Author: Neal Saye

Posted in Five Friday Happy Bringers

Five Friday Happy Bringers 12/19/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

My weekly gratitude journal, of sorts.

1. Very neat seasonal looks everywhere you turn.

HR and buddy Ellie at our church’s Christmas Party

2. Holidays and Seasonal Changes.

3. Robert’s Recent Rescue.

So the other afternoon HR and I drove over to Jesup GA to one of our very favorite Christmas Tree farms, Days of Creation.

We bought a pretty fresh wreath.

When we got home, Robert put the wreath, along with some branches of spruce, in our shower (!) to freshen them up with some cold water. (Some things in a marriage you simply put up with.)

Oh, that’s his life-size Mr. Nutcracker he plastered on the shower door.

In another room, I heard him yell/squeal, “Neal, look!”

It took me a minute to see the little fellow.

“What are you doing?!” I asked.

“I’m rescuing him, of course.”

His new home outside our door.

4. These amazing little slider hotdogs we had yesterday for lunch at local Sly’s Sliders and Fries.

Holiday Yum

5. Nearby church spires at dusk here in Savannah.

May you look around and see some Peaceful Beauty this last weekend before Christmas.

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Nineteen 12/19/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.

An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.

Today,Fugelsang looks at healthcare from a Biblical perspective.

“In Proverbs 31:8-9 the Bible calls on believers to ‘speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute.’ Ensuring access to healthcare for all, regardless of financial status, is the Biblical point of view.”

“Matthew 9:35: ‘Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness.’”

“Access to healthcare for all is consistent with Jesus’s entire operation, and Medicaid is exactly the kind of community social action that he’d be proud of. Fans of Jesus should applaud the fact that our country has such a system, that covers over ninety million of us.”

“Author and theologian Dillon Naber Cruz, a military vet known online as the Tattooed Theologian, suggests we ‘Imagine the positive benefits of applying the Golden Rule (Matthew 7-12; Luke 6-31) to healthcare in America. No one would choose to have life altering medical situations lead to being crippled by debt. No one would willfully choose to skip treatment or to not buy medication because it is too expensive.”

“Applying the Matthean Golden Rule caveat ‘in everything you do’ to healthcare would mean that we enact a robust universal healthcare system in which no person is left to the malicious whims of healthcare profiteers whose money is made from human suffering. Jesus wanted to alleviate suffering and would definitely be against his ostensible followers profiting from it.” p. 195

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Eighteen 12/18/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.

An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.

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I love the book’s chapter titles. Fugelsang is playing with the Bible’s Ten Commandments.

Thou Shalt Not Hate Femenists

Thou Shalt Not Hate the Gays

Thou Shalt Not Hate “Illegals”

Thou Shalt Not Hate on Poor People

Thou Shalt Not Kill People Who Kill People To Prove Killing People is Wrong

Thou Shalt Not Hate Gun Control or Worship Bro-Dude Jesus

Thou Shalt Not Hate Jews, Muslims or Even Atheists

Thou Shalt Not Be, or Defend, White Supremacists

ALL ARE COMMENDABLE COMMANDMENTS!

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Seventeen 12/17/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.

An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.

Today, Fugelsang writes:

“Jesus was a nonprofit prophet, but was he really a socialist? The short answer’s no, because socialism didn’t exist yet. But let’s point out:

He never owned property.

He said, ‘It’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.’

He told people to pay their taxes.

He never healed the blind and then billed them.

He never gave anyone a mandatory drug test before dispensing some loaves and fishes.

I’ll never say Jesus was a socialist. But I will say if he were alive now and preaching the exact same message, right-wing Christians would call him one.” p. 190

Posted in How Has It Come to This?

The President Is Mentally and Morally Sick

Posted on by Neal Saye

 “We don’t believe in political violence, but we do believe in CIVILITY” J.D. Vance

Really?

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“Trump defends reaction to Rob Reiner killing despite GOP criticism.”

“President Donald Trump on Monday blamed Rob Reiner’s outspoken opposition to the president for the actor-director’s killing, delivering the unsubstantiated claim in a shocking post that seemed intent on decrying his opponents even in the face of a tragedy.”

“Trump, in a post on his social media network, said Reiner and his wife were killed ‘reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.’”

“He said Reiner ‘was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness.’” pbs

He’s talking about himself in the THIRD person.

“Narcissists often refer to themselves in the third person (a behavior called illeism) as a tactic to inflate their grand self-image, create distance from accountability, and present themselves as a larger-than-life figure, like a character in a story, rather than a flawed human, sometimes to self-soothe or control perception. It’s a way to build an idealized persona, separate from mistakes, and reinforce their perceived superiority or importance.” Google AI

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Sixteen 12/16/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.

An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.

I love this humorous point the author makes at the beginning of his preface:

“I’ve come to view Jesus the way I’ve come to view Elvis.

I love the guy, but some of the fan clubs terrify me.”

Posted in Countdown to Christmas

Countdown to Christmas 2025: “Thou Shalt LOVE, Not Hate” — Day Fifteen 12/15/25

Posted on by Neal Saye

From December 1-25, I’m sharing a quote and its truth from John Fugelsang’s Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists and Flock-Fleecing Frauds, the book Robert and I are currently and fascinatingly reading.

An odd Advent Calendar, of sorts.

In the same chapter from yesterday, “Thou Shalt Not Take All of This Too Literally,” Fugelsang examines the fallacy of folks who want to take the Bible (or any “holy” book) as God-breathed, literal instructions on how to live:

“Faith does not require literalism; many Christians [and non-Christians] find profound meaning in the Bible without taking every word as fact. As author and theologian Keith Giles reminds us, ‘Many things are Biblical, like genocide, patriarchy, slavery, polygamy. When I say these things are Biblical, I mean that people have in the past-and even today-used the Bible to justify all of those things. So, yes, those things are Biblical. But none of those things are Christlike.’”

“’And that’s the point. We’re called to follow Christ, not the Bible. In fact, please understand this: the Bible does not tell us to follow the Bible. The Bible tells us to follow Christ’” p. 77

Fugelsang continues;

“The Bible often uses figurative language to express truth. Jesus described himself as the ‘bread of life’ in John 6:35, but it’s not interpreted literally. The man was a poet; he wasn’t actually made of flour and yeast.” p.72

The author then quotes one of today’s most intelligent and insightful clergy, Pastor John Pavlovitz.

“The people who most stridently contend they believe in a literal application of the Bible have simply not read the majority of it. They have been selectively armed with the verses that seem to reflect their prejudices, confirm their theology, ratify their politics, and echo the story they believe about God. The moment you give them a verse or a section that confronts their worldview, you take the pressure off of yourself by having them argue with God and not you?” p. 75

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My understanding of today’s post: What’s most important in any faith’s “book” or any person’s “core belief” is the Love it directs us toward. The kindness, the compassion, the inclusion, the joy. Not the dogma and sense of exclusive superiority.

Happy 15th Day of Advent.