john pavlovitz - Stuff That Needs To Be Said

Time 2020-11-10 06:03:28

Web Name: john pavlovitz - Stuff That Needs To Be Said

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AP Photo/David GoldmanUnity.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 been working tireless to understand and to reach these people; to appeal to their sense of decency, to illuminate the damage they are doing to oppressed and marginalized human beings and invite them into something more redemptive. They have chosen him again, and so I know quite a bit about them—which is why I am so aware that we do not have any meaningful points of affinity.I am deeply invested in the work of building disparate community, in navigating differences, in seeing the inherent commonalities of our shared humanity. I have made that my life s work for three decades as a pastor and activist—but there are limits to what this means.Yes, I am burdened to bring diverse people together.Yes, I am called by my faith to care for all human beings in my path.And yes, I am compelled to really see them individually and to value their specific stories.But I am not obligated to have unity with hateful people.I am not morally bound to make peace with a heart that dehumanizes other human beings because of the color of their skin, their nation of origin, their gender, their orientation. And to have embraced Donald Trump now, is to unapologetically brandish such a polluted heart; to be actively perpetuating inequity and stoking division and manufacturing discrimination in this very moment.I steadfastly refuse such an alliance. I am a loud, conscientious objector in their war against the world.His movement is singularly focused on causing injury to vulnerable people—and to suddenly declare unity with his base, would be a betrayal of those who they consistently brutalize, both personally, collectively, and legislatively.It would be a slap in the face to migrant children, to people of color, to LGBTQ human beings, to Muslims, to disabled people, to non-Christians, and to women—for me to suddenly allow the willing and joyous perpetrators of their wounds, proximity to me in the name of some ceremonial unity.Racists and bigots see other human beings as less than human for an unchangeable part of who they are, and I will not descend into that. I can fully see their humanity and still call them out for thinking and speaking and acting inhumanely—and I can show them decency and simultaneously declare myself distinct from the malevolence they affirm and want to live with distance from them. People of faith, morality, and conscience are not required to make peace with hatred. They are not indebted to racism and bigotry and phobic violence.The call to love our enemies does not necessitate abiding their enmity. The only thing you owe violent people is to see and respect their humanity in ways they refuse for others.But you are not required to see their hatred as acceptable.You don t owe hateful people unity—ever.Share this:FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditPrintEmailLike this:Like Loading... President Trump,I wonder how much pain you re willing to cause America. Apparently, more than you already have.It isn t enough that you have spent every waking moment of the past four years manufacturing urgency for this nation, that you have continually appealed to the very worst nature of your followers; weaponizing them against their neighbors, friends, family members, and strangers.It isn t enough that you have perpetually trafficked in lies, when the truth would have been much simpler and much less fraught with suffering and sickness; that you were almost habitually allergic to honesty even when honesty would have greatly benefited you.It isn t enough that you have steadily stoked the fires of racism, that you have courted wild conspiracy, that you ve never once taken the path of maturity, compassion, and sober judgment in stewarding this nation.It isn t enough that you have been so guilty of presidential malpractice, that you have inexplicably made a public health crisis a partisan event, allowing a quarter of a million Americans to die, many of them needlessly—one that you are currently simply ignoring.And now, after all that, you ve chosen to do something far worse as your swan song: to go to war with the very bedrock of this nation: a free and fair election by the people—simply because you cannot live with what they are telling you.You are indicting a process that you spent months poisoning and polluting and sabotaging, when even those unprecedented efforts to create chaos and silence voters would not deter a record number of Americans from telling you that you are not worthy to lead them.You are revealing your character in these moments.A decent man would honor the unequivocal and clear will of the people.A decent man would concede with dignity immediately in order to allow calm to prevail.A decent man would agree to a peaceful transfer of power, as every previous outgoing president has.A decent man would look at a nation ravaged by a pandemic, devastated by job loss, and exhausted from internal strife—and decide to end his tenure here by finally, for the first time, doing something selfless.But you are not a decent man by any measurement, and that is simply not your way. You are incapable of the elemental goodness that even the most malevolent people are eventually able to tap into when called upon by moments of gravity and consequence.I should have known it would end this way.This is who you have always been: a man lacking a single noble instinct or humane impulse; a completely parasitic presence who only takes from things it attaches itself to, leaving them less healthy and less viable than before.Your ornamental America First rhetoric is burning up in the presence of your caustic conduct right now.You have never loved this nation or cared for its people, because if you had and if you did, you would be an adult man and a true leader, and admit defeat and allow this nation to begin to heal and recover. Instead you incite violence and stir your unhinged base and speak reckless, incendiary lies that will only serve to injure more people and try and avoid your eventual departure.And make no mistake, that departure is imminent.You are leaving.The American people have made that clear.Every president before you has honored that.And whether you like or not, you will, too.It s just really sad that you couldn t take this moment and finally become a better version of yourself;that instead of being a source of stability and strength for this disaster-battered nation, that you would make your final days here ones marked by unnecessary suffering and manufactured sorrow;that in one more traitorous, belligerent salvo, you will assail the very heart of democracy in order to defend your brittle, fragile ego.History is recording the truth: that you will have caused more injury to America and its people than any of the men who have served the office you hold and will shortly be removed from. You will have even done more destruction to our sovereignty and safety than any imagined foreign threat. That, you cannot spin or gaslight or lie your way out of.Joe Biden is going to be our next president.You will soon be leaving, Mr. President.And sadly, it looks as though you will leave the way you have led and the way you have lived your entire life: disgracefully.It s simply a national tragedy that all the previous damage you ve done and all the wounds you have inflicted on America and its people were not enough for you.Share this:FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditPrintEmailLike this:Like Loading... The delayed results of the presidential election will be revealed soon, but in many ways, those results will be secondary to what we already know now: we were wrong about America.The fact that it was even close, the fact that more people voted for him a second time, the fact that a higher number of white women inexplicably affirmed him—it is all confirmation that whether we remove the very visible, unsightly symptom or not, the pervasive disease is still horribly afflicting us.Numbed by a cocktail of optimism and ignorance, many of us imagined this was a sick, momentary aberration; a temporary glitch in the system that would surely be remedied: after so much ugliness, such open disregard for people of color, such inhumanity toward migrant children, such a sickening failure in the face of this pandemic—sanity would surely come to the rescue. We were certain that we would collectively course-correct; that the pendulum that had so wildly swung toward inhumanity would come roaring back to decency in these days; that we would presently be basking in the glory of a radiant dawn referendum on all this bloated bigotry.We thought we would be dancing on the grave of fascism.We thought, of course the good people of this nation would come to their collective senses, leaving behind political affiliations and superficial preferences and ceremonial ties, to rescue us from a malevolence that had proven itself unworthy of its position and toxic to its people. We were certain there would be a mass repudiation of the racism that this man has revealed and the violence he s nurtured, because for all its flaws we really believed America was better than this.We were wrong.We were wrong to believe that white people weaned for decades on supremacy, would suddenly embrace disparate humanity and make more space at the table.We were wrong to believe that white Christians would finally have the scales fall from their eyes and abandon their blind adoration of this vile false prophet of enmity, and once again embrace the expansive, compassionate heart of Jesus.We were wrong to believe that kindness and science and facts and truth and goodness would be found more valuable than the fool s gold of sneering, star-spangled, American greatness.We were wrong to hope that more Republicans would cross party lines in order to defend their country from the greatest terrorist threat in our lifetime.We were wrong to believe that hope would rise up to cast out fear.And most of all, we were wrong about people we know and love and live alongside and work with and study beside; about our parents, spouses, siblings, uncles, best friends, and neighbors: they are not the people we thought they were and we do not live in the country we thought we lived in. We believed the best about this nation and we were mistaken.To many oppressed and vulnerable communities, to people who have long known the depth of America s sickness because they have experienced it in traffic stops and workplace mistreatment and opportunity inequity and the bitter words of strangers—this may be less shocking news than it is to those of us with greater privilege and more buffers to adversity and the luxury of naiveté.But this is the sober spot in which we stand now: realizing that our optimism about the whole of this nation was misplaced,our prayers for the better angels of so many white Christians were unanswered,our childish illusions that people were indeed basically good and decent, seared away in their reaffirmation of something that the rest of the watching world finds reprehensible.And now, we re left with two terribly unfortunate choices: leave the America we have, because it is so very different than the America we hoped for—or stay, realizing that we are surrounded by so many people for whom racism is not only not a deal breaker but a selling point; in a place we know is less safe and less decent and less kind than we wanted—not because of any politician but because of those who embraced him a second time, people who share our kitchen tables and churches and break rooms and cul-de-sacs.I don t know what the right decision is.Right now, the only thing I know is that I expected something fully beautiful and life-affirming was going to mark this day and it isn t.I was certain we were better than him, but we are not.I was so sure that even though I know hatred dies hard, that America was going to let love have the last, loudest word.I thought I was wrong.But maybe, I just have to wait to be right.Share this:FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditPrintEmailLike this:Like Loading... We’re all worried about Tuesday, America.It is the place our minds and hearts are solely fixed on.Right now our energies are understandably marshaled and our hopes pinned to this singular day ahead, as if at the end of it we will have some resolution, some sense of closure—as if healing and rest will finally come.But what if things don t go that way? What if the news is bad?At a recent tour stop, a visibly exasperated woman asked me, through a breaking voice, “What if everything goes wrong on Tuesday? What do we do then? If we lose, where will the hope be?”You may be asking yourself that.I imagine hope then, will be wherever it is for you now. Regardless of what happens on Tuesday, whatever propels you into the voting booth needs to push you to your feet when the sun comes up in the morning. Because no matter the outcome and whether you feel vindicated or crestfallen—many things will still be the same:You’ll still be surrounded by systemic ills and relational fracture and national discord. You’ll still have seen every grotesque reality that’s been uncovered over the past four years.You’ll still be walking shoulder to shoulder with weary, wounded human beings who will be looking for compassionate people to see their suffering and to move toward them.You’ll still have a specific front row seat to a place filled with terrors and traumas, and you’ll be the only one with your unprecedented ability to be what that world needs.This isn’t just about an election.It’s easy to believe that it is; that with the pull of a lever and a transfer of power, that our security will be restored or our demise guaranteed but that’s simply not true. We ll still need to hold our leaders accountable and fight to be heard, and not fall asleep when apparent progress shows up. I’d like to think that we are moved by something far greater than a date on the calendar or an election result or a candidate’s victory; that our collective elation or devastation do not reside in those things.And ultimately, this isn’t just about the current President either.If he were to disappear tomorrow, we would still be left with the fallout of everything he revealed: every bit of exposed ugliness, every cruel word uttered toward strangers, every disconnection we’ve endured from people we love. We’ll still be who we are, surrounded by people being who they are, in the nation we ve become—and in the resulting tumult we’ll need to navigate the turbulence around us and bridge the expanses between us.So where will hope be if it all hits the fan on that Tuesday?It will be you, finding whatever it is that is that pulls you out of the crippling funk of grief and sadness and disbelief you’ll want to stay in—and back into the fray of living.It will be found in your faith convictions and your personal burdens; in your activism and your advocacy and in the stuff you ll still believe in.It will be found in you deciding what matters most in this life, and whether or not it still matters enough to defend and protect it even if the threats seem greater than they are now.Hope will be in the sunrise and how you decide to meet it. In that way, Wednesday is actually pretty important, too.On that day, there will still be hungry people needing to be fed, strangers seeking refuge, outsiders needing welcome, hurting people looking for the healers. No matter what happens, win or lose—you and I will need to place our energies and fix our gaze on the ways that we can choose gentleness and peace and generosity, far away from the ballot box. On November 3rd, we ll experience one of the pivotal, unprecedented moments in our lifetime.We ll have a chance to allow our voices to be heard and to transform the very planet we re standing on—as well as the one we leave to people who will follow us.We’ll get to leave an inheritance to those we love, and a legacy for those we’ll never know.This particular Tuesday, we ll get to let our lives impact the lives of countless human beings with one simple, yet profound act that we participate in. It will be our sacred opportunity to speak precisely from our deepest convictions, to let our hearts clearly resound into the world, and to know that we can be the difference in the day. In the face of a deafening fear that would gladly overwhelm us, we’ll get the chance to let love have the last, loudest word. This is beautiful news, but the even better news is that we have that opportunity well before Tuesday and we’ll have it long after it as well. As you read these very words, you have it. Every single moment we re here, you and I get to be agents of equity and justice. We don’t have to wait for an event to choose such things, and we can’t be fooled into believing they have an expiration date either. The gravity of this moment isn’t just about changing Presidents and Senate seats and flipping districts and political victories (though it is certainly is about all those things.) Yes, legislatively there is so much hanging in the balance this particular Tuesday—but the stakes are always similarly stratospheric, even if they are less noticeable.The really critical act, is remembering that leveraging your life on behalf of others isn’t an event, it’s your ever-present calling. It’s about you and your daily ability to make this place more compassionate and generous and kind than when you found it. You get to be helper and healer and listener; to be an ally and an advocate and an activist. There will be no way you can lose that.As you move toward this Tuesday, don t miss the countless opportunities you have, with every seemingly infinitesimal decision to elect hope, well before you ever step into a voting booth, and long after you walk out into the day.So yes, please vote—but regardless of the results of the election, remember that you always have that choice.Yes, Tuesday is important. Wednesday, too.Today is just as critical.This week is the most important week of your life.It always is.Share this:FacebookTwitterPinterestRedditPrintEmailLike this:Like Loading...

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