Like other evangelical kids, Jesse James DeConto felt called to shine the light of truth into the world. His job as a journalist and his young marriage, though, would radically change him. First, he learned that Christians have no corner on truth: Working out in the world, trying to be the ""Roaring Lamb"" he'd been trained to be, he met atheists and agnostics who seemed to do better at embodying Christian love than many Christians did. Confessing the church's failures was one thing, but the author had to face his own weakness the hard way, when the cheap threads that held his marriage intact finally snapped.
Jesse found himself at the end of his twenties with a broken bank account, a broken body, and a broken family. In the midst of that pain, he discovered his brokenness better equipped him to share God's grace than his striving ever had. He learned to say with theologian Karl Barth that ""his importance may consist in his poverty, in his hopes and fears, in his waiting and hurrying, in the direction of his whole being toward what lies beyond his horizon and beyond his power.""
Industry Reviews
""Religious people sometimes worry what might happen if people knew the truth about them. But the deepest truth of the gospel is that light shines in our darkness--even the littlest light. Jesse DeConto is shining the gospel light in the humble truth of this story that doesn't hide the mess, but trusts that grace is bigger than it.""
--Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove, author of Strangers at My Door
""Readers are invited to share Jesse James DeConto's poignant exit out of religion. Whether you've walked in his tight churchy shoes, or if you've been offended by those who have, this well-written, at times laugh-out-loud narrative will delight readers. DeConto's creative telling illumines a deeply moving passage from the shadows of religion into light and life.""
--Margot Starbuck, author of Small Things With Great Love
""What is most striking about this memoir is its incredible vulnerability. Jesse James DeConto is a storyteller with great openness of heart and a willingness to take risks for the sake of experiencing love and discovering truth.""
--Damon McGraw, Executive Research Fellow, National Institute for Newman Studies
""Jesse James DeConto fights his way from the prison-house of self-righteousness to find that our infinite God cannot be made to conform to the simple precepts and formulas we impose. His fascinating journey tells the story of how a passionate desire to follow the teachings of Jesus inevitably leads away from the closed circuit of literalism and towards embracing the radical otherness of the Divine.""
--Vincent Rocchio, film scholar and founding member of the Ekklesia Project
""This is the story of a remarkable young Christian's journey from youthful poverty and conservatism, through stages alternating between the charming and the deeply painful, to a sensitive and engaged maturity. It is recounted in a compelling, sparse prose, studded with delightful anecdotes, and braced with sheer honesty. Driving the narrative throughout is the underlying movement of a profoundly reflective and insightful person struggling forward to seek out the agenda of an unexpected God. Entertaining, moving, and challenging by turns: this book is all these important things, and more.""
-Douglas A. Campbell, Duke Divinity School
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