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John Pavlovitz

8 May, 6 tweets, 1 min read

Today, a 30-year old woman I always considered quite reasonable, started talking about the "dangers of the vaccine re: fertility." She said, "The doctors I'm hearing from have said..." later saying that "the media is not reporting this."
Her sources were random YouTube videos.

She continued, saying, "If China DID do this on purpose, what's to stop them from doing it again, seeing how much it's hurt us?
(I reminded her that the entire planet (including China) has been decimated, but...)

She went on to say that she's "all for vaccines, just not THIS one."

The more she talked, the more disbelief came over me as I realized, "Wow, they got to her, too." This was not some unhinged stranger on Twitter. This was someone who I knew and who should know better.

It took me about a 30-second Google search to disprove her claims. I sent her some links to reputable medical websites, but I can already tell she will dismiss them. It was so deflating, because it reminds me how pervasive the MAGA lies run and how much work we have to do.

More and more, I see how relationally fractured we are and that it will get worse before it gets better. We're all going to have to face the re-tribing of our lives, as we choose between people we once loved and respected—and reality.

I know I'm not alone. I know we're all grieving the loss of friends and family, and I guess I just wanted to encourage you as you face the divides and the disconnections. You're in good company.

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More from @johnpavlovitz

John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

9 May

8 years ago my mother was taken to the emergency room. She could barely breathe. Her lungs were failing. The next day my father called me and said through tears, that I should come up and be prepared to say goodbye to her. I got the next plane out.

When I walked in to her room, she saw me and said through heavy sedation "What are you doing here?" I couldn't tell if she was trying to be funny or if she realized me being there meant her condition was serious.

Over the next two days she made a startling recovery, quit smoking then and there for good, and began going to the gym. She'd suffered severe COPD for years but never told anyone about her pain until it was nearly too late.

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John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

8 May

I'll be fighting like hell to prevent it, but I'm beginning to believe the Dems will lose Congress in 2022 and the monster who failed to steal a second term in 2020, will do so in 2024—unless Dem politicians and the good people of this nation work with urgency and ferocity, now.

The incessant attacks on voting rights by Republicans, the general fatigue of millions of exhausted Americans, and Sinema and Manchin's reckless wasting of this season for the Dems are terribly concerning, as is the lack of fire from the DNC.

2022 and 2024 are all-or-nothing propositions for Democracy. If either of those good badly, all the work of so many for the past four years will have been wasted, and we will only have procrastinated away America's demise.

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John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

15 Apr

@jdgreear

AN OPEN LETTER TO PASTOR JD GREEAR @jdgreear AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CHURCH @SBCExecComm, REGARDING LGBTQ YOUTH,

For more than twenty years I’ve been a pastor to students.

It has been the greatest joy of my life to be allowed into the trenches of young people’s lives: to have access to their stories and share proximity to their pain.

I’ve sat with and listened to thousands of LGBTQ young people, and I’ve had a front row seat to the violence the Church has manufactured and to the depression, self-harm, and isolation it breeds.

Read 32 tweets

John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

12 Apr

Tell me you grew up in the 70s without telling me you grew up in the 70s.

My doctor smoked in his office.

I was a member.

For a few weeks, I was a god among men.

Read 4 tweets

John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

2 Apr

Name something that was better when you were younger?

Concerts.

Pre-cell phones. There's simply no comparison. If you were there, you know...

My eyes.

Thought the TV was blurry.
Went to the eye doctor.
Turns out it was me. 😂
51 years and this just happened.
Today I learned my face is wrinkled, my windows are filthy, and 4K is amazing!

Read 4 tweets

John Pavlovitz

@johnpavlovitz

2 Apr

I'd like to see more moderate/progressive Christians be louder in demanding human rights. I think we need a sustained ferocity that actively confronts the way the Religious Right dehumanizes/damages people. I think Jesus would be really pissed off right now and we should be, too.

I don't expect all people of my faith tradition to be as confrontational as I might be, but I feel like we're largely abandoning our calling to be light in dark places and to fight injustice. Conservatives are unapologetic in their hatred. We need to be in our opposition to it.

I grieve that we are still largely relinquishing the faith conversation to the wall-builders and vote-suppressors because we're trying to be nice instead of Christlike. You can love and still passionately upend tables. You can love and still explicitly name bigotry. Jesus did.

Read 4 tweets

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