Rachel Baack
In this book, comedian John Fugelsang lays out arguments against the belief system undergirding right-wing Christian extremism. While Fugelsang does include some witty one-liners, he takes the subject matter seriously, providing detailed reasoning and historical context to support his claims. My biggest issue with the book was that there were very few citations provided for evidence that could not be reasonably considered common knowledge. Additionally, I think that Fugelsang glosses over the complexity of some theological principles, and while he bases his arguments on the Bible, he also at times fails to address parts of the Bible that might complicate his claims. While I agree with many of his points and think his ultimate message of the essentiality of love to Christianity is spot-on, I also think that the arguments he provides are unlikely to change the minds of many far-right Christians, and his dismissiveness of Biblical literalism (or anything close to it), of the relevance of some Old Testament principles to modern-day Christians, of the authority of Paul, and of the necessity of belief in basic Christian theological principles for salvation will lose a lot of even his progressive Christian readers.
In this book, comedian John Fugelsang lays out arguments against the belief system undergirding right-wing Christian extremism. While Fugelsang does include some witty one-liners, he takes the subject matter seriously, providing detailed reasoning and historical context to support his claims. My biggest issue with the book was that there were very few citations provided for evidence that could not be reasonably considered common knowledge. Additionally, I think that Fugelsang glosses over the complexity of some theological principles, and while he bases his arguments on the Bible, he also at times fails to address parts of the Bible that might complicate his claims. While I agree with many of his points and think his ultimate message of the essentiality of love to Christianity is spot-on, I also think that the arguments he provides are unlikely to change the minds of many far-right Christians, and his dismissiveness of Biblical literalism (or anything close to it), of the relevance of some Old Testament principles to modern-day Christians, of the authority of Paul, and of the necessity of belief in basic Christian theological principles for salvation will lose a lot of even his progressive Christian readers.