Shows / The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast
Authentic words for everyone trying to figure out the best way to be human.
johnpavlovitz.substack.com
Episodes
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Powerful Women Who Protect A Predator
I can understand why Conservative men support a serial predator like Donald Trump. He embodies the fragile masculinity that so many are afflicted with. He…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Epstein Files and the Pathetic Weakness of MAGA Men
As I watch men on the Right arguing against the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, I am reminded again how weak they all are, what a pathetic joke MAGA…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe People Who Really Piss Me Off
There is no shortage of people to be enraged about right now. I’m angry at this vile, repugnant, cognitively-addled despot urinating on our Constitution and…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastBiden's FBI Once Protected Our Family From Right-Wing Extremists. Now Under Trump, It's Being Run By Them.
Three years ago, I was in a Kohl's department store when I received a text from my wife:Everything's fine but the FBI is at the house. I left massive skid…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastA Letter to Those Who Still Give a Damn
It’s exhausting to give a damn, isn’t it? To be a person of compassion in a time and place when compassion is in such great demand? To wake up every day in…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastPolitics Isn't Worth Ending Relationships Over, But Morality Is.
“You shouldn’t let politics get in the way of your relationships.” You’ve probably seen these sentiments pop up on social media, come across them in eloquent…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastI'm Devastated By America, So I'm Getting Out.
This week, I finally reached my limit for bad news. A few days ago, something showed up on my timeline (I can’t even remember exactly what, to be honest), and…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastA Pastor's Warning: We're Not in a Civil War, But a Christian Nationalist Holy War—And They Must Not Win.
I’m not sure Americans really understand what we’re facing right now. I do. I’ve spent most of the last thirty years as a local church pastor, much of that in…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastIf Your Heart is Breaking... (A Video Message from John)
Transcript: Hey my friends, I wanted to come on here and just share a few thoughts about the days in which we find ourselves. You’re obviously heartbroken…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAmerica, We Are All Minneapolis
Denial is a powerful drug. In the wake of the unthinkable images and footage coming out of Minneapolis over the last weeks, it’s easy to feel insulated from…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastICE Destroyed Alex Pretti's Body. The Trump Administration Assassinated His Character. Conservative Americans Are Fine With That.
Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE, in cold blood, without cause, and with giddy joy from his assassins. For simply bearing witness to a neighbor’s abuse, for…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWe Can't Change These Hateful People, America. We Have to Outnumber Them.
There’s an old saying: “When the horse is dead… dismount.” It’s time to stop beating this one, America. It’s not going anywhere. These people cannot be helped…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThank You, President Trump
Dear President Trump, It’s taken me a while to realize and admit this, but I’m grateful to you. I’ve spent a decade openly lamenting your presence and the…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWhite, Conservative Christians Have Caused All This Misery. I Say, To Hell With Them.
Watching Vice President JD Vance, a professed Christian, stand before our nation this week and repeatedly lie about the Trump Administration’s illegal and…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAre We Killing Ourselves With Bad News?
In days like these, information is hazardous. Yesterday morning, before my feet had even hit the floor, I opened up Instagram, and sitting at the top of my…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastFor the Sake of The Nation and Humanity, His Supporters Must Be Shunned
At this point, decent people need to face a painful truth: Far too many of our family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, and classmates are fully…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastRepublican Friends, If Trump Were a Democrat, I Wouldn't Have Supported Him.
Republican friends, if I were in your shoes a decade ago, we wouldn’t be here right now. If he had run as a Democrat, it would have been a nonstarter. You…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastJesus Turned Over Tables. He Would Have Interrupted That Minneapolis Church Service, Too.
What Would Jesus Do? Conservative Christians love to ask this question. They adorn their Sunday school rooms with it. They wrap it around their wrists. They…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWhite Friends, Our Privilege is Currency. It's Time We Spent It.
Yesterday, I came across a TikTok by a creator who goes by the name of @professionalyapper19, speaking eloquently about the murder of Renee Good. She correctly…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Terrible Waste of Trump's America
If he finishes his second term, Donald Trump will have been president for 2,920 days. If asked by someone in the future to summarize in a single word, the…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastConfessions of a Hateful Leftist
Yesterday, a Trump supporter told me I was hateful. He was surprised when I agreed with him. For a long time, when confronted on social media or in person by a…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastI Get it. Hope Feels Stupid Right Now. Choose it Anyway.
Things are terrible right now: objectively, historically, inarguably, breathtakingly terrible. In fact, the list of atrocities, offenses, and abominations in…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAmerica, Will We Choose MLK Jr.'s Dream or Trump's MAGA Nightmare?
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream. His dream was an expansively diverse America where every human being was afforded dignity, where the color of one’s…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastDear Concerned Friend, You're F*ckin' Right I'm Angry... and I Wish You Were.
Dear Concerned Friend, Thank you for your kind note letting me know that you’re worried about me, and you wonder if I realize I’m coming across as angry…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastTo Hell With Hopelessness
People often ask me how I can be hopeful right now. I tell them that this is the only option. Hopelessness is a waste.It's useless.It's powerless.It's also…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastChristians Need to Destroy ICE.
There are an estimated 370,000 Christian churches in America. There’s probably one within a few minutes of you. You likely drive past dozens in the course of a…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAmerica, Will We Stand With (Renee Nicole) Good or Evil?
It’s easy to oversimplify this life; to abandon nuance in favor of a simple, binary choice that leaves no room for complexity. At times, we’re all guilty of…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWhite Christians Must Destroy White Christian Nationalism
I didn’t want to be doing this. Ten years ago, I was a student pastor at a large Suburban North Carolina church. Though I’d been writing a blog for a while, it…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAll Americans Know January 6th Was An Insurrection. The Decent, Patriotic Ones Care.
We all saw it. On January 6th, 2021, many of us watched it in disbelief in real time: the almost incomprehensible sight of thousands of people breaching the…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe January 6th Insurrection Didn't Fail, it Just Took Five Years
Boy, do I feel like an idiot. I honestly thought January 6th, 2021, was going to be a catalytic moment for our nation. Five years ago, watching a vicious…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastLiving in The United States of Embarrassment
A few months ago, I confessed to a close friend that I’d been imagining myself in a way I never had before in over half a century of living here in America…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastGood People, It's Time for Intolerance
us There’s a tiny prayer tucked away in the recesses of my heart for the year laid out in front of us; a modest aspiration for myself and for the…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastTo Everyone Who Walked Through Hell This Year
I’ve walked through hell this year. I can tell this, not by blackened, scarred feet or by singed, soot-covered clothing, but by the dark circles beneath my…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastMost Trump Supporters Aren't Stupid, and That's the Most Terrifying Thing
Ignorance is not a compelling argument at this point. We’ve all heard the theories for the past ten years: people still supporting Donald Trump are somehow…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWe Shouldn't Be Grieving Like This, America
I miss ordinary grief. My father died ten years ago, and lately, I grow nostalgic for the less complicated days when the only mourning I needed to contend with…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Epstein Files Have Fully Exposed the Right.
The Jeffrey Epstein files, once fully released, will expose Epstein, detailing his prolific atrocities once and for all. They will expose the monstrous human…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThese are Dark Days. Don't Lose Your Light.
There’s no other way to say it: these are dark days here in America. And this lack of light has nothing to do with the orientation of the planet and everything…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastJD Vance, Donald Trump, and MAGA Make Me Want to Apologize For Being White
If irony were deadly, JD Vance would have expired this weekend. The Vice President stood on a stage at Turning Point USA’s annual conference, and without an…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Epstein Files, And The (REDACTED) Truth That Sets Monsters Free
In my travels across this country over the past decade both in person and virtually, I’ve often asked people a simple, elemental question: What kind of person…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastHave Yourself an Anti-Fascist Christmas
Here in America, the days are rapidly getting shorter, the temperatures are dropping precipitously, and the calendar has been reduced to just a handful of…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastA Letter to the Heartbroken
Words are my life’s work. They have been for a long time now. Every day over the last fifteen years, I’ve positioned myself in front of a stark white gleaming…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastSandy Hook Elementary, Brown University, and the Conservative Gun Lust Killing Our Children
Every allegiance has a cost. There is a price tag to irrational fidelity. Passionate devotion to something always comes at the neglect of something else, or…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastDear Donald, We Dissent.
Dear Donald, I am an American citizen. I am a taxpayer. I am a person of faith. I am a father and husband. And I am a dissenter. I wanted to state that clearly…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast'What Child Is This?' Why Followers of Jesus Should Have No Peace This Christmas
Have you ever felt like something was off, something you couldn’t quite place but you were sure of just the same; that despite all the trappings of normal and…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastPlease, Do Feed the Artists
I’ve been around a long time. Over the last forty years, I’ve worked as a freelance illustrator, an art director, a working musician, and a published author…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastChristian, If You're Supporting ICE, You Shouldn't Be Celebrating Christmas
Christian, I’m trying to reconcile two things I’ve seen this season, maybe you can help me make sense of them… On one hand, I’ve seen your house, meticulously…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastEmpaths, Sociopaths, and Why America's Divide Isn't About Politics Anymore
This is not about politics. I wish it were, though, as that would be relatively easy to navigate. We are not a nation, as we’ve often thought, simply…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast'Happy Holidays' isn't an Insult to Jesus. Christians Who Weaponize Christmas are.
American Evangelicals’ annual campaign against the supposed “War on Christmas” began early this year, with the White House promising the apparently perpetually…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastActually, Mel Robbins, Life is Too Short To Holiday With Racists.
Best-selling author and self-help guru Mel Robbins recently posted a New York Times Op-Ed called Life Is Too Short to Fight With Your Family leading into the…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastWhen ICE Came to Bethlehem
The frigid air was thick was the smell of damp straw and animal dung. The newborn was wrapped tightly to shield him from the unrelenting wind, while his…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastBattle Lines: A Message to Those Who Self-Harm
This is a message to all the brave, exhausted soldiers out there doing battle right now, those waging a silent, internal civil war. I’m calling out to you who…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastAre Trump Supporters Capable of Loving Anyone?
On Thanksgiving, Donald Trump served up a rambling, sarcastic, wildly incoherent social media word salad of grievance aimed at immigrants, foreigners…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastA Civil War Hasn't Come to America, a Cold War Has
The heralds of disaster are hard at work right now. They’re prowling social media with dire prophecies, wielding megaphones in ramped-up rally crowds, and…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastCeasefires, Scorched Earth, and Ghostings: Navigating the Holidays With Screwed Up People
‘Tis the season to be struggling… For many of us, this season feels more like a wound than a gift, pressing on grief we’ve tried to bury, reminding us of…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastThe Astronaut and the Ass (Mark Kelly is The Patriot Donald Trump Will Never Be)
In case you haven’t been following closely lately, we’re currently in the “let’s attack a decorated war veteran and retired astronaut” portion of the collapse…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz Podcast10 Terrible Things to Give Thanks For
It’s tempting to view gratitude only through the filter of what’s pleasant, as if only comfort and ease are worth appreciating. Today, here are a few…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastA 'Remove the Regime' Recap: A NSFW Comedy Church Blessing from GOD
(Warning: Satire… NSFW or sensitive constitutions.) On Friday night, as part of the Remove the Regime rally weekend in DC, I was asked to give an opening…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastI Spoke on the National Mall. Here's What I Said About the Cancer of Donald Trump...
Over the weekend, I gathered with thousands of people from every corner of this nation for ‘Remove the Regime,’ a rally calling for the impeachment…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastI Think I'm Losing Faith in Religion
Some days, I’m afraid that I’m losing faith in Faith. I look around at the damage done in the name of God, and the grief comes like a flood. As a deeply…
The Beautiful Mess by John Pavlovitz PodcastChristians Should Be Standing Between ICE and Immigrants
Every church welcomes everyone. Just look at their website, it says so, clear as day. Every church is an “all-people church”. There it is on massive LED…