Eekind’s Reviews > Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds > Status Update

The Reproductive Health section was fine…I’m always very sensitive about using terms like “Limiting Unplanned Pregnancies” instead of Reproductive Health because euphemism’s can create a presumption that condoms and diaphragms are the “correct” type of contraception when Abortifacients have just as much historical merit as forms of contraception even tho they’re implemented after fertilization

“In other words, the Law was our monitor until Christ came to bring about our justification through faith. But now that faith is here, we are no longer in the monitor's charge. Each one of you is a child of God because of your faith in Christ Jesus.”Galatians 3:24-26, The Inclusive Bible

I liked the teachings of Jesus about the different types of Eunuchs. I could see this both as applied to queer men that don’t have relationships with women or gender expansive people when Jesus talks about people that god made that won’t cohabitate with women
The Roman centurion part was fine, it’s a nice story
Obvi I love Ruth and Naomi. Bigots are clutching at straws trying to hate on queer women for this

Also if we want to dig into sex work in the Bible and it’s contradictions and modern readings of it as it relates to decriminalizing sex work, we can actually take the time to tease that out instead of just making it a poorly justified afterthought in your Feminism section.

Also, I’d rather prefer women and sex workers who have had Slur weaponized against them to reclaim that word instead of some hack comedian

It’s a poorly written chapter. There’s so much to be written about Feminism in Christianity as a lens to understand women’s contributions to Christian culture and thought separate from institutional power, so having it start with making fun of conservative men that are afraid of “Femninazis” and then very ineffectively talking about women Sex Workers being Jesus’ ancestors really diminished both sections

…I feel like if we can find time to make painfully dumb topical jokes about J D Vance we can call Mary Magdalene a sex worker and not a prostitute for pages and pages…especially if your whole point is that it’s medieval Catholic pope misreadings of her role in working with Jesus in the Bible….

Long ass respect feminists section
1) Jewish wonen under Roman rule as property
2) biblical marriage being a contract not religious ceremony or love pre 1500s
3) Adultery & Lust bad
4) divorce bad because Jewish women under Roman rule don’t have rights to own property or make money?

A pretty underlying issue I have with this book is that it’s so limp on what it wants readers to learn or take away from this book. Fugelsang has all this bravado when it suits him but when he’s trying to write actionable sections every takeaway is “You can swing at windmills with bigots but at least it will help other progressive people around you feel seen”.

I am a big enough person to admit that the Cocaine Bear (2023) reference in the Elisha story was genuinely funny and his wife was shading him for making him feel stupid about whether two bears could main 42 kids. With the context of Cocaine Bear that story is genuinely hilarious. The Winters Tale by Shakespeare also has a similar joke which I find delightful