North Carolina veteran pastor John Pavlovitz has been calling out Trump and the self-serving policies of the controlling conservative party since before the 2016 elections. But he doesn’t stop there. He also calls out/condemns his peers and fellow Christians who remain silent during the creation of a pseudo Christian religion devoid of “compassion, love, and commitment to the poor and disenfranchised.” He calls this new religion “a bitter tribe of angry, white nationalists who have no need for the open-hearted Jesus of the Gospels, when it can live off the closed borders of America First.“
Pavlovitz says the American Church is becoming a safe haven for those who have “contempt for the very people Jesus spent his life caring and advocating for; the poor, the invisible, the outsiders, the marginalized.” This no-bullshit preacher says the church is ”no longer sanctuary for disparate souls looking for refuge—but a hospitable greenhouse for white supremacy and isolationism.”
“Right now the message of Jesus is being hijacked by extremist Evangelicals—and too many progressive Christian leaders are tacitly complicit in the crime; inwardly horrified but increasingly silent bystanders.”
The lack of courage by progressive Christian leaders is causing many “Blue Christians” to leave the church, says Pavlovitz. There is an absence of a loud and clear voice of persistent opposition, and the Christians who are actually trying to follow the words of Jesus are left wanting something more.
“They’re watching ministers avoiding the turbulence of speaking with clarity into the injustices of the moment, choosing to hide behind vague and unassuming words they hope will be enough.”
But the words aren’t enough, says Pavlovitz, who believes the reasons for the silence is mostly due to the fear of an inevitable pushback from the conservative congregation members for speaking out against Trump and conservative policies. And so they sit in their insulated “unseen privilege.” The results are terrifying, says Pavlovitz.
“Christianity is becoming more and more characterized by fear and bigotry and anger—and it is driving away those who want no part of such things. Millions of people of deep faith, are choosing to join political and civic organizations in order to do the bold, resistance work that they wish their churches were doing—and as a result, they are hastening the radicalizing of the Church being formed elsewhere.”
Pavlovitz mentions a conversation with an Alabama Presbyterian minister who told Pavlovitz, “I so appreciate you saying what you’re saying. I wish I could say it.” When Pavlovitz asked him why he couldn’t, the minister responded with a wordless face of terror—something Pavlovitz says he’s sees a lot.
John Pavlovitz demands courage from protestant and progressive pastors, ministers—and the people in their communities. He lists things they need to do, they should do and they must do, “right now.”
The North Raleigh pastor condenses the crux of the current Christian problem in two short sentences. He says “Hateful people are loudly claiming they speak for Jesus as they cause injury. We need people who will counter as loudly with his actual words.” Or perhaps counter even louder. In his piece (found on his site and well worth reading), Pavlovitz labels the silence by Christians in a time when Christianity seems far from the teachings of Jesus, not only cowardly and dangerous—it’s “sinful.”
John Pavlovitz is one of my favorite writers, thinkers and resisters. I’m grateful to Christians and Christian leaders like him who choose to side with the words of Jesus, rather than the fabricated and dangerous, evil propaganda of pseudo-Christians like Donald Trump. You can read more about Pavlovitz via his website JohnPavlovitz.com—as well as on Facebook and Twitter (@JohnPavlovitz).