8:46 Book Club

Last Book Club for 2025

Nov. 6, 13, 20 • 7:30-9:00pm EST

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND HATE: A Sane Person’s Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds

“God, I love this book. So brilliant and wise, rich in spiritual knowledge and humor, an exhilarating response to Christian nationalists, and a master class in Jesus, the true and Jesus-y Jesus, of love, caring and forgiveness.” —Anne Lamott

In the spirit of George Carlin and Christopher Hitchens, the son of a former Catholic nun and a Franciscan brother delivers a deeply irreverent and biblically correct takedown of far-right Christian hatred—a book for believers, atheists, agnostics, and anyone who’ll ever have to deal with a Christian nationalist.

“John Fugelsang nails this in his book, Separation of Church and Hate: The Bible says in 1 John 4:8 that ‘God Is Love.’ Period… end of story!” —Willie Nelson

When we talk about getting our Holy on, we mean individually and collectively. We are therefore committed to addressing the one thing that affects all of us, that has been responsible for much of the pain and inequality and injustice in our country…

…systemic racism.

In 2020, the world erupted in one voice against police brutality fueled by racism after the murder of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer, who knelt on his neck for 8 min and 46 sec. His death was not the first like it, or sadly the last, but perhaps because the world was able to witness the entire cruelty of it, a nerve was struck like never before and an awakening was triggered.

Since then we’ve led book studies with the intention of educating ourselves about systemic racism and what’s our to do individually, and collectively, to dismantle this scourge, and to create a world that works for all. In honor of George Floyd, all the needless deaths before and since his, and in recognition of the work that’s collectively ours to do, we are calling our ongoing book studies the 8:46 Book Club.

While we later learned through the course of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial that the length of time he brutally knelt on George Floyd’s neck was much longer, 9 minutes and 30 seconds, we chose to stay with 8:46 – a number that had already been carved into the minds of millions – a number that reminds us of our individual and collective work of deconstructing racism and building an antiracist culture.

The only cost for anyone to participate will be a donation of your choosing. A portion of the proceeds we collect are donated to organizations committed to antiracist work.