I Debunk A "Christian's" Article: John Pavlovitz #1

"Consider This a Professional Courtesy"

¹⁰ For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision:¹¹ Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. (…) ¹⁵ Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. ¹⁶ They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

John Pavlovitz, a Substack Bestseller with an orange checkmark, recently published an article called “To The White People I Pastored Who Support Trump: I’m Sorry For Failing You”. At the time of me starting this response the post has 251 likes and only 10 comments. If his work is popular elsewhere I do not know, I ran across this gentleman rather from some of his critics. After doing a quick bio check here’s a summary of what his Wikipedia page says:

• “His blog has gained a large following^[10] and media attention for articles he has written on the subjects of acceptance of homosexuality ("If I Have Gay Children", 2014),^{[1][11][9][2]” —Wikipedia, Accessed 5/19/2024}

• As well as articles praising Hillary Clinton ("Thank You, Hillary”) and bashing Donald Trump (“It’s Time We Stop Calling Donald Trump a Christian”)

• He was fired from a Megachurch in North Carolina, The Good Shepherd United Methodist Church

• “In October 2021, Pavlovitz underwent surgery to have a noncancerous pituitary tumor removed from the base of his brain.” I hope he gets well.

So, this guy is a big whig for the Left and has been writing for ten years. My critique sure isn’t bullying poor him into a corner. I’m also sure I don’t need to tell him the etymology of sodomy because he read the first book of the Bible, right (Gen. 19:24)? Someone also surely played the clip of Madeleine Albright saying it’s okay as well to bomb half-a-million children as long as Hillary’s husband is doing it (in Iraq in 1996) among all his own personal squabbles in the last ten years. Maybe he didn’t know that Trump defended Bill in the late 90’s according to Buzzfeed but regardless… this moron wrote this article.

Trump took a different tact in the late '90s, when the scandal was at its peak, defending then-President Bill Clinton against the "moralists" and hypocrites in Congress and arguing that the scandal wouldn't have been that bad if only Clinton had chosen to carry on an affair with a supermodel instead.

"I got a chuckle out of all the moralists in Congress and in the media who expressed public outrage at the president's immoral behavior," wrote Trump in The America We Deserve . "I happen to know that one U.S. senator leading the pack of attackers spent more than a few nights with his twenty-something girlfriend at a hotel I own. There's also a conservative columnist, married, who was particularly rough on Clinton in this regard. He also brought his girlfriend to my resorts for the weekend. Their hypocrisy is amazing." —Buzzfeed

Oh yeah, and Trump was awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1986 next to Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali for “patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity”. Even Snopes agrees…

The gentleman starts off the article with an apology in the title, then apologizes for apologizing too much. He says he tried to regain people’s respect and apologizes again for failing them… by being too nice. As an aside, I don’t remember Jesus saying sorry as he cracked a whip like our Border Patrol were falsely accused of doing (John 2:15) or the Jews slaying their Persian enemies with a tear when Esther gave them weapons to deliver themselves from Haaman’s order (kinda like a Jewish 2nd Amendment in my opinion in Esther 8:11 or Chapter 8 & 9).

However I do have one apology to make: I'm sorry for failing you.

If you're still sanctioning the former President's reprehensible words and his toxic behavior and his illegal actions, either loudly or with your silence—I obviously didn't get through to you.

If you're still finding futile excuses or generating desperate whataboutisms or doing wild theological gymnastics to somehow justify any of the moral filth he daily disseminates—you never really got what I'd hoped you'd have gotten about following Jesus from our time together.

Desperate whataboutisms? Why does Christendom always act like voting for a president is voting for a pope? Paul taught us to obey God and government (Romans 13:1-7) and live as peaceably as possible with all men (Romans 12:8). Critics aligned with John here would argue that this means one is not to resist government. Then why does history (or tradition) record that Jesus and all the saints died convicts? If Christianity wasn’t for the civilly rebellious (as much as possible) then it wouldn’t have survived the Diocletianic (or Great) Persecution or till the Edit of Milan and Thessalonica. I just listened to a podcast the other day (PBD) when asked whether or not Vivek was given trouble on the campaign trail about his race he actually got more flak because he’s Hindu. I’d rather vote for the Hindu guy than the “Catholic” dad who said he’d “prostitute” himself out for campaign funds for forty years and then “just so happens” to raise someone getting prostitutes and doing coke. If you want a more biblical take, how many of Trump’s kids have been in influence peddling these 20-40 years? Timothy teaches that a leader ought to have his house under control (1 Tim. 3:4) and the biggest scandal for his kids is probably Ivanka selling shoes made in China (despite the Left’s efforts to prove otherwise).

I was responsible with helping you cultivate a heart that echoed Christ's kind, loving, generous heart—and it appears I've failed. 

I failed to help you find a compassion for more than the people you see as "your own", an empathy that transcended party or country or pigmentation. I assumed you cared more than you did about people whose story of America or the Church or law enforcement or freedom is different than yours has been.

I failed to properly strip the whitewash from the lenses through which you view the Gospels or you'd have had no hesitation in saying that black lives matter. It wouldn't have felt like an unmerited attack on your whiteness, but a clear recognition of the racist history of our nation and our faith tradition.

I failed to confront our shared privilege directly enough so that you'd realize that most people don't have the seat at the table that we do; that this privilege is unearned currency we should be generously spending on behalf of vulnerable people.

So black gospel churches don’t exist? No sir, the thing you failed to see or confront is that ever since Hillary’s “No Child Left Behind” plan children in the 3rd grade can’t read. Instead of Left leaning colleges and unions giving up and letting a more traditional approach be applied they cling to their monopolies on power. They want to keep failing upward just like the kids they pass through like chattel, John. These are the monsters who were friends with slavers and bonafide klanites, John. You’re shilling for the people who call everyone they don’t agree with Russians, sir.

He goes on:

I failed to wake you up to the truth that Jesus of the Scriptures was a dark-skinned Middle Eastern Jewish rabbi whose family fled genocide just after his birth—so that you could now see his face in the very people you now condemn and fear and send away with great celebration.

I failed in all those emotionally intoxicating mission trips we took together to foreign places filled with staggeringly beautiful people, to show you your connectedness to them enough, so that you were properly outraged as Trump began demonizing immigrants as “illegals” and branded them as terrorists and criminals to be expelled.

Perhaps this is a strange pivot, but where were you during 9/11? I was four at the time, so I don’t remember much but I don’t hate people the same skin tone as them. Skin tone is such an asinine 1950’s way of looking at the world. Bold of you to assume skin tone is ethnicity! Have you never seen a Texan get a tan?

Did not Adam and Eve fall from the Garden? Even in innocence there is corruption. Whether the person is a Jew, or African, or Afghan, or German, or American makes little difference when all of Man was corrupted in the Garden. I’d say watching and praying would be wise don’t you think?

As for the supposed race of Christ there are a multitude of things more important for Christians to focus on. Like was he the seed of the Father or of the Holy Ghost like in Luke 1:35? Did that make him a demi-god? Why did Constantine accept the Nicene Creed over the teachings of Sabellius or Arian? Why only the creed that would appeal to the polytheists all around Rome and not the Jewish foundation it was “grafted in” upon in Romans 11:17-24?

“And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”—Luke 1:35

I failed to clearly call out the misogyny and sexism the Church has been and is still cultivating, or you'd have been far less quick to vilify survivors, attack accusers, defend predators, and vote for bad men. You'd have not celebrated the subjugation of women by supporting the removal of their ability to choose, a right given to them by God.

Having Pharoh throw children to Nile crocodiles was a right given to them by God? Your bio says you went to seminary, but have you even read a Bible?! That’s *also* in the first few books.

I failed to help you experience the open-handed generosity of Jesus, or you wouldn't be so tight-fisted with America or health insurance or opportunity in these moments. Life wouldn't be a zero sum game where someone else's winning equaled your losing.

I failed to help you imagine a God who was fittingly big enough, or you wouldn't be settling with the tiny, vengeful, terrified savior that Republicans are asking you to bow down to—and who you seem content to oblige.

Americans gave almost a half-a-trillion dollars during 2020 in the midst of a pandemic. While the Mormons give out the most in Christendom the Jews got us stumped. My little church with less that 100 people has half-a-mill and three-fifths of that is going to missions (if my recollection is correct). 10-20% of my income goes to the church or foreign fields! Speaking of income-

As for the “tiny, vengeful” man, he survived COVID and braved through the public while your man was hiding six-feet under. What has your man done? He’s allowed Catholics to be attacked over 400 times; worse, his FBI even spied on them, BLM and more! This generosity you wish to suggest—I presume universal income—isn’t only anti-Jesus (who said the poor will be with us always) but also not grounded in the Law nor Matthew 20:15. I talked about this dilemma in point 2 and 3 of my article below concerning the “social welfare” of ancient times: that required one to work most of the time.

5 Things Modern Christians Get Wrong or Don’t Do

This “universal income experiment” during the pandemic led to inflation, the closure of large blocs of the most important employers (small businesses), thusly allowing monopiles to fill the vacuum and take Mr. Bezo’s wealth in 2019 at 46-billion to 200+ billion. Time magazine decries how 50-years of “trickle-down economics” led to Bezos with his 40 billion why do you want to trickle it up in five?

There are some lines I could further refute but I’d be getting redundant. This man is a fool and a charlatan. Just like the pope and other Left leaning Christians he probably hasn’t read a Bible in his life.