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Author: John Pavlovitz

Year In Review 2020: On faith, politics, and stuff that needs to be said

Year In Review 2020: On faith, politics, and stuff that needs to be said

Posted by | Jan 1, 2021 | , |

2020 has been a turbulent period beyond the conventional methods of description. In terms of COVID-years, the past 12 months have had the glacial progress and weight of 12 regular human years. Each month brought a new chapter of events for the public to process, which required an expanded vocabulary to explain the news and a library of images to show the extent of what was happening. It was a very dangerous year for photojournalism with a pandemic and civil unrest. To be embedded in the heart of events as they unfolded required physical stamina, professional skill, and a...

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How Freedom defeated America: We lost an entire year from COVID due to phony patriotism and cheap liberty

How Freedom defeated America: We lost an entire year from COVID due to phony patriotism and cheap liberty

Posted by | Dec 19, 2020 | ,

“Do not ever forget that nurses died after working in COVID ICUs wearing trash bags over their clothes while cops dressed like video game characters brutalized people who dared ask that they not be murdered in their beds.” – Molly Conger COVID beat America — completely, unequivocally, and historically. There’s simply no way around that truth. We have been decimated far beyond even the most dire calculations back in the Spring of 2020. The sickness has been unfathomable and the death toll staggering. We have been the planet’s most egregious cautionary tale on what not to do, how not...

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We’re really not great: ‪The deaths of 250,000 Americans didn’t matter to 70 million Americans

We’re really not great: ‪The deaths of 250,000 Americans didn’t matter to 70 million Americans

Posted by | Dec 3, 2020 | , ,

I thought of Evangelicals today. I was reading the Bible. You may remember the Bible from a sitting president’s recent upside-down, tear-gassed, church steps photo op. I came across Matthew’s story of Judas’ final moments here on the planet: overwhelmed with guilt, in a searing, sweaty panic—realizing that he had betrayed his beloved Jesus and sent him to an unthinkably violent death, all for thirty cold pieces of silver that now felt worthless in his hands. He’d kissed him and he’d killed him, just to gain a quick windfall that he suddenly realized was fool’s gold. He died knowing...

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The family we no longer recognize: Confronting the results of becoming who we were taught to become

The family we no longer recognize: Confronting the results of becoming who we were taught to become

Posted by | Nov 26, 2020 | ,

To My Older Relative, I’m writing to let you know that I’m aware of what you think of me, either because you’ve told me during combustible room-clearing conversations, over terse cold war text exchanges, or in second-hand words passed through the people who now serve as the sole messengers between us. You believe I’ve changed. You think I’ve become radicalized by the Left, that I’m a bleeding-heart Liberal, that I’m an anti-Jesus, anti-American baby-killing heretic, determined to destroy the fabric of this nation with socialism, homosexuality, and wide-open borders. You think I’ve abandoned my faith and my family and...

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What we choose to say goodbye to this year will define our national identity for generations

What we choose to say goodbye to this year will define our national identity for generations

Posted by | Nov 23, 2020 |

America, we will soon say goodbye to something. One way or another, this year will end with a farewell. It will either close with a glorious, triumphant blast of freedom — or with the sickening death knell of a once – great nation, gone for good. Either America will part ways with this president or we will part ways with democracy. Those are the choices here. This moment is about each of us choosing which we’re committed to losing. It is about deciding whether we will fight for this person, or for the disparate, multitudinous We The People who...

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Not a two-way street: The overwhelming burden of seeking unity with hateful people

Not a two-way street: The overwhelming burden of seeking unity with hateful people

Posted by | Nov 10, 2020 |

Unity. That’s the word I hear a lot right now. In the wake of an election that is still being inexplicably contested by this president (one clearly won by President-Elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris), I am being asked to show unity with his supporters; to extend some instant olive branch of understanding that magically bridges that cavernous gap between us — ones he revealed and is still actively cultivating. I’m sorry, but that isn’t something I’m willing to offer unconditionally and without caveat. We’ve been at this for five years. It isn’t as though I haven’t...

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