Church and State? or Church and Hate?

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, 2025, history of religion and politics, 304 pages

John Fugelsang delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred — a book for believers, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who will ever have to deal with a Christian nationalist.  I think it's amazing that 85% of those commenting on Amazon gave this New York Times bestselling book a rating of 5/5.

For more than two centuries, the United States Constitution has given us the right to a society where church and state exist independently.  But Christianity has been hijacked by far-right groups and politicians who seek to impose their narrow views on government, often to justify oppressive and unequal policies.  The extremists who weaponize the Bible for earthly power aren’t actually on the side of Jesus, and historically they never have been.  How do we fight back against those acting — literally — in bad faith?

Comedian and broadcaster John Fugelsang offers some answers by taking us through common fundamentalist arguments on abor­tion, immigration, LGBTQ rights, and more — exposing their hypocrisy and inaccuracy through scripture, common sense, and humor. It offers practical tips on how to debate your loved one, coworker, or neighbor on the issues that divide us using that Bible they claim to follow.

But Fugelsang’s message is about more than just taking down hypocrites.  It’s about fighting for the love, mercy, and service that are supposed to make up the heart of Christianity.  Told with a blend of honesty, comedy, and political and religious knowledge, Separation of Church and Hate is the book we need.  It’s a rallying cry for compassion and clarity for anyone who is sick of people using religion as a way to hide their hate.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about the accuracy of Punxsutawney Phil's Groundhog Day predictions, HERE.
• On TWOsday, my subject was a couple of surveys, HERE.
• Thursday's post was a request to WEAR RED on Friday, HERE.
• On Saturday, my "Caturday" post featured a couple of cute cats, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

This cat has a "thank you" sign

Look what I found online:

a cat holding a thank you note.

Clawdia thanked me by rubbing her head against my chin.

I'm sharing this picture on Caturday

(the day after Friday) because I think it's cute.

(Okay, you're cute, too.)

You've got to have heart, as the tin man said

National Wear Red Day is on the first Friday of February (so on February 6th in 2026).  The day is to raise awareness that cardio-vascular disease is the #1 killer of women.  Wearing red encourages women to know their risks and prioritize heart health.  I had open-heart surgery on February 19, 2009, with four bypasses.  I blogged about it HERE, if you want to know details and what my blogging friends said.  So wear red tomorrow.

Thinking about two things today

1.  Three surveys to fill out for the social workers in the office:

1. Program Survey (Yes, I'd possibly enjoy a discussion of literature.)
2. Daily Life Survey  (Yes, I prepare my own meals.)
3. Quality of Life Survey (No, I don't get bored.)

2.  Café meals:

• I pay for five meals a week delivered, so I don't have to cook all the time.
• I eat in the Café with friends as a way to socialize.

Six more weeks of winter

Groundhog Day, celebrated every year on February 2, is an unusual holiday that stretches back hundreds of years to ancient times.  According to tradition, if it’s a bright and sunny day and the groundhog sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter.  If it’s a cloudy day and the groundhog does not see his shadow, there will be an early spring.

Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today, which means that we are in for six more weeks of winter.  Hmpf, as I look out my window and see white snow (and mushy gray snow) along both sides of the cleared street below, I take a deep breath and think, "Oh, well, lots more of this."  (But just how accurate will Phil's prediction be this year?  We shall see.)

This week's reading and activities

During January (which seems to have zipped by), I was able to attend two of the four classes on "Building Emotional Resiliency" that met weekly here at the Crown Center where I live.  I was also able to get copies of the handouts for the other two classes that I missed because of other commitments.  These classes covered things like managing burnout (when you realize you've been stretched too thin) and getting yourself moving again, even if you don't feel like it.

The subject this week was about building and nurturing relationships, with ideas for staying connnected and communicating your needs.  How do we connect with other people?  Shared interests, for one thing.  But we also need boundaries, like taking into account the time and energy involved.  I'm comfortable striking up casual conversations, but I know that is easier for some of us than for others.

Week in Review

• On Monday, I mused about a cat who sang for the birds, HERE.
• On TWOsday, my subject was the Circle@Crown Cafe, HERE.
• Wednesday's post was for language lovers, HERE.
• Friday's Book Beginnings , HERE, looked back billions of years, HERE.
• Saturday's book was a story that dealt with devastating loss, HERE.

is hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz.

A library book I just checked out

About Alice ~ by Calvin Trillin, 2006, memoir, 78 pages

In Calvin Trillin’s antic tales of family life, she was portrayed as the wife who had “a weird predilection for limiting our family to three meals a day” and the mother who thought that you had to go to your child’s school play, or “the county would come and take the child.”

Five years after her death, her husband offered this loving portrait of Alice Trillin off the page, an educator who was equally at home teaching at a university or a drug treatment center, a gifted writer, a beautiful and thoroughly engaged woman who, in the words of a friend, "managed to navigate the tricky waters between living a life you could be proud of and still delighting in the many things there are to take pleasure in."

It deals with devastating loss, but About Alice is also a love story that chronicls a romance that began at a Manhattan party when Calvin Trillin desperately tried to impress a young woman who "seemed to glow."

"You have never again been as funny as you were that night," Alice would say, twenty or thirty years later.

"You mean I peaked in December of 1963?"

"I’m afraid so."

But he never quit trying to impress her.  In his writing, she was sometimes his subject and always his muse.  The dedication of the first book he published after her death read, "I wrote this for Alice.  Actually, I wrote everything for Alice."