Author: John Pavlovitz

Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie tweeted out this photo of his family all holding weapons and wearing beaming smiles, with the caption: “Merry Christmas! ps. Santa, please bring ammo” Putting aside what the Conservative reaction would be to any Democrat lawmaker’s Christmas tweet that mentioned Santa and not Jesus. The pearl-clutching “War On Christmas” cries would still be echoing through the canyons of GOP social media and partisan television. We should also table imagining the Republican Christian response, if a Muslim family shared a photo of themselves wielding an arsenal on one of their high holy days. The allegations...

The steady stream of vitriol I receive from professed Christians who identify as MAGA or QAnon or Republican is completely understandable. As they fire-off threatening texts, furiously tap out expletive-laden emails, and break into violent, performative histrionics on social media, I genuinely feel for them. They are often getting some really bad second-hand news from me that blows up the narrative they have spent a long time telling themselves and depend on to validate and to justify them. They are coming face to face with the sobering reality that they are antithetical to Jesus. Worse than that, they are...

While Rittenhouse escaped justice, the institutions of White Supremacy will not be so fortunate. The evidence against it cannot be as easily manipulated or arbitrarily dismissed. In their breathless advocacy of the heavily-armed vigilante, over and over in comment sections, message boards, cable talk shows, workplace break rooms, and kitchen tables, White Americans have convincingly testified against themselves. Rittenhouse’s defenders are a case study in how afflicted with privilege and infected with racism this nation still is, and the intellectual gymnastics white people will engage in to justify the violence of people who look and vote like them, and...

I often have people tell me that I’m a hateful human being. Sometimes, these are complete strangers who incessantly lurk like sharks in my Twitter feed, other times estranged family members firing one last injurious email salvo before blocking me from responding, or self-righteous former church friends assuring me that I am going to hell but promising they are praying I will find Jesus before it is too late. For a long time, I would passionately refute these accusations; mounting a fierce defense of my position and offering a ready litany of evidence proving that they have mislabeled me,...