32 Comments
User's avatar
Teresa Maupin's avatar

"We must seek partners, not perfection—and to make allies of all who share our goals. Above all, America seeks peace – not war." I'm thrilled with these goals! In my own life, I have to frequently remind myself that perfection is the enemy of good. Great piece!!

Expand full comment
Steven Brakey's avatar

Pastor Pavlovitz is a United Methodist pastor. From my experience as a United Methodist pastor in New England, I would say that his views are pretty common among the United Methodist Church clergy. I left the UMC largely because I did want to be part of a political organization.

Expand full comment
Alice Ball's avatar

The same is true for our church, the Episcopal Church, I’m going to have to leave it. They are insane people.

Expand full comment
Honey And Glass's avatar

I love being surrounded by white liberals online and in my city who think they get to own my mind and keep me from making my own decisions. I’m one of those dastardly Latinas and ex-democrats who voted for Trump. My family has been in this country for generations but I’m apparently going to get deported. White libs are the most racist. What a nice pastor. 😒

Expand full comment
Susan Vonder Heide's avatar

Sounds like "Pastor" Pavlovitz withholding an invitation would be a badge of honor. Hatred of Trump is rarely just about hatred of Trump, but often also about hatred of all who do not share in that hatred.

Expand full comment
Mitch's avatar

The legacy media seem desperate to foment panic with their hysteria as well. These people may just not be cut out to survive basic realities. People like them who were previously warehoused in mental health institutions, now enjoy sinecures in academia, corporate media and a wide array of civic institutions.

Expand full comment
BeadleBlog's avatar

I feel terrible for that grandfather. To take that abuse, he must love his granddaughter unconditionally and hope to rescue her from her descent into madness. The person who calls himself a pastor is apparently a Satanic pastor.

Expand full comment
Lara Simone Bhasin's avatar

Yikes

And for someone to talk like that and call themselves a pastor?! I am a pastor too, and I certainly have my political opinions, but I know that to rage against people who don’t share them would make me instantly unfit for that office.

Expand full comment
ReadsTooMuchPraysTooLittle's avatar

Same. The things some of my colleagues are willing to say about their parishioners is appalling.

Expand full comment
Paving the Way's avatar

Progressives are either delusional or sociopathic. The sane ones have moved on.

Expand full comment
S Rudy's avatar

Demagogues arise from any direction, but are not needed w/r Marxism/socialism, since their religious doctrines tell them violence is not only OK but necessary. No demagogue needed.

Though it is hard to distinguish between the deceivers and the deceived sometimes.

Expand full comment
Bobby Lime's avatar

These people are all on the Cluster B continuum. Most, such as the hysterics, are boring simple clinical narcissists, who for kindness' sake should be told to take themselves off standby status because we have a bounty of.

The "pastor" is much more sinister, a malignant narcissist who puts something as tentative and ephemeral as politics above human beings, who are made in the Imago Dei. Has he ever wondered if he can be said to differ for the better from the hanging judges of Salem? At least, they believed in God and in the preciousness of human life. They offered every accused witch the easy way out of hanging, simple confession of involvement in witchcraft, and probably all of them realized before the executions that the people who were going to be hanged were almost certainly innocent. I haven't studied Salem, but surmise that as weird as it strikes us, the Salem judges concluded that the deaths of twenty malcontents would at least keep the colony from madness.

This guy strikes me as a terrorist. Ostracization is the beginning of dehumanization. We know what that can lead to.

Expand full comment
Richard Speed's avatar

I have few words left to describe the intensity of the mental breakdown that is Trump Derangement Syndrome.

We are watching Progressivism’s galloping Gertie effect as it collapses like the Tacoma Narrows Bridge did in 1940.

My only advice to normal folks is to stand well back and watch the process unfold from a safe distance.

Expand full comment
Gemma Dykstra's avatar

"Sweet, loving, and creative colleges that turn normal kids into Hamas fanatics and trannies must be protected to the utmost degree! To the barricades!" Lol!

Expand full comment
Valoree Dowell's avatar

The terrifying thing about “John” NOT a pastor, is the comments. I was stunned, although I shouldn’t have been. One of my acquaintances recently remarked about a Trump presidential library that “none of them (supporters) would go there, none of them can read.” Which brought smug chuckles around the table. People could not be any further polarized. There’s no common ground, no opportunity for unity. I digress, but there’s only one unifier, and he not running for anything. He’s just waiting for us to come to our senses….

Expand full comment
It's All a Journey's avatar

I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the comments either! They were shocking! I could only find two among them that were like “wait a minute, maybe that isn’t the most Christian thing to do….” I feel sad for these people, ultimately. What an unhealthy and joyless way to live and approach humanity. I am glad that most of my liberal friends haven’t taken these opinions on as their own (though it was a dicey couple of weeks after the election when I think some of them seriously considered cutting ties). Ultimately they must have realized that there is more to a friendship than sharing the same answers on a ballot. Heartbreaking to see that others haven’t had the same realization.

Expand full comment
Brandy's avatar

Brilliant work. I had to go to all these links and share my thoughts. I couldn't help myself. 🤣 Except for the "Pastor" who hasn't read Matthew or Luke.

Expand full comment
Packy's avatar

Yes the comments under Pavlovitz essay are alarming. Each side now thinks the other has developed a cult like mentality that refuses to see the obvious truth.

Expand full comment
CJ's avatar

As a democrat that has recently dabbled in republican waters, this statement gets to the core of the divide. Liberal media only reports on the errors and downsides of republicans, meaning the liberal news consumers literally do not know the whole truth (which goes both ways, the Republicans are also cherry-picking data).

Each side is telling their people the other side is crazy/dumb/evil; pitting us against one another in a never-ending battle.

As a liberal, I did not understand the upset over the Trans-movement until I went outside liberal media and found horrible stories about male rapists in women's prisons, men in women's showers, men harassing feminists supporting sex-based rights, pornographic books in schools, cutting off body parts of children, etc... as liberals we are told anyone who contests the trans-lobby is an evil bigot and no news is ever allowed in to contradict that lens.

Democrats are not evil, Republican are not evil. We are all being manipulated. Most of us are good people. We need to inform and reach across the aisle, the politicians and journalists will never bring us together, we must do that ourselves.

Expand full comment
Silent scorn's avatar

So seriously the liberal media isn’t reporting on the males assaulting women, the porno books and the child sex changes? No wonder they think conservatives are crazy. The media needs to be boycotted completely. They are a large part of the mess we are in.

Expand full comment
Weird Logic's avatar

Bingo! You took the words right out of my mouth.

Expand full comment
Blessed and Bewildered's avatar

Here I am, always hoping that cultural sanity will return. Silly me. It just keeps getting worse. Your excellent piece asks a great question of whether or not the Dems are okay. Certainly they are not. I've called Donald Trump a "truth serum" since 2016 because of all the hypocrisy and vitriol that his presence exposes. Open-minded people that are no such thing. Christians that can't act Christian for the life of them (eternally!). The party of love and peace that promotes hate, aggression, ostracism, and violence. Educators that promote indoctrination instead of actual education. Believers in Science that ignore science. Defenders of free speech that simply want to silence opposition, rather than argue with intelligent, coherent ideas and solutions. There are a billion of examples for both liberals and conservatives, from D.C. to our communities, schools and kitchen table conversations. The world has turned upside down and inside out.

Expand full comment