The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast

Warning: this piece contains profanity and references to sexual assault that may be disturbing to some. “That’s it; he’s done for.” Those were the words an older relative spoke matter-of-factly ten years ago this week, as we listened to then-Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s vulgar ramblings to Access Hollywood host Billy Bush. As the conversation with Bush begins, Trump brings up TV...

Dear Evangelicals, Growing up in the Church, I’ve often heard you extol the virtues of “speaking the truth in love,” so I hope you’ll receive this in the spirit in which it’s offered. You’re supposedly familiar with the words of Jesus, so I know I’m not telling you something you don’t already know, but you might benefit from a reminder. He said that the single greatest aspiration, the very highest...

So, here’s the bad news: fascism isn’t coming to America; it’s here. We are long past the warnings of an approaching existential threat looming on the distant horizon of our story. The nightmare is no longer a future improbability but a present reality. The current President kept his 2024 campaign promise to be a “dictator on day one,” wiping out decades of protections and partnerships with the st...

Warning: this piece contains language regarding sexual assault that may be triggering or uncomfortable to some. In October of 2024, a then 20-year-old young woman alleges she was brutally assaulted by 7 of her Cornell University classmates , at least one of whom she considered a friend. Right now, in the wake of her decision to speak publicly and file suit in an effort to bring her abusers to just...

I am grieving right now, and my family members, former friends, and neighbors who support him don’t understand why, though they think they do. The accumulated sorrows I’ve been carrying have almost nothing to do with that repugnant, needy, narcissistic bigot in the White House who has never had a single noble impulse in his privileged existence. This was never about him. He is who he has always be...

I am a beta male. Sometimes, I’m apt to forget that. In the course of my ordinary days, I rarely question whether I’m masculine enough. I usually move through the world thinking I’m a reasonably normal adult human man, believing I’m adequately meeting the job description: doing my work with care, being a loving and emotionally available husband, showing up faithfully for my kids, helping the peopl...

I don’t imagine Jesus was the litigious type, but if he were on the planet right now, I’m pretty sure he’d sue JD Vance for false association or identity theft. At the very least, he’d violently flip the tables of the entire Trump Administration and him along with it. Vance, a professed Christian, is stumping through Texas today, where he continues to demonize and dehumanize undocumented immigrant...

“You shouldn’t let politics get in the way of your relationships.” As we approach one of the most consequential elections in our nation’s 250-year lifespan, I see this sentiment pop up on social media a good bit in think pieces and news stories: the idea that family members and friends are too important to lose over a political position, a party affiliation, or a ballot choice. This may have been...

Warning: this piece includes references to sexual assault, as well as words many may find offensive. Everything discussed is alleged in a civil lawsuit filed by the family of Jane Doe. One good man. Just one decent human being. That is all a then 20-year-old Jane Doe needed to save her from the monsters encircling her in that frat house of ghastly, unrelenting violence few of us can comprehend. Th...

We’re in the middle of a male loneliness epidemic, or so we’re told. Our social media feeds are filled with news stories, think pieces, and video commentaries lamenting the apparent pervasive sense of isolation our young men are afflicted with; the absence of deep friendships with other men and meaningful connections with women; the higher rates of depression and addiction. And while the idea of a...

Republicans know they can’t win in November. We can tell this because they are spending every waking hour trying to convince us that, despite a lame-duck, barely able to stay awake, sitting president whose approval rating is hovering somewhere between death and explosive diarrhea, they are on the ascent. They have the data. They know they are hopelessly underwater on the economy, on mass deportati...

Here lies Donald Trump. Again today, through thin, sneering lips he will be found spewing out a toxic torrent of abject falsehoods. He will recklessly slither through the world, effortlessly manufacturing disinformation intended to sow chaos and engineer despair. He will gleefully vomit out staggering untruths to distract from his prolific criminality. He will bring forth a violent verbal emesis o...

I know singer Ed Sheeran. (Well, in a way I do, and so do you.) In the wake of the whirlwind of controversy over rapper Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s tour for his pro-Palestinian statements on stage, the Shape of You singer issued a lengthy statement on social media to justify his apolitical stance. In his address, Sheeran attempts to position himself above the fray of the rest of us, writin...

What does it mean to be pro-life? Really? For tens of millions of Christians, for their entire lives, it has meant voting Republican. Through their parents, pastors, and politicians, they have inherited and accepted a story that the GOP represents the values of the Bible, upholds the pillars of their faith, and above all, defends and protects life. But aside from a persistent and quite militant an...

Hey Ed Sheeran, Well, you’ve had quite a busy week. You’ve caved to your billionaire buddy Robert Kraft, you’ve deferred to the pearl-clutching Pink, you’ve fallen in line behind your promoters, and you’ve kowtowed to a handful of football stadium owners and allowed rapper Macklemore to be booted from your tour for saying the words “Free Palestine.” I can imagine how traumatic that must have been...

We’re all worried about a Tuesday in November, 50 days from now. It’s 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? At a recent tour sto...

I’ve been a pastor for nearly three decades. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life. Throughout that journey, I took the words of Jesus seriously: his calls to love my neighbor, to care for the most vulnerable among me, to welcome the stranger and the alone, to give my overflow to ensure everyone had enough. I aspired to his compassionate heart that fed disparate multitudes, that healed the wou...

How did this happen? For as long as America is remembered on this planet, people will try to understand these days through the lens of time and distance. Authors, sociologists, criminologists, cult experts, political scientists, and brilliant minds in future generations will attempt to explain how tens of millions of once-reasonable, sane, seemingly goodhearted human beings betrayed their love of...

“I feel like I’m losing my mind.” That thought runs through my head more than I’d like to admit these days. As someone who has navigated the past three decades with a mental illness, I’ve gotten used to the crushing despair that visits from time to time, sometimes staying for a few bleak moments before departing as quickly as it came, other times moving in for weeks or even months, derailing recen...

MAGA Republicans are telling us something right now, America. The message they’re sending is unmistakable. With every panicked, desperate move, they are speaking with absolute clarity. There is only one reason they continually gerrymander themselves a more favorable playing field. It’s the same reason they eliminate voting sites. The same reason they’re casting doubts on voting by mail. The same r...

A vote is loud. Whether that vote is cast joyfully or with trepidation or begrudgingly or without all the information or as a protest, it makes the same bold statements: This is my choice. I am with this person. I consent to their conduct. I co-sign their actions. I endorse them. A vote doesn’t have qualifiers or caveats or escape clauses. It simply says Yes or No . And as we’re witnessing a rapid...

Mornings are strange these days. The sedative haze of sleep slowly begins to lift, and my conscious mind starts taking inventory and assembling the data and reporting back its initial findings: I’m in bed… I’m awake… I’m alive… It’s Wednesday… But most of the time, that’s about as far as I get when I am suddenly assaulted with another, far more sobering realization: I’m in America… … s**t. And, in...

Well, Trump supporters, I have to admit, you sure won this one. Your guy really handed our rear ends to us this time. I can see why you’re pounding your chest and dunking on us liberals on social media about this Lake America business. You all finally put Canada and all of us woke idiots in our places. I mean, sure, you can barely afford groceries at this point. And yeah, even if you happen to be...

For the love of God and all that’s good and beautiful, haven’t you had enough, America? Enough book bans,culture wars,bathroom bills,family separations,poisoned food,renamed lakes,unrelenting surveillance,tax-funded genocides,and wars of choice? Haven’t you had enough of terrorized refugees,billionaire techbros,hospital room ICE raids,protected predators,ignored lynchings,kleptocratic malpractice,...

Hey MAGA, a quick word. I see you out here today, trying to claim Dolly Parton as your own, as if she were one of you, as if you and she were kindred spirits, as if your heart and hers were aligned. Just stop it. Dolly was far too kind to tell you this while she was alive, so I will: you and she had little in common. Oh sure, from a distance, it might seem that way, but get a little closer and dig...