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American Prestige

E250 - The Christian Right Weaponizing Scripture w/ John Fugelsang

American Prestige

Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

Politics, History, News

4.81.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Subscribe now to get an ad-free experience and more episodes. Don’t forget about our weekly livestreams on our YouTube channel, every Wednesday at 8pm ET.  Danny and Derek welcome to the show John Fugelsang, host of Tell Me Everything and author of Separation of Church and Hate, to talk about the rise and influence of right-wing Christianity in the United States. They discuss Christian nationalism; the political weaponization of scripture; Jesus’s teachings vs authoritarian Christianity; the apostle Paul’s role in shaping the faith; issues like abortion, immigration, and sexuality; white supremacy; Donald Trump; and arguing with conservative Christians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to American Prestige.

0:02.7

To listen ad-free, you can subscribe at AmericanPrestigepod.com.

0:08.3

Find the link in our show notes.

0:12.6

That's time of conversation between soul.

0:18.3

That's conversation between soul and the night. Hello, Hello, prestige, I'm going to know.

0:32.9

Hello, Prestige Heads, and welcome to American prestige.

0:35.6

I'm Danny Bessner, here as always with my friend and comrade, Derek Davidson. And we're very excited to welcome to the podcast today. John Fuglesing, John is the host of Tell Me Everything on Sirius XM, and most recently the author of Separation of Church and Hate. John, thank you very much for joining us. What a pleasure, gentlemen. Thank you for

0:54.4

lowering your standards this much for me. I appreciate it. Oh, no, no. The first question I want to

0:59.7

ask about the book is that it obviously emerges from your own experiences. So maybe can we talk

1:03.9

a little bit about where you come from and what made you want to write a book about

1:07.6

reclaiming Jesus for, I guess, a more progressive audience or a less small C or even

1:15.1

big C conservative audience. How did you come to this topic? What a great question. Thank you so much.

1:19.6

Well, the full title of the book is Separation of Church and Hate, a sane person's guide to taking

1:25.3

back the Bible from fundamentalist fascists and flock-fleasing frauds.

1:29.9

It is very pro-Bibble, pro-Jesus, pro-faith, pro-God, pro not being a jerk to people and

1:35.4

pretending it's Christian. And so in many ways, it's controversial, but it's the most

1:40.9

outrageously mainstream thing I've ever done. Jesus wants you to be nice to people is sort of the theme of this edgy book.

1:47.0

But I was raised, some would say abnormally Christian.

1:50.6

My mother was a nun.

1:53.2

For 16 years, she grew up in the segregated South, joined the convent, and became a nurse,

1:58.2

and went to work with lepers in Malawi, Africa.

2:04.1

My dad was a Franciscan brother. He joined the Order of St. Francis and taught history to Catholic boys,

...

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