Former Pastor Exposes the Dark Truth About MAGA Christianity and Trump

Jennifer Welch· Host0:00

[upbeat music] All right, we're in for a real treat today, IHIP News. I am joined by writer, activist, and former pastor named John Pavlovitz. He is an author of eight books and confronts the ridiculous hypocrisy of MAGA evangelicals in his best-selling Substack, The Beautiful Mess. John, welcome.

John Pavlovitz· Guest0:24

Thank you so much. So good to be with you.

Jennifer Welch· Host0:26

Yes. Okay, so why did you leave the church?

John Pavlovitz· Guest0:29

Well, I had been a pastor for about 17 years and started to see the church change, my particular church, but the larger church, as Obama was elected, going through his terms. And then in the 2016 presidential campaign specifically, I started to watch Trump ascend in this process, and I started to realize if I'm gonna be a spiritual leader of any kind, I need to speak explicitly into what's happening, because Christians were softening their convictions. They were suddenly, you know, moving the goalpost, which they've done for 10 years now. And I started writing more explicitly, but I could nudge my congregation because I had been there a while, had an equity of trust. But I got to a new church, and I always say after five months, I heard God calling me to leave that church, and it came in the form of my pastor's voice saying, "You're fired." And my words on equality and gender and sexuality and race were uncomfortable for them, so I found myself outside of the system.

Jennifer Welch· Host1:27

So would you say that your inspiration