Epiphany

Starred review from May 2, 2016
For many years, Coren (Hatred: Islam's War on Christianity), a conservative Catholic media commentator, was perhaps Canada's most vociferous opponent of marriage equality. This book is his mea culpa. It articulately explains why and how he became a staunch supporter of same-sex marriage and equal rights for LGBTQ people and why this process strengthened his faith. "My interest as a Christian, and particularly one who got things so wrong for so long, is truth, love, compassion, and justice," Coren writes, a position he now sees as incompatible with inequality for LGBTQ people. His change of stance was incremental and involved much soul-searching over how to reconcile being a proponent of Jesus's love while singling out a whole group of people for social and spiritual marginalization. He recounts how the Ugandan government's criminalization of homosexuality opened his eyes to the real hatred that fuels so much opposition to LGBTQ rights. In addition to chronicling his own journey, Coren, who left the Roman Catholic Church in 2013 and became an Anglican, also discusses the scriptural reasons for supporting marriage equality. Anyone with even a passing interest in LGBTQ rights and Christianity should read this book.