Reader-Submitted Review: Risking Grace, Loving Our Gay Family and Friends Like Jesus by Dave Jackson

After years of struggle attempting to reconcile her love for Jesus with her sexual orientation, Dave Jackson’s Christian daughter came out as gay. While her truth initially caused heartache and sorrow, it also flamed a desire within Jackson to thoroughly understand the genesis of Christian beliefs, and to answer the question, are Christian “objections to marriage equality more a human command than God’s command?”

Jackson takes a “hermeneutics” and “case law” approach to Scripture in order to provide background and context to this question. Each chapter contains biblical, historical, and scholarly research, and each concludes with a “Collateral Damage” story. These are the personal narratives of gay people and their families, and their search for acceptance and reconciliation within the church. The subtitle of the book is “A Father’s Story,” and like all personal testimonies of faith, Jackson’s story is one that should not be missed. (Castle Rock Creative)