right. Franklin Graham was right. The Republicans were right. Donald Trump was right. Fox News was right. The Religious Right was right. Every single one of them was speaking gospel truth. They have all been warning me for years, and I did not want to believe them, lest hopelessness set in—but the proof is unavoidable now, and I need to confess they were right and I was wrong. I once was blind and now I see it clearly. They told me Christianity...