“Love is the only religion that always works.”
I grew up in a Catholic family that didn’t always go to church on Sundays, because 8 a.m. was much too early. Regardless, we were a Catholic family, with Catholic ancestors, so I attended a Catholic school until the age of 10. After that, I continued attending Wednesday night church class and volunteered in the Kindergarten class until the beginning of my senior year. I can pull out “God is Bigger Than the Boogeyman” from the Veggie Tales at a moment’s notice.
Because of all of this and more, I can give you countless times I experienced the hypocrisy of Christian love and the hate it breeds.
I have had a troubling and very rollercoaster-like history with faith. This is why I wanted to read this book. From what I’ve read in The Bible and from what I’ve learned from Jesus loving individuals that don’t fall into the nationalist agenda, I knew that the hate that is being constantly preached is not entirely “Christ-like.” Knowing that and having the evidence to back myself up, however, are two different things. I was hoping for a hate by hate play by play, and that’s what this book offers.
Fugelsang breaks down hot-button topics when it comes to “Christian love,” such as abortion, the LGBTQ+ community, immigrants, and more. He lays out what the Christian Nationalists say The Bible says, and then breaks down what The Bible actually says, differentiating whether it was written by some dude or truly spoken by Jesus. No stone is left unturned (though many are left unthrown). In this society, where The Bible is constantly weaponized as a tool to spread hate, having tools like this book to combat that hate is so extremely helpful.
I’m docking it a star because I do think my pre-existing knowledge of The Bible was beneficial to my understanding. Someone without that basic knowledge might have a little harder time following. I also would love to have the basic arguments neatly organized and condensed in a pocketbook or PDF that I can whip out in times of need. I did listen to the audiobook, so perhaps a physical copy that I can tab or annotate would be helpful to combat this desire.
I think if you have limited knowledge of The Bible or of Christianity and are looking to have those hard conversations with people in your life, this book is a great place to begin.
