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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums...Christian pastor to President Obama: For 8 years, I've watched you be the better man
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/12/28/1614975/-True-Christian-pastor-to-President-Obama-For-8-years-I-ve-watched-you-be-the-better-man?detail=facebookEmerging Christian pastor to President Obama: For 8 years, I've watched you be the better man
By Leslie Salzillo
Wednesday Dec 28, 2016 · 2:21 PM EST
snip//
In this open letter to President Obama, Pavlovitz writes about how history will secure the Presidents grand legacy and body of wor. After watching President Obama for eight years, Pavlovitz shares his observations. Here are some excerpts from his June piece.
Ive watched you bombarded with a daily molotov cocktail of white privilege and hidden or overt racism disguised as objective opposition.
Ive watched your wife and children attacked with a ferocity and malevolence that defy any sense of decency and that have no precedence.
Ive watched your birthplace called into question, your personal faith ridiculed, your very humanity discounted.
Ive watched you endure the incessant, bitter venom of those for whom the color of your skin was always going to be a problem.
And through all of it, Ive watched you be the better man.
Pavlovitz tells President Obama that In the face of a sustained, spitting, violent, raw-throated hatred, youve never responded in kind. He writes that Obama never allowed himself to be defined by bigotry and never disrespected his critics by becoming them. This, Pavlovitz says, will be President Obamas greatest legacy.
Eight years later, those same people still strain to bait you into reciprocating bitterness and in fulfilling their toxic prophecies of you, while you simply continue to do what you do with nobility, compassion, good humor, and steadfast, unapologetic conviction.
John Pavlovitz tells President Obama, You live the grace so many Christians invoke but rarely model. The pastor adds, as a father, he realizes his children are always watching him, taking cues from the way he treats people and how he responds to adversity. He knows his children watch how he cares for those in pain, how he handles mistreatment and that his words will always be secondary to his conduct. This is where I find my deepest gratitude for you in these days. He tells the President, For eight years you have worked for those who have been marginalized, even while so many have sought to marginalize you.
Pavlovitz writes that he and so many others are trying to live passionately yet with integrity and are committed to standing upon principles and never upon people. He says, We are seeing the way youve done it and are moved to move similarly together.
Without a trace of irony or sarcasm, let me simply say:
Thanks, Obama.
This. Once again, John Pavlovitz proves there are Christians out there who actually follow the words of Christ, who actually care deeply about others, and who are not afraid to speak out against religious hypocrisy. More, please and thank you, Pastor Pavlovitz.
AmericanActivist
(1,019 posts)True Dough
(17,304 posts)I would recommend this whether it came from a pastor or a farmer or a welder or an unemployed individual. It recognizes the never-ending burdens that Obama endured and yet he maintained his civility and composure. So remarkable.
Thanks for posting, babylonsister.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)Thanks Obama for being someone special...you!
pkdu
(3,977 posts)or commented on it.
I wholeheartedly concur with every single syllable.
sheshe2
(83,757 posts)Exactly!
Thank you Mr President.
eleny
(46,166 posts)Rec'd
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)God, I'm missing him already
LuckyLib
(6,819 posts)Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)sdfernando
(4,935 posts)Put in the same situation of being on the receiving end of all the vitriol, I could not do what he has done and rise above it. He is a much better man than I will ever be.
So thankful to have lived through his Presidency...and I look for much more from him and I know he will not disappoint.
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)Bohunk68
(1,364 posts)tosh
(4,423 posts)John Pavlovitz has eloquently stated what many of us feel.
Tikki
(14,557 posts)and just in case they might forget...remind them that "pimps grab and twist their girl's genitals hard when they think
their girls are getting out of control, to remind them who is boss." That is who does that.
That is who their guy is....
Tikki
ailsagirl
(22,896 posts)Thank you for posting!!!!
I liked this: "You live the grace so many Christians invoke but rarely model.
Amen
40RatRod
(532 posts)HeartlandDem
(80 posts)I will remember President Obama with pride for his dignity, class, intelligence, and strength against so much hatred. He will be greatly missed... the last of our great leaders.
Thinkingabout
(30,058 posts)Also, thanks to the John Pavlovitz for standing with Christ, I would hope others who profess themselves to be ministers, etc would change their hateful ways and follow the teachings of Christ to love one another.
smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)dignified and esteemed president. They should be ashamed of themselves. The Obamas are nothing but first class.
SCVDem
(5,103 posts)I started thinking: To The Greatest!
These words would do an epitaph proud.
Let's just save that for many, many years down the road, mmokayy?
CousinIT
(9,244 posts)orangecrush
(19,551 posts)Obama was like being released from a stinking dungeon onto a tropical island with fresh sea air blowing through the senses.
Calm, careful, collected, a Captains Captain to guide the ship of State through the crises and currents of our times.
I shudder when I consider what lies before us now.
calimary
(81,261 posts)Last edited Thu Dec 29, 2016, 03:22 AM - Edit history (1)
Yeah, after 8 years of dubya... Holy Cannoli!
Like night and day, the difference! It was as though a sober adult had entered the room and cleared out the reckless drunken, brain-rotted arrested-development case. And now, after eight years of the well-informed, cool-calm-collected thoughtful grown-up - here goes another reckless arrested-development case, only this one isn't a dry drunk. He's a predatory, opportunistic, lying, sociopathic narcissist.
Never imagined the day when I'd expect to see people talking about how trump makes them miss dubya. But somehow, I'm thinking the Mango Mussolini is gonna get us there.
orangecrush
(19,551 posts)I wonder who qe are going to invade this time?
Initech
(100,070 posts)And less like the Warrens and Osteens that populate my county!
Pauldg47
(640 posts)...a racial slur come from his mouth...i am a member of his church too.
Initech
(100,070 posts)hamsterjill
(15,220 posts)The rest...not so much.
My personal favorite (in all seriousness) is Rev. Dr. William Barber, II. He spoke at the DNC and I've been a huge fan ever since. He is part of the red-letter movement.
RussBLib
(9,008 posts)and his wife claims to be a faith healer.
Both are charlatans.
Pauldg47
(640 posts)...also, joel has not ever had one inuendo of patisanship. His audiance has always been of an equal mix of hispanics, black and white. Does that bother you? I could care less about my racist church i am going to here in michigan. He is not at all like the pat robertson type. The part about his wife is dis info too. Anyway i dont expect any one to believe me and there are good christan dems too.
wryter2000
(46,045 posts)If you even make it to Oakland, visit St. Paul's Episcopal. My church.
Initech
(100,070 posts)wryter2000
(46,045 posts)But there's a progressive Episcopal church in Pasadena. All Saints.
http://www.allsaints-pas.org/
I'm not seriously trying to get you to church, . I just want you to know there are good churches out there. One the greatest frustrations of my life is all the attention the Warrens of this world get and how little good "mainline" churches receive.
Achilleaze
(15,543 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)I said the same thing in my own words. Now I think that he's getting millions of these kind of messages from us. I'm so proud of him and Michelle. They're the kind of people that want you to be a better person.
rainlillie
(1,095 posts).
bdamomma
(63,849 posts)when people go low you go high.
He was the best.
Maru Kitteh
(28,340 posts)We're supposed to be able to tell our children that we admire our elected leaders, or at the very least that we respect them as people even when we may disagree with them.
stage left
(2,962 posts)President Obama's integrity, compassion, and grace under pressure, the strength of character he modeled for us; those things are his legacy and something that no one will ever be able to take away from him. We were fortunate enough to have him for eight years, eight years in which he brought us back from the edge of economic destruction and gained us back the respect we had lost on the world stage.
Thanks, Obama.