I spent a lot of time this morning reorganizing the bookshelf in my home office. Why? Well, I went thrifting yesterday in search of one thing: a concordance.¹ I did end up finding one, but I also found a whole damn box’s worth of other titles that piqued my interest.

Among the texts I got my grubby little mitts on are a number of books on antiracism. So many that it’s got me thinking someone took a class on social justice and dumped all of their required reading at the thrift when their term was up. I’m absolutely delighted by this, as it’s one of the issues that I’ve been meaning to do some more research into. (In case you weren’t aware, Ya Boix is “Mayonnaise-on-Wonder Bread” caucasian, so I’m needing to do my White Homework.) 

Picking up yet books than I already owned has given me even more of an excuse to do something I’ve been meaning to start for a while: this bespoke corner of my online presence, specifically for keeping me on top of my miles-long reading list. Consider it a book club of sorts. 

Here’s some of what you can expect, by order of how I’ve grouped them on my shelves here at home. 

The Church Kid Collection

From 2014-2020, I was very plugged into a local megachurch, and a lot of the books at the very top of my bookshelf are hold-overs from this era. Most of the top shelf were required reading for the church’s internship, which I attended from 2017-2019.² The only real reason they’re still around is because I haven’t bothered to get rid of them, but maybe one day I’ll go back and look at them through my new lens.

The four books on the end came in my thrift haul, including The Bible For Dummies. I’ve always loved For Dummies guides. They have a knack for making topics incredibly approachable, and I’m very interested to see the new perspective I can glean from this, versus the half-assed approach of “cram it all into five hours of lecture from the in-house christian academy’s bible professor.”³ I also found a copy of Religious Literacy by Steven Prothero.

The United States is a deeply religious nation, yet many Americans—even the most devout—are shockingly ignorant about religion. Can you:

• Name the four gospels?
• Name a sacred text of Hinduism?
• Name the holy book of Islam?
• Name the Ten Commandments?
• Name the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism?

If you can’t, you’re not alone.

This book covers even more of what I wish the myopic scope of the internship had. While the most prevalent religion in America, Christianity is not the only religious viewpoint that matters. Being so uninformed on the beliefs of other walks of faith is the very thing that prompted me to snag a copy of the Quran. Having grown in a very faith-driven environment, it’s so important to me to better understand the way others approach the Divine. It’s a disservice to myself and those I share the planet with to only bother seeing things from one perspective. That said, I’m very excited to see how the Islamic lens approaches the Abrahamic God in contrast to the Judeo-Christian lens with which I’ve been raised.

Moving down to the second shelf pictured above, we’ve got a bit of a hodgepodge. The first three are books recommended to me when I was diagnosed with ADHD, which are only here because I didn’t have a better place to shelve them. 

Others in this chunk of my collection include popular authors my former pastors had recommended.⁴

How’s Your Soul by Judah Smith, Garden City and The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer, and To Hell With the Hustle by Jefferson Bethke are all different takes on the idea of “Hey, you need to slow the fuck down. You’re not meant to burn yourself out like this.”

I also thoroughly enjoyed Bethke’s It’s Not What You Think and Jesus > Religion, which, alongside Will Davis Jr’s books 10 Things Jesus Never Said and A Man Who Told Us the Truth, inspired me to really dig deeper into what being a Christian meant to me, and how what I had been taught about the gospel effected the way I carried myself and approached others.

It’s been a while since I’ve touched any of these books, or looked into what the authors are up to, so I can’t vouch for whether these dudes are LGBTQ+ affirming, or if they’re actively shitting on people who are deconstructing⁵. Just figured I’d give you a heads up to do your research before snagging these.

While we’re in the vein of deconstruction, though…

The Healing Shelf

This shelf can be pretty equally split into “unpacking and dealing with the shit you’ve been through” and “building a healthier spiritual practice on the other side of the war.” Notably, you’ll find my buddy Kevin’s book, Bad Theology Kills, which is where I’ll be starting my series of in-depth reviews here under The Reading Lamp. We’ve also got a couple books from Emmy Kegler, an openly queer pastor here in Minneapolis. I have been absolutely thrilled to find so many queer voices in the faith space. So much so that the next shelf is entirely dedicated to exploring…

Queer Theology

For a lot of my life, my growth as a queer person and a person of faith was done in tandem, but it often seemed like the two parts of my being were at odds.⁶ I used to really buck the idea that I could only be one or the other, and even carted my copy of God Believes in Love along to my internship, as a subtle middle finger to the homophobic shit I’d sometimes hear in classes.⁷ A lot of the books in this chunk were recommended by a number of the queer affirming podcasts I listen to, but especially Walking the Bridgeless Canyon by Kathy Baldock, and Torn by Justin Lee. 

I’m especially excited to read Transforming by Austen Hartke, because as a trans kid, there’s a whole different way of approaching and appreciating the Divine. 

I will say, that copy of Wild at Heart⁸ is only there so I can see what kind of toxic masculinity some of my friends were indoctrinated into. Getting context into how others’ experiences are different from my own helps me understand them better, and build stronger relationships with them. Speaking of…

Relationships and Antiracism

I have always been very big into building up strong relationships and communities, and loving people well.⁹ However, I’m also incredibly conflict averse, so learning how to have hard conversations is probably a good idea. Plus the aforementioned need to do my homework on matters of antiracism… we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Got Recommendations?

All these books to work through and I still don’t have enough. I’ve got a whole list of other titles I hope to pick up eventually. A lot of these were recommended to me by my friends Kevin Garcia, Mason Mennenga, and the folks over at Lavender Mafia, Queer Theology, and Refuge Faith.

If you’re at all into progressive theology, social justice, LGBTQ+ issues, that sorta thing, and have recommendations that you wanna throw my way, please do! You can find me @mothsbane across social media.

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