This Month, a Person Somewhere Will Buy the 40,000th copy of Changing Our Mind

Widening the circle of covenantal love, human dignity, and full Christian belonging.

I was grateful to wake up this week to news by journalist and publisher David Crumm at Read The Spirit, noting that Changing Our Mind: Definitive 3rd Edition of the Landmark Call for Inclusion of LGBTQ Christians with Response to Critics has just about reached 40,000 copies in circulation across all editions.

When I first began writing the series of essays that eventually became Changing Our Mind—originally published at Baptist News Global—I could not have imagined the response. I remain deeply appreciative that David Crumm followed that early series, recognized what was happening, and became instrumental in publishing it as a book and amplifying the reach of its message.

Why did I write this series and then book?

In short: because I came to see LGBTQ+ Christians as the church’s most oppressed group, beloved siblings in Christ who have been blocked from full participation by well-meaning Christians who have no idea what harm they are doing. My journey led me to conclude that inclusion is not a departure from Christian moral teaching, but rather its fulfillment—rooted in the Gospel’s core claim that every person is loved by God.

The book was my attempt to offer both testimony and careful moral reasoning. It remains, at heart, a call to widen the circle of covenantal love, human dignity, and full Christian belonging.

Thank you to every reader who has joined this journey. And thank you, again, to David Crumm for helping tell the story.

David P. Gushee is the Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit (Free University), and Senior Research Fellow at its partner school, International Baptist Theological Study Centre. He is the author, co-author, editor, or co-editor of 30 books, including the bestsellers Kingdom Ethics and Changing Our Mind. His other most notable works are Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies, After Evangelicalism, and most recently, The Moral Teachings of Jesus. Learn more at davidpgushee.com.