From December 1-25, I’ll be 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 a fascinating chapter titled, “Thou Shalt Not Take All of This Too Literally,” author Fugelsang again uses a bit of humor to make a point:
“Ever notice how some folks take the Bible very literally when they want to put down LGBTQ people or restrict the power of women, but not so much when Jesus tells them to give away all their stuff to the poor?” p. 63
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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 reminds us that “The God of the Bible consistently takes an unambiguously compassionate stance toward immigrants and strangers.
Jesus commands individuals and nations to welcome the stranger and warns they’ll be judged by how well they do it.
Cruelty to immigrants, while deeply popular today, violates those tedious woke themes of compassion, justice, and inclusivity in both Old and New Testaments.
And before our conservative friends get upset, I acknowledge that societies need to have restrictions on who can enter. I’m not calling for open borders or amnesty; that was Ronald Reagan. But people can support restrictions on immigration without weaponizing the Bible to smear refugees or asylum seekers as criminals.
Humans don’t need to hate or scapegoat immigrants, and Christ followers aren’t technically allowed to.” p. 165
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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.
Fugelsang offers a bit of humor today, alongside a truthful point about anti-gay thought. He asks:
“Best of all, do the homophobes kiss each other whenever they meet?
Because they must, according to Romans 16:16. That’s where Paul instructs all real Christians to greet one another with a custom reflecting the familial nature of early Christian communities: ‘Greet one another with a holy kiss.’
The holy kiss was a greeting in many cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world, signifying peace, respect, and community. For Paul, this must have been a very important custom of his time, because he writes about it much more than he writes about gay people.
So every Christian man who uses Romans to justify homophobia is biblically obliged to start kissing every Christian dude he knows, every time they meet.
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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 Fugelsang’s simple truth in today’s post:
“Jesus’s wisdom is in the principles that cut across religious and secular boundaries: calls to love your enemies, to care for the poor and marginalized. Those teachings don’t require belief in supernatural events to be meaningful. Any skeptic can still recognize the wisdom in ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you’ or the revolutionary ethic behind ‘Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.’” p. 22-23
He continues: “By prioritizing Jesus’s teachings, Christianity can emphasize principles that unite, without relying on coerced belief in two-thousand-year-old supernatural accounts to win people over.
He asked people to freely share everything they had and turn the other cheek, to deliberately break all ancient cycles of hate and suffering.
He broke social and religious taboos by associating with outcasts and sinners, like tax collectors, prostitutes, and despised foreign Samaritans. He treated them all with compassion, directing his anger instead toward economic injustice and exploitation (Luke 4:18-19, Luke 6:20-21).
In Mark 12:17, he supports paying taxes for the government to re-distribute.
In Matthew 26:52, he forbids his disciples from using their weap-ons.
In John 8, he opposes the legal death penalty.
And if any politician called for what Jesus commands in Matthew 25 (The Sheep and the Goats aka The Judgment of the Nations) he’d be labeled an open-borders socialist.
Jesus disdained wealth and earthly power, and challenged traditional laws of his own faith. He rejected earthly materialism, renounced the idea of revenge, and commanded us to welcome the stranger.” p. 23
Wow.
Sometimes the teachings of Jesus are as clear as black and white.
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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.
If you are interested, you can see the introduction to this new blog category here:
This Monday morn finds Robert and me in Philadelphia (via an overnight Amtrak sleeper car!) after a delightful and holiday-ish weekend in our beloved Atlanta.
We’re from Savannah, and love its stunning beauty and unique and storied history, but the ATL is like our quirky, always-welcoming but busy younger sister who managed to marry up and simply has SO MUCH to show us and (if truth be told) to BRAG loudly about.
Here’s one of our sister’s sweatshirts:
Enough family drama.
On Friday night HR and I had evening reservations for the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s annual “Garden Lights, Holiday Nights” display.
Oh My Goodness!
The Earth GoddessRobert’s photo of the goddess.
This is what I was watching through the special glasses:
Then on Saturday afternoon we attended the absolutely incredible 45th Anniversary Holiday Concert of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus.
And look, here’s the choristers. (I just learned that word.)
Wait, no, that’s just Robert and me.
The event was held in the beautiful Cathedral of Saint Philip on Peachtree Street in Atlanta..
Here they are!
We tried to audition, but they promptly told us to sit down and be quiet until the sing-a-long part.
Such Holiday Fun and Joy!
We have a full day planned in downtown Philadelphia today. I’ll tell you all about it soon. Now you have something to look forward to.
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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.
If you are interested, you can see the introduction to this new blog category here:
Today, Fugelsang reminds us that “Jesus tells his followers to feed the hungry and care for the sick—not to pray that someone else will do it. Offering ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the poor is … a convenient substitute for tangible help or systemic solutions. Prayer is supposed to be a way to seek guidance, not an excuse for inaction.” p. 199
Ouch!
Fugelsang goes on: “Jesus’s brother nails why faith without works doesn’t work in James 2:15-17: ‘Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action is dead.” p. 199
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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.
If you are interested, you can see the introduction to this new blog category here:
Today Fugelsang expounds: “If God loves men and women equally, then God’s a feminist.” p. 83
Yes, of course, that has to be true.
The author continues: “Feminism is, quite simply, the controversial (he’s joking!) belief that women deserve the same rights and access as men. Conservative men in power have historically tried to control women’s sexuality, education, participation in society, and bodily autonomy.” p. 83
“In addition to the twelve male apostles—whom Jesus repeatedly calls out for getting things wrong, by the way — women accompanied his journeys as part of his ministry. When Jesus was arrested and the apostles all scattered, it was the women who never abandoned him, who never hid, who never denied knowing him. In the Resurrection story, Jesus reveals himself to the women before any of his male disciples.”
“We know that Mary Magdalene, along with Martha and Mary, the sisters of Lazarus, were fellow travelers. To a sane person in the twenty-first century it might seem obvious that there were actually fifteen apostles, at least.”
Mary Magdalene!
Martha & Mary!
“Wrong, says the church. Those women might have always been with JC and the twelve, but they didn’t have full apostle passes. They just followed Jesus from gig to gig, working the merch tables like it was a boy band tour The church continues to treat these women as secondary figures rather than leaders.” p. 106
OK, then, I agree with God! I too aim to be a feminist!
My daughters Amy and EmilyGranddaughters Madison and Isabelle 
From December 1-25, I’ll be 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.
If you are interested, you can see the introduction to this new blog category here:
Fugelsang remembers: “I was raised to believe that the opposite of faith is not doubt, as doubt is an essential part of any real faith journey.”
“The opposite of faith iscertainity.” Separation of church and hate. p. 53.
I love Fugelsang’s brief declaration of truth, which reminds me of Shakespeare’s also-famous and truthful line: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”
Absolute Certainty can get us in all kinds of trouble!
Fugelsang continues: “Extremists of all faiths (or none) are raised in, and live with, supreme and absolute certainty. They don’t think they’re better than you; they know for a fact that God thinks they’re better than you.” p. 53
“Life’s pretty simple for the authoritarian Christian. Since most of their opinions happen to also be God’s opinions— and they believe that they’re the folks who get to speak for God—they generally feel divinely obliged to control whatever part of society they see fit. Y’ know, for God.”
“And if you’re one of the anointed who speaks for the Almighty, eventually you’re liable to believe that anyone who opposes you is, logically, on the side of Satan. And God’s true people are never going to sit down and negotiate things like school curriculum, women’s rights, or marriage equality with Lucifer. People who’ve been conditioned to think you’re on the side of the devil aren’t permitted to meet you halfway.” p. 54
Ouch!
May we all be willing to meet each other halfway this Holiday Season — and beyond.
Last night at the Jepsen Center for the Arts lighting of the Christmas tree here in Savannah. 
NealEnJoy 