More on Christian Discrimination

A few months ago, my nephew recommended a book for me to read, one he had just finished himself; "Separation of Church and Hate" by John Fugelsang.

I located it within the library system from which I am now actively borrowing books, rather than purchasing them, and found that they had a number of copies, but 45 holds already placed. I added my name to the hold list, and checked every week or so to see how I was progressing in getting to the front of the line. 

It took a while, owing to the topic and the skill of the the writer to discuss it, I presume.

Finally, last week, I received a notice that the book had been transferred to my local branch and I quickly drove there to retrieve it.

As a quick summary, Fugelsang is the child of two people who had chosen to devote their lives to Christ, one was a nun the other a brother. But fate had different plans for them (can one say God rather than fate?), when they met one day when he was sent to the hospital for tuberculosis treatment, the hospital where she was working.

They became friends at first, out of respect for their divine choice, but as time went by and they continued that friendship through a copious amount of letters, they eventually broke their respective promises to God, and married.

I recount this so you know that Fugelsang was raised by two very strict Catholic parents who believed deeply in the teachings of Christ and the true meaning of Christianity.

The subtitle to Fugelsang's book is "A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds". Fugelsang makes his case, not by attacking the bible, but by quoting it, as only someone who has been taught it's words, but more importantly, it's spirit, by two people who had spent a number of years in dedication to the life of their savior, Jesus Christ.

The good news is that the book is not preachy as is so often the case when someone who "has read the bible" proselytizes. 

It is a great read, whether you have a Christian background or not, but especially so if you sense the hypocrisy of the mega church evangelists who seem extremely rich, or the man made rules of the Catholic Church which seem to hold more importance than the spiritual meaning of Jesus's teachings.

My own opus along these lines was written early in my blogging career. Here is a link to An Atheist For Christ, written in 2012, then revised, a bit, and posted in April of 2024.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/04/an-atheist-for-christ.html

I also recently posted a review of another wonderful book, concerning the history of Christianity, The Gnostic Gospels, by Elaine Pagels.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2025/07/gnostic-gospels.html

Also, as is my usual process, I reviewed some of my previous posts, in this case, concerning the topic of Separation of Church and State. One from June of 2024, discussed the recent decision by Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. I actually agree with the basic concept of the idea, to provide moral guidance to our youth, but with a few additions, and a picture of someone high in government who has routinely violated those ten commandments, a visual warning of how not to behave.

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-ten-commandments.html  

Another post about this topic is from 2012 about a Puritan minister who actively fought to keep religion out of government, believing that one's religious affiliation was a personal matter, not for government to dictate. While he was ultimately unsuccessful in his endeavors, in fact was ostracized from his community, his book "The Bloody Tenet of Persecution" influenced John Locke, whose work was instrumental in inspiring the founders when they created the great documents of our nation. I reference him in my discussion of the mandate within the ACA that required birth control to be provided for all health plans but was challenged by various religious groups. 

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2012/02/contraception-controversy.html 

Finally, a link to my original discussion of discrimination in a Christian nation, from 2016.  

https://wurdsfromtheburbs.blogspot.com/2016/04/discrimination-in-christian-nation.html 

Whether through Fugelsang's book, or Pagels, or from the many other comments about using Christianity to create laws, including my posts, it is clear that like all religions based on rules created by men, (and I mean men as there are very few which were established by women), there is hypocrisy galore, as well as excellent lessons and guidelines to help us live moral, positive, humane lives.

Which path we take, personally as well as nationally, is a reflection of whether we choose to honor the universal axiom which transcends culture and creed, do unto others as you would have done to you, or its negative injunction, don't do to others what you would not want done to you.

Perhaps then, phrases like Christian discrimination would fade away, and that acts which harm Christians for their faith, and those which some Christians advocate, Christians in name only, who use man made dogma to harm others, would fade with it.