Pride Month Reading List

As we enter June, it burdens my heart to see how we as Christians approach the LGTBQ+ community. I see christians approaching this month either passively or aggressively, but neither is loving. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40 ESV) Heterosexuality isn't the gospel. The gospel is that Jesus died for us while we were still sinners. While we were his enemies, Jesus was moving toward us to draw us into a relationship with him. (Romans 5:8) People need Jesus and it's our job to point them towards him, not change them first. A few friends and I have compiled a list of books meant to challenge your thinking and guide your conversations with folks as issues of gender and sexuality are brought to the forefront this month. My challenge to you is to invite someone you know in this community to dinner this week. Listen to them. Love them. People will find Jesus when they are invited in, not when they are pushed away.

Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry

Is God Anti-Gay? And Other Questions About Jesus, the Bible, and Same-Sex Sexuality (Can you be gay and Christian? Christian book on same-sex ... and Jesus' teaching on sex and marriage)" by Sam Allberry

Love Into Light: The Gospel, the Homosexual and the Church by Peter Hubbard

The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: Expanded Edition by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

Love Thy Body: Answering Hard Questions about Life and Sexuality by Nancy R. Pearcey

God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible Actually Say about Gender Identity? (Christian book on who we are and relationships)" by Andrew T. Walker