The truth is we're going to be getting bad news all the time.

So we have to fortify ourselves.

And part of the way we do that is by staying connected to our source, whether that is our

faith or whether it's our families or our morality or the connections around us.

I always tell people, don't sacrifice yourself on the altar of your empathy. So as much as you

care, that's a beautiful thing, but it can really tear you up. And so you have to protect yourself

in all of this. Hello, and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast. I'm your host Lee McGowan. Let's get into it.

Well, it's Christmas Eve and the beginning of Hanukkah. And whether you're listening to this now or later,

there is no getting around the fact that we are in the season of hope and goodwill and looking out for

your fellow man at a time where many people are feeling the opposite. As today's guest, Pastor and

writer John Pavlovitt says, these are dark days in America, and it's hard to square that with the

season of light. That, as John writes in his substack, the beautiful mess, outside of a select few,

many of us aren't feeling particularly

festive right now. We're struggling to ignore the tension we're dealing with or our feelings about

the people that are around us and the pain in our own souls. It doesn't matter what religion

you practice or if you practice anything at all. There are a lot of conflicting feelings around

the holidays this year, particularly around American

Christians and Christmas and probably the destructive nature of capitalism itself and how that

all plays into this season.

So I've invited John to join us today, as I did for the holidays last year, because while

he has spent 28 years in ministry, he's kind of a unicorn in today's Christian communities with his deep

commitment to equality and diversity and justice, inside and outside of his faith. As a writer and a

...