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Reviews tagging 'Outing'
Heavy Burdens: Seven Ways LGBTQ Christians Experience Harm in the Church by Bridget Eileen Rivera
1 review
sunnydale's review
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
this book primarily encourages cishet christians to exercise empathy and acknowledge that the bible is more nuanced on lgbtq issues than many evangelical protestant faith traditions are willing to admit. the author writes in a very accessible style, and she also does a capable job of summarizing the historical development of doctrine.
the author's primary weakness is that she does not outright state her own faith tradition early enough in the book, and she makes some arguments that take the context of her faith tradition for granted. for example, she often claims that most christians understand the nuance and uncertainty related to matters of divorce and remarriage. but i was raised in a denomination with a very restrictive approach to this subject, and there was no acknowledgement of nuance—if you believed something other than the "correct" doctrine, you either misunderstood the text or you intentionally misinterpreted it because you wanted to sin. the author's arguments would be summarily dismissed by a fundamentalist audience, but that audience was overlooked or only mentioned as an extreme outlier, not worth taking seriously. anyone even further removed from a white, american, evangelical protestant background might feel similarly frustrated by the author's lack of clarity on which church the title refers to.
recommendation: a helpful introductory resource for cishet christians who want to understand how systemic homophobia has driven lgbtq believers away from protestant evangelical churches, and how those churches can heal. presupposes that readers already understand that people can draw different conclusions about the bible and still be christians, which means that fundamentalists might be unwilling to engage.
the author's primary weakness is that she does not outright state her own faith tradition early enough in the book, and she makes some arguments that take the context of her faith tradition for granted. for example, she often claims that most christians understand the nuance and uncertainty related to matters of divorce and remarriage. but i was raised in a denomination with a very restrictive approach to this subject, and there was no acknowledgement of nuance—if you believed something other than the "correct" doctrine, you either misunderstood the text or you intentionally misinterpreted it because you wanted to sin. the author's arguments would be summarily dismissed by a fundamentalist audience, but that audience was overlooked or only mentioned as an extreme outlier, not worth taking seriously. anyone even further removed from a white, american, evangelical protestant background might feel similarly frustrated by the author's lack of clarity on which church the title refers to.
recommendation: a helpful introductory resource for cishet christians who want to understand how systemic homophobia has driven lgbtq believers away from protestant evangelical churches, and how those churches can heal. presupposes that readers already understand that people can draw different conclusions about the bible and still be christians, which means that fundamentalists might be unwilling to engage.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Bullying, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry
each chapter begins with a case study of a gay person who has experienced homophobia or transphobia at the hands of christians. they're pretty direct about trauma, but not overly detailed, focusing instead on the person's mental and emotional response to the trauma.
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