{"id":890,"date":"2018-11-11T14:42:06","date_gmt":"2018-11-11T20:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/11\/pastor-rips-sarah-sanders-in-open-letter-for-lying-to-the-world-while-claiming-to-be-a-christian\/"},"modified":"2018-11-11T14:44:52","modified_gmt":"2018-11-11T20:44:52","slug":"pastor-rips-sarah-sanders-in-open-letter-for-lying-to-the-world-while-claiming-to-be-a-christian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thelight.com\/index.php\/2018\/11\/11\/pastor-rips-sarah-sanders-in-open-letter-for-lying-to-the-world-while-claiming-to-be-a-christian\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Rips Sarah Sanders in Open Letter For \u201cLying to the World\u201d While Claiming to Be a Christian"},"content":{"rendered":"
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John Pavlovitz is a progressive Christian Pastor and Author in North Carolina. We\u2019ve shared many of his thoughtful and challenging open letters in the past, but it\u2019s been a while.\u00a0 And none may be as powerful as the latest, a scathing, pointed takedown of the hypocrisy of conservative Christian and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.<\/p>\n

Without further commentary, here part of Pavlovitz\u2019s letter:<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Sarah,<\/em><\/p>\n

Please know this has nothing to do with that.\u00a0<\/em>This is about you\u2014and it\u2019s about Jesus. (Well, sort of.)<\/em><\/p>\n

You see, I\u2019m a Christian and I\u2019ve heard you claim that you\u2019re a Christian too\u2014and watching you work recently, it got me thinking:<\/em><\/p>\n

How does she do it?<\/em><\/p>\n

What I mean is, how do you reconcile your supposed faith in Jesus of Nazareth, with your current position as a mouthpiece for this morally malignant President?<\/em><\/p>\n

As a professed Christian, how do you make peace with the reality that you regularly mount the largest bully pulpit in the nation\u2014and you lie for a living on behalf of a serial predator?<\/em><\/p>\n

How do you square your Christianity with the realization that you are the most visible and vocal surrogate for a man who is by nearly every measurement\u2014fully devoid of Christlikeness?<\/em><\/p>\n

Look, all Christians (myself included), feel some measure of fraudulence as we live this life while claiming we\u2019re trying to perpetuate the character of Jesus in the world.<\/em><\/p>\n

None of us can avoid the hypocrisy inherent in professing faith in a perfectly loving, compassionate, merciful Savior\u2014while being profoundly flawed human beings. That tension and duplicity are ever-present.<\/em><\/p>\n

But this isn\u2019t that.\u00a0<\/em>This is about actively working for the opposition.\u00a0<\/em>This is about purposeful betrayal of your namesake.\u00a0<\/em>This is about conspiring with the enemy.<\/em><\/p>\n

I watch you every week as you repeatedly distort the truth,\u00a0<\/em>as you attack journalists who come carrying facts, a<\/em>s you vilify politicians who oppose your employer\u2019s malfeasance,<\/em>
\nas you categorically defend his every vile statement, every personal attack, every nonsensical Tweet, every baseless firing, every legislative assault.<\/em><\/p>\n

I watch your face contort with the unmistakable tells of a person who doesn\u2019t believe a word they\u2019re saying; one who\u2019s sold their soul and is now hopelessly trapped in a lie about a lie about a lie.<\/em><\/p>\n

I wonder what Jesus-story you tell yourself, about the fact that every week you stand in front of a microphone and willingly perpetuate falsehoods that do great harm to millions of people?<\/em><\/p>\n

That has to be rough\u2014or maybe it isn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/em>Maybe it\u2019s a breeze for you now.\u00a0<\/em>Maybe you\u2019ve convinced yourself it\u2019s somehow all the Lord\u2019s work.<\/em><\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019ve been on this slippery slope of deception for so long that you actually believe the lies now too.<\/em><\/p>\n

Or maybe your Jesus and my Jesus are just that different.<\/em><\/p>\n