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

Christian Nationalists have created a Jesus-free version of Christianity that sees Jesus’ virtues (justice, compassion, love your enemy, feeding the poor, and love and care for the stranger in our midst) as undesirable or disqualifying. Trump is an almost perfect inversion of the moral teachings of Jesus.

If it bugs you that Jesus’ teachings have been hijacked by such people, and wish you had good arguments based on what Jesus preached, then this is the book for you. The book has a chapter for each of the main contradictions of Jesus in our politics, and serves a dash of humor with the many quotes from the Bible. Highly recommended.

Here are some quotes to give the idea

Definition of Christian nationalism: “the belief that God intended America to be a Christian nation and that a true American should be Christian.”

The author defines 7 common varieties, here are 3 of the 7 types mentioned on p.7:

–“The Strapped Bro-dudes for Jesus, worshiping a jacked up, gun toting, ass-kicking Alpha Christ, who doesn’t actually appear in the Jesus parts of the Bible.

–The Christian supremacists, who always believe violence is morally acceptable if it’s their side doing it.

–The Holy Haters, convinced that God despises the same people they do. “

“Spiritual people use religion to become better people. Fundamentalists use religion to pretend they’re better than other people.” Page 17.


There are “Thou Shalt Not Hate” Chapters for Feminists, Gays, People Who Have Abortions, “Illegals”, Poor People, Gun Control, Jews/Muslims/Atheists, and more.

To given an idea, I’ll quote from only one chapter: Thou Shalt Not Hate “Illegals”:

Genesis 1:27: “God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

“This basic Christian belief inconveniently affirms the inherent dignity and worth of every person.” “Love your neighbor as yourself” is quite inclusive and universal. [covers all of humanity]

Leviticus 19:34: “the Foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native born. Love them as yourself.”

“The parable of the Good Samaritan is Jesus specifically rejecting the idea of limiting compassion to one’s own group. A despised foreigner is the character who fulfills God’s command to “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg: ” The Torah commands us no less than 36 times to love and care for the stranger in our midst. … Talk about missing the point of everyone is created in the divine image.”

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