By Candace Chellew-Hodge
Jossey-Bass
In a remarkable voice full of hope and wisdom, Candance Chellew-Hodge offers a spiritual survival guide for the GLBTQ community and its allies. With illustrative candid accounts from her own life, Chellew-Hodge sharply wedges a tool of self-defense in the slamming door of anti-gay sentiments, threats, and violence.
Bulletproof Faith is an easy read, a loving read, actually. It is as much of a protective shield—coating the reader with images of a mysterious and perfect Creator—as it is an empowering how-to guide for healing from miscommunication, hate, and self-doubt. Chellew-Hodge’s work exudes confident and practical steps for those silenced and marginalized because of their sexual identity. She tackles how language is used to dehumanize the lives of the GLBTQ population, facing those who hate you, and the art of “surrendering” for true strength and peace. Chellew-Hodlge consistently advocates for trust, self-worth, and patience.
With no false hopes of safe havens or imaginary escape routes, Chellew-Hodge takes the readers through the thick and deafening reality of manifested fear and bigotry. She explains the need for the struggling GLBTQ spiritual person to cultivate a faith that is bulletproof, “Developing a bulletproof faith doesn’t mean we will never again have question or doubts. Instead, having a bulletproof faith means that those questions and doubts no longer ship-wreck our faith, but are welcomed as opportunities to deepen our understanding of our authentic selves.”
With a wealth of resources and a cyclical message to cling to love, Chellew-Hodge fills Bulletproof Faith with helpful strategies on answering cornering questions and divisive vernacular. One example used is how often the word “lifestyle” is used to describe their very being. She elaborates, “It’s easier to make the general public believe that homosexuality can be easily changed because it’s simply a matter of altering ones ‘lifestyle’ – not changing one’s authentic self.” She understands that the answers most people seek are not “truth” because the truth, as she experiences God, is much more full and life-giving than we can possibly fathom. In the place of answers, Bulletproof Faith simply teaches the reader how to hold steadfast in the face of protestors and extremists. It is careful, direct, and compassionate; it leads with a commitment to work on one’s own unfinished personal problems before delving into conversations that may lead to confusing the issues with unresolved “stuff.”
Religion, particularly Christianity, is not always a central focus for mainstream feminism. I muse that it is the explosive nature of religion and religiosity that often restrains feminists to write on such issues, but religion’s Herculian-sized influence on our personal beliefs directly impact our thoughts and views of gender. Although not aimed directly at feminists, Bulletproof Faith is written as much for the spiritual survival for the GLBTQ community as it is a document for others on how to be an ally.
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