Does Jesus Really Love Me?: A Gay Christian's Pilgrimage in Search of God in America
Lifelong Evangelical Christian Chu well knows the answer to the familiar song. It’s, “Yes, Jesus loves me!” But as a gay man, he’s wanted reassurance—really loves me? He took to the road to see how and why other Evangelicals answer the question, specifically when it comes to being gay. As his warmly plain-speaking report of his travels discloses, he found vast reluctance to say that Jesus doesn’t love gays, assurance from many churchmen and gay believers that he does, and cordiality even among those who scream, “God hates fags!”—yes, he visited Topeka’s infamous Westboro Baptist Church. He also encountered past and present members of ex-gay ministries, straight couples who support gay marriage, intentional gay celibates, the founder of the social medium gaychristian.net, leaders of gay-welcoming Evangelical churches and of Metropolitan Community Church (the so-called—by others—gay Evangelical denomination), parents and friends of gays, and faithful young gays who remind him of himself. Though sometimes skeptical of his informants, Chu presents every one of them positively, which makes his book outstandingly personable and appealing. --Ray Olson