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Have you noticed that something is missing in American spirituality?

It isn’t religion. We have plenty of that.
It isn’t Christians. There are tens of millions of professed followers of Jesus here.
It isn’t Christian churches. It’s difficult to travel a mile without encountering a half a dozen houses of worship of various denominations.

What we’re missing is kindness.

We are experiencing a national poverty of empathy in this country, and sadly that deficit is evident in organized Christianity more than anywhere.

It seems like many people who are loudly leading with their faith are the ones who have most passionately embraced a theology of cruelty, exclusion, and malice—one that bears no resemblance to Jesus. Instead of being known for our empathy and our heart for diverse humanity, Christians are seen by many as obstacles to the arc of the moral universe.

I created an online course called Being Kind Humans in an effort to talk about the compassionate activist heart of Jesus, without the trappings of religion or theological language so that Christians and non-Christians could think and talk about the values we all share. It’s meant to be a place to find commonalities, start conversations, and build relationships.

I wanted to offer you our Kind Humans Survival Guide ([link removed]) : a collection of ideas, stories, and strategies for tending to the wounds of the world and the wounds we sustain in the process.

I hope you’ll find something encouraging here to make the world a bit more compassionate than you found it.

John
Get your free guide ([link removed])
John Pavlovitz is a writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A 25-year veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, John is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. When not actively working for a more compassionate planet, John enjoys spending time with his family, exercising, cooking, and having time in nature. He is the author of Worth Fighting For, If God is Love, Don't be a Jerk, A Bigger Table, Hope and Other Superpowers, Low, Rise, and Stuff That Needs to Be Said.

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