Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion

McLaughlin’s smart debut provides readers with a dozen reasons why Christianity is a viable worldview that can coexist alongside science, atheism, and other world religions. The author, a writer for the Gospel Coalition, leans toward an academic approach to apologetics, but her vivid historical overviews and wide variety of references (including Bertrand Russell, Black Panther, British TV show Doctor Who, and Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn) provide the tone of a lively comparative religions class. Through chapters based on 12 questions, McLaughlin documents the Christian Church’s role in violence, slavery, and discrimination throughout history, emphasizing that the Gospel can’t be held accountable for what those who profess to follow the Gospel do in its name. Respectfully presenting opposing sides of often volatile debates, McLaughlin delves into divisive topics, such as abortion, the basis of morality, and how a loving God can allow suffering. In a chapter titled “Isn’t Christianity Homophobic?,” McLaughlin candidly illustrates how “attraction” and “action” differ, as evidenced by her own successful heterosexual marriage, in spite of her lifelong struggle with same-sex attraction (which she argues is allowed within Christianity and, therefore, the faith should not be considered homophobic). Though aimed primarily at skeptics, this should appeal to any Christian who desires a better handle on the foundations of their own faith. (Apr.)