Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds
It’s the last Sunday of the month so we’re looking at religion, or at least religion adjacent, making this weeks book Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds by John Fugelsang. So lets do this.
Everything about this book was irritating. And hypocritical. I get what he is going for. And he has a point. Fundamentalists of all faiths are supremely irritating and bad for business. Like the witch who wished death on Charlie Kirk and every sane witch collectively groaned in horror when that information came out. Because...who the hell does that?!
But here’s the thing. He says, somewhere near the beginning, that fundamentalists cherry pick bible versus, take them out of context, and probably mistranslated them, comparing it to a 2,000 year old game of telephone, where by the time the message reaches the end of the line it has completely changed from what the starting message was. And then he proceeds to do exactly the same thing, swearing that HIS translation is exactly right. Honest!
And then he begins to basically lambastes any political ideology that’s right of center. Because only leftists can be true Christians with their willingness to pay taxes, which is totally in the bible, willingness to feed the poor, which no republican did ever, and open acceptance of LGBTQIA+ ideology….because trans-people were totally mentioned in the bible. If you accept that someone who is forcibly castrated and turned into a Eunuch is a trans-person. Not sure I would make that equation, but then again, I follow Loki…..who could literally trans-himself when it was funny...or when doing so would get him out of trouble with Odin.
Look, you can have all the empathy in the world for someone who’s dealing with gender dysphoria, but it is not a kindness to pretend along with them. That is not reality. Would psychiatrists tell you to agree with schizophrenics that the voices in their head are real? I feel like that’s a definite no. And it’s no different with gender dysphoria. The more grounded in reality you are, the happier your life will be overall.
Anyways...basically, if you’re a republican then by default you’re a bad Christian. Only democrats can be good Christians. That’s….that’s the gist of the book. But lets look at this a little more closely.
He opens with how Jesus was a radical in his day, which ok, I’m willing to accept that on faith. Then he goes into HIS version of the thou shalt nots….hate feminists, hate gays, hate abortions, hate immigrants, hate poor people, have sex-hangups, kill people for justice, hate gun control, or hate other faiths.
Now...for some of these, he makes a good point. There’s no point hating gay people, you can’t control being born gay. Just ask Dave Rubin, or Arielle Scarcella….Oh, wait….those are right of center gays. They’re bad Christians, according to Fugelsang. We could ask Blair White, she’s trans AND a recent convert to Christianity...except she’s also the wrong politics, and so, I’m sure, a bad Christian.
Feminists….well, that entirely depends on the feminist. The ones who denounce women who choose to be a wife and mother for not “living up to their full potential” by becoming corporate CEO’s...well, they can fuck right the hell off. But that makes me a bad Christian. Good thing I’m not Christian. You should not hate women in the porn industry. Here’s the thing….I’m not so sure it’s hate, so much as pity. It’s all very progressive for Fugelsang to see them as earning a viable living, but the reality is, the entire rest of the planet...all 8 BILLION people... absolutely judges that life choice. And pities the children of former porn stars. Hell, even the porn stars are asking for their catalogs to be removed from the internet, so their future children aren’t embarrassed.
Hate people who have abortions….specifically people, because, you know, men can TOTALLY have abortions. This was an interesting perspective. I mean, I disagree. Although my disagreement has everything to do with science and Buddhism. I mean, nobody hates Buddhists, so they were not even mentioned in this book, but here’s the science. In 2016, scientists were able to catch on camera the exact moment sperm meets egg, because the egg releases a shit ton of zinc. This is called the spark of life. So there’s that. Then there’s the whole Pineal gland, which was discussed a lot during my review of DMT: The Spirit Spirit Molecule by Dr. Rick Strassman, which I reviewed earlier this year. From that book, if you’ll recall, the Pineal gland, which first forms in the mouth, moves into position in the brain on the 49th day after conception. And Buddhists believe that on the 49th day after death, the soul reincarnates. And that uncanny coincidence brought me, personally, to the belief that abortion is amoral. Because I think it forms in the mouth so that you may Speak the Word of God...then moves to the brain so you may Know the Word of God. If you’re a Christian, try and jive that...even though it comes from Buddhism, not Jesus.
Now, having said that, I’m not going to judge someone who DOES choose an abortion, because I have not been where they are. And there are, sometimes, true medical reasons for such. I will judge the shit out of someone who celebrates having done so though.
Hate illegal immigrants. Again, I’m not so sure they’re hated, so much as extremely frustrating. While I believe our immigration system could use a serious overhaul, I do not see the problem with screening people and making sure criminals aren’t entering our country...I mean beyond the inherent criminal act of entering the United States illegally in the first place. MS13….yeah, round em up and ship em back. With due process. Look, I’m not a complete monster. Due process is how they know what you’re arresting them for. And being in the country illegally IS a crime. And how about immigrants who flat refuse to assimilate to the culture here in America? Looking at you, Somalia Minnesota. The welfare frauds are very much a thing.
However, in his chapter on hating poor people, he mocks the very idea of welfare fraud. Like...he’s sure it’s not a thing. Insists we should all keep supplementing the nutrition of high calorie individuals who just need their Hoho’s and Oreo’s. Because that’s what Jesus would do.
His chapter on sex hangups was ok. It’s basically masturbation is cool. Alright.
And I agree with him on not killing for justice, although my reasons are entirely prosaic. The government that he is all too happy to give all our tax dollars too has a proven track record of throwing the innocent in prison...and executing them. I don’t trust the government to hang a traffic light, I sure as shit don’t trust them to make sure they actually caught the right guy. Not when the government...both sides of the political spectrum...has made a game out of incentivizing convictions, never mind who actually done it.
Don’t hate on gun control….well, I already read the definitive rebuttal on gun control, I suggest you do the same. I mean, he’s saying Jesus would support gun control, which just reminded me of this immortalized tweet, which I will forever laugh at. And I love how he’s crying about how the court in New York, of all places, said that yes people can conceal carry in church. Something which already saved one Texas church. Which he absolutely did not mention in this book. In fact, he didn’t mention a single solitary incident where mass shooters were swiftly stopped by an armed response. The only shootings he mentioned in the book were ones known to have been perpetrated by Christian Nationalists, implying that ONLY Christian Nationalists engage in such behavior. Something anyone with eyes to see knows to be false.
He also repeats...ad nauseum, the mandate to turn the other cheek. I feel like that’s just saying, hey...if your significant other beats the shit out of you, just turn the other cheek...Jesus says so. The nice thing about heathenry is if my significant other beats the shit out of me...well, I’m a better shot than he is, and there’s a lot of desert out there. His mom would help me bury the body, cause she raised him better than that.
Again...read In Defense of the Second Amendment by Larry Correia...it will open your eyes to the bullshit narrative spun by leftist fear mongers.
Don’t hate other faiths….and what if those faiths hate you? This entire book was a strong argument about the paradox of tolerance. Because if we’re all as tolerant as Jesus would want us to be, then we the people will cease to exist as a nation. Because the intolerant left is crying that those right of center don’t agree with him, while importing millions of immigrants as “political refugees” whose way of life is absolute anathema to western values, something that Europe is slowly learning to their very costly detriment.
But just remember folks...Jesus wants you to pay your taxes and leave it all to the government. He WASN’T a socialist...but only because socialism didn’t exist back when Jesus was around. He would TOTALLY be a socialist now. So all the bad Christians who fled socialism and remind everyone about how badly that worked out...well, they’re bad Christians. Don’t listen to them.
I’m genuinely floored how anyone can look at the shit show of modern political discourse in America and believe that the best solution is to give them MORE of our money. He cites the blessed FDR on why socialism is good, because of social security….read any of these books for a hint on what a grifter that asshole was.
And yeah….if you disagree with Fugelsang on ANY of these things, it’s because you’re a bad Christian. It could not possibly be that as a free thinking adult, capable of rational thought divorced from religious scripture, you saw what the government was doing and thought “Well, THAT’s a bad idea.” Because the bible and Jesus says it’s all a good idea. As long as the idea originated on the left. And is managed by the government.
The most offensive part of this is he literally lumps everyone together. There is no room to address individual people. If you’re right of center, you’re wrong. But if you cave to the talking points Fugelsang presents in this book, you too can become a leftist ideologue and thence, right with Jesus.
What baffles me is the apparently bizarre belief that if you lean politically left, you can’t be Christian, which is why he felt the need to write this book. That’s like saying if you lean politcally right, you can’t be a witch…
And then there’s me...the anarcho-capitalist heathen, looking at both sides of the political spectrum, thinking if you have to bend your faith to fit a political narrative, maybe it’s not Jesus you love. Maybe it’s the political machine you truly worship, and none of ya’ll are going to see the Kingdom of Heaven.
Of course Christian’s can be left, right or center. All this book did was feed an ever growing POLITICAL DIVIDE in this country. It did nothing to bring people together. Nothing to bridge any gaps in faith OR politics. It’s a one ups-manship of who’s a better Christian. It was exhausting to read, and the best thing about it is I’m still within my window of return to get my money back on this book.
