Author: John Pavlovitz

The Scriptures say that the truth will set you free. Right now, millions of white Christians in America are in a fortified prison of our own design; the impenetrable walls fashioned from decades of privilege and self-denial, the bars made of false stories our parents and grandparents told us about how the world works, the perimeter wrapped by jagged layers of white supremacy and nationalism, and closely guarded by a fierce self-preservation that when all else, fails, will fight to allow us escape. Tens of millions of us have spent decades of our lives in a whitewashed faith story,...

“When a Republican says ‘impeachment is divisive’ it’s the same as when an abusive spouse tells says that if you leave or call the cops, you’re the one tearing the family apart.” – Dante Atkins Dear President Trump… In the waning hours of your presidency, I wanted to take a few moments to express my deepest gratitude for all that you’ve done. It will be difficult in this small space to adequately express the depth and breadth of my appreciation, but I will make an admittedly feeble attempt. I was wrong about you. For four years I’ve openly lamented...

This week we are inaugurating a president who has received a historic number of votes, winning by a staggering seven million. We are inaugurating a brilliant woman of color as his Vice President. Together, they have assembled the most diverse Administration this nation has ever seen, one that for the first time is beginning to accurately reflect the nation it will serve and represent. 81 million Americans should be able to rejoice in these days, but we cannot. This should be a moment of collective jubilation, but it is not. We should all be exhaling now but we are...

“What happened to the American dream? It came true. You’re looking at it.” – The Comedian, “Watchmen” (2009) Many of the faces were already familiar. We saw them in real-time, smashing Capitol building windows, scaling walls, and parading through the halls of Congress, beaming with self-satisfaction. We could see their every emotion as they desecrated monuments, urinated on carpets, and sat behind lawmaker’s offices as if winning something they had fought so very hard for; a treasure they had valiantly won after a long and brutal struggle. We saw their faces because they wanted us to. This was not...

For years, people have been talking about Donald Trump’s “mental state,” throwing around the term mental illness as a lazy catch-all for his erratic behavior, inexhaustible cruelty, and inexplicable recklessness. In the wake of the election, a growing choir has assembled singing the same refrain. This has always struck me as particularly damaging, because it assumes something dangerous: that all mentally ill people are vengeful, bigoted, unrepentant sociopaths. We are not. As one of the 51 million Americans who battles a brain affliction, I can attest to the reality that the vast majority of us are not oblivious to...

“The United States effectively has three parties now: the Democratic party, the Anti-Democracy Trump party, and the Pro-Democracy Republican party.” – Jennifer Rubin A brazen act of white domestic terrorism on our nation’s Capitol: thousands of people streaming toward the seats of Congress, with nothing between them but a flimsy chain link fence and a few glad-handing police officers, who essentially gave the armed insurrectionists a warm welcome, a grand tour, and escorted them with kid gloves into the sacred chambers of the most vital work of our Republic: affirming the collective will of the people to choose their...