There are some actual Christians left and some actual Christian pastors. How do I define “actual?” I define an actual Christian as somebody who has read the Bible and understands its moral teachings and lives by them, as opposed to being an evangelical wingnut, prosperity consciousness grifter. The latter is a sect that calls itself Christian but bears as much resemblance to actual Christianity as a pole stripper bears to a Bolshoi ballerina. Yes, technically, they are both dancers. But the motivation behind one is strictly crass economics, whereas mastery of a beautiful and classic artform defines the other.
John Pavlovitz is one of the legitimate voices of Christianity in this troubled world where the charlatans reign. He’s got a firm grasp on the issues that plague us. We may not be breaking out in boils (yet — give RFK, Jr. a few months) hail hasn’t wrecked the crops (but we do have conga lines of tornados) and our houses aren’t frog hotels, but we have plagues a plenty in the modern world. America is besieged by fear and ignorance, we have become “an unserious people in a serious world,” to quote Rick Wilson.
This is tragic. America was once an exceptional place and we were exceptional people. We were the shining city on the hill. We were admired by the world, and rightfully so, for our inventions, our science, our cinema, our universities, our art, our music and our democracy, first and foremost. We led the world by example in so many ways. And now in the era of Trump our politics evokes comparisons with the fall of the Roman empire.
How did we get in this mess? Pastor Pavlovitz says that it’s fear. That makes sense. There are two basic emotions in the universe. One is love, the other is fear. It is that primal and that black and white. Think of it. When you’ve been depressed, it’s because circumstances are threatening, even overwhelming. You’re afraid of what’s happening and in terror of what could come next. Conversely, when your life is love-based — meaning living by the Golden Rule, having self confidence, self respect, living life with direction and purpose, putting something of value into the world — the world is a wonderful place to be. You live with enthusiasm. You exude this to others. You lead by example.
Love is the state of mind where things get built. Fear is the state of mind where things get destroyed. It is easier to destroy than to build. What we saw on November 5 was the triumph of fear over love and here is the pastor’s take on that.
When someone chooses something without reason as their primary motivation, trying to use reason to convince them to discard it is a fool’s game. All the cogent, rational arguments in the world will fall on deaf ears, because those ears are permanently closed to anything but the sound of their messiah’s voice. None of the rules of engagement on finding common ground in matters of disagreement that people in good faith relied upon in the past, apply.
Making fun of Trump supporters or assassinating their character serves no valuable purpose either, other than to cause them to further entrench themselves in conspiracy or drive them deeper into cultic fervor, and distract us all in the fight against the incoming tide of unfathomable chaos they’ve unleashed on November 5th.
Ultimately, many Trump voters are motivated primarily by fear, and fear is a heck of a drug to get out of your system once you’re hooked on it. When your kids are afraid of the dark, you can turn on the light and show them everything around them is exactly the same, but if they’re convinced the Bogeyman is real, they’ll still be terrified when the lights go off again and they will work themselves into hysterics.
Donald Trump has convinced much of his base that the Bogeyman is hiding in public restrooms and hopping the border and taking their jobs and stealing their opportunity, and coming for their money and their guns and their freedom and their children. They can’t see reality no matter how much you shine a light on it all with data, facts, and objective information.
Most of them aren’t bad, stupid, or hateful people—just really terrified people doing bad, stupid, and hateful things in the panicked state inside their heads. They aren’t the enemy, the fear that Donald Trump and the GOP have leveraged and continually stoked in them is. That fear, is what won in this election.
And so this is really about the rest of us, now.
It’s about we who see through the hissing hyperbole and the brash alpha male antics and the ever louder and dumber rhetoric; those of us who can see that beneath it all, that the emperor is butt naked and ass backwards.
The redemptive act in times like these, isn’t to attack or argue or try to badger people into changing their minds. It isn’t to meet insult with insult or venom with venom or threat with threat. It’s isn’t to become as stone-hearted and fearful as they have become.
The redemptive act in the face of this kind of irrational fear is to center empathy: to live and fight and work and vote as a direct and unflinching response to that fear; to nullify it and render it helpless and show it for the paper tiger it is.
We who are clear-eyed and unafraid, need to create a courageous community, to embody a hopeful movement that can wake of the imaginations of people who’ve come to be motivated only by the mythical nightmares their minds have been filled with.
Because if we create a counter-movement to that fear, maybe one day the lights will come on for those around us, and the real bogeyman will vanish for good—and maybe then we’ll all be able to get some sleep.
Trump is a negative, fearful, unserious, uncurious, ignorant, cruel and vindictive man. He got where he got politically by pushing exactly those buttons in the electorate. He made people who were never interested in politics before believe that they understood politics. They do not because what he tells them is simply not real, the tariffs lie being a glaring example. Trump’s lies are legion. The MAGAs are his mark, but they don’t see it that way, they see Trump as their long awaited salvation. It’s one hell of a con but unfortunately, we’re all at one big poker table and we’re all getting conned.
Trump exposed America for who we are. We are split in two, two cultures living intermingled and side by side. Half the country still matches our stated ideals and cultural identity. We are an extraordinary people, still. We do create, think, invent, write, develop and produce with the best of them. We do represent, as a melting pot, the most unique and inspiring culture on this planet. We are the vanguard for art and science. Trends that start here go throughout the world. All that is still true.
But so is the other, the irrational, fearful, ignorant and easily manipulated, America also exists. And right now, the baser qualities of America are in the ascendent. Again. And now we are in damage control mode. Because chaos and corruption are the order of the day. That’s the price of electing a demogogue out of fear. And if you thought Trump’s lies, gaffes and scandals were something the first time, wait. Just wait.
This was marvelous. Thank you.
Thank you very much. I do think the pastor is right.
“cultic fervor”
Their source of power.
Well, it’s pretty much like I’ve been saying since 2016: If a Democrat had EVER considered speaking the phrase “Make America Great Again” (let alone turning it into a catchphrase), the Republican Party as a whole would come down on that person, denouncing them as some of unAmerican or anti-American person who doesn’t deserve to live in the United States.
But, somehow, Trump managed to get away with it and convinced far too many (morons) of its validity.
And, not once did anyone–politician or member of the media–challenge him on the phrase. They let him get away with it and the members of the GOP bear the most and greatest responsibility for it. If just one of them (Rubio or Cruz or Kasich) had challenged Trump to EXPLAIN why America was not “great” (or, at least, why he thought that) and had to be made “great again,” maybe the fat slob would’ve been stopped before he could’ve inflicted the damage he did. The media should’ve challenged him on it as well but that wouldn’t have been approved by their masters who demanded the Trump freak show be allowed to go as long as it could–all in the name of ratings.
get it while you can. It comes down to $ fear of not having it or corruption of money to have more & more. it’s just that simple. the haves and the have nots.
The problem is the assumption that Jesus never felt righteous anger or took actions that doesn’t fit a kumbaya holding hands moment with evildoers. The gospels clearly shows him contemptuous time again to Jewish and Roman authorities. One states he fashioned whips and drove the money changers from the temple. He called the religious leaders vipers and children of the devil…punishable BY DEATH. He was the most radical firebrand challenging not only the religious leaders who claimed divine blessing but also the most powerful civil and military authority on earth. Love demands SACRIFICE…something we know very little about in the most comfortable society on earth. He always required repentance from those he performed miracles for and repeatedly said go and SIN NO MORE. Fear is the main tool of the devil but it isn’t complacent and comfortable love that overcomes, but the same fierceness of Jesus that overcomes, and a understanding that it comes with a price. We know nothing about sacrifice. If we did, we’d be OUTRAGED AT OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES and the election of this evil man. Make a deal with the devil and you should expect HELL to follow. When I was unjustly sent to prison, which the parole board verified, I would have been a FOOL to expect love to convert killers and rapists to respect my life. No…fierceness saved my ass. Not some half baked belief that I could walk through evil without being willing to face the reality of evil, and the dangers to come. Jesus was a mystery, but he was no fool. Neither am I. Americans are. That’s crystal clear at this point. Hey preacher…stop talking…and paying taxes then you will walk the walk. Til then you are just talking to make yourself and others believe in a salvation without sacrifice. Not gonna happen.