Heavy Burdens

This is an important book. It is also heavy and difficult to read at times, especially if you are part of the LGBTQ community and you have experienced religious trauma firsthand. But Rivera does a great job at laying out the facts and statistics that don't lie when it comes to how LGBTQ people have been so badly treated by the church for so long. I certainly don't agree with her about everything. She describes herself as a “side B” celibate, gay, Christian, committed to the “traditional” view of biblical sexual ethics. I firmly landed on “side A', or fully affirming theology when it comes to LGBTQ people and their relationships. But her book isn't really about that debate. Her book is about trying to get non-affirming Christians to treat LGBTQ people as beloved children of God, made in the image of God, and stop putting heavy burdens on their backs that God never wanted them to put there in the first place.