God Didn't Make Us to Hate Us is OUT NOW!

After years of writing this love letter to you, it's in your hands and earbuds and on shelves everywhere. I hope it is helpful to you!

It was July 2023. I was on the phone with my agent when, after he had (as agents do) pushed and prodded me to get the guts of what I wanted to say, I erupted:

"... it's just like God didn't make us because She hates us, you know!? And all this stuff made by my fellow Christians just makes so much money off of making people afraid and sad. And I want to do something about that!"

And boom. We had a title.

While we went round and round and round on whether the snappiest title was "God didn't make YOU to hate you" or "God didn't make ME to have me," we finally landed on the first person plural. It's kind of a big theme in the book, actually, and really? I wrote this book for us. So I wanted all of us to be in that title:

God Didn't Make Us to Hate Us: 40 Devotions to Liberate Your Faith from Fear and Reconnect with Joy.

And today? Today my book that is years in the making is yours.

It always was yours, but it got to be just mine for a little time while I crafted her with the exquisite team at TarcherPerigree. My incredible editor, Lauren O'Neal, and the whole team at PRH drew this story out of me. And every day -- really, every late night -- I spent staring at the cursor, handwriting out my notes and prayers, re-reading old textbooks and asking "how can I translate this?" -- all of it was saturated with the hope that this would be a bearer of good news for you.

I am so tired of Christianity in the public and political square looking so little like Christ.

I wanted to write a devotional because I want this book to be squarely on shelves next to shallow takes and toxic theology to interrupt those messages with something more -- more generous, more loving, more mindful, and more curious.

I want people to know you can have your own mind and doubts and hopes and be a Christian. I want people to know you can love your body - or be striving to, anyways - and be a Christian. I want people to know that God will always be on the side of the undocumented immigrant and woman needing reproductive care, and not on the side of the empire that seeks to strip people of choices and safety.

I want people to have a way to pray through and with doubt.

I want people to know it is a deep love of Jesus that leads us women to be leaders.

I want people to know you can read the Bible like it is living, not literal.

I want people to see that a wholehearted, whole-body love for God leads to a free, colorful, joy-full life that is not focused on hurting other people.

It's time we clap back at the ways our faith has been co-opted, with love and with clarity of conviction. It's time "Christian" stops meaning "Christian nationalist" and starts reflecting the life-giving, liberating heart of Christ for all of us.

All of us.

So let’s do this, fam. The book is out. I hope you love it, and if you love it, I hope you’ll tell everyone you know about it.

My family and I opening my first real copies in a park with champagne!