When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is closed and you are in #COVID19 #socialisolation,  superspeed readers like me can read 250+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today. (I AM BORED!!)

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

Jesus loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare—or so say many Republican politicians, pundits, and preachers. 

Through outrageous misreadings of the New Testament gospels going back almost a century, conservative influencers have conjured a version of Jesus who speaks to their fears, desires, and resentments. In Republican Jesus, Tony Keddie explains not only where this right-wing Christ came from and what he stands for, but also why this version of Jesus is a fraud. 

By restoring Republicans’ cherry-picked gospel texts to their original literary and historical contexts, Keddie dismantles the biblical basis for Republican positions on hot-button issues like Big Government, taxation, abortion, immigration, and climate change. 

At the same time, he introduces readers to an ancient Jesus whose life experiences and ethics were totally unlike those of modern Americans, conservatives and liberals alike.

This book kind of confused me - I wholly agree that the Republicans has misused the gospel and the readings so that it follows their party mantra (and their non-worshipping** leader ... how is that for bag fat irony??) but I felt that the author then moulded Jesus's teachings to mould his own needs - to sell a book.  It is hard to put into words without you reading it - it is was just slanted to the author's needs and requirements. This could be a dangerous book to take to your bookclub depending upon who is in yours, but it is worth discussing.  Maybe,
See how ambivalent and all over the place  I am? So is the book.

As a librarian, if I do not learn something new or get engaged in the characters, I make a decision: I do not truly read/finish the book (I skimmed through it) as there are too many good ones out there to read and review. That also applies to just being a lover of books --- if it isn't interesting, on to the next one!

**what he does worship:
***********************************
- getting his companies government bail out money
- making money from his quinine company by telling people it will cure COVID19
- golfing badly
- not following the government suggestions of wearing masks, social distancing, etc. etc.
- putting his children in jobs they should not have as they are not qualified in any way to have them
- grabbing 🐈🐈🐈🐈🐈 and bragging about it.