The church has a checkered past—and present.

Christians vigorously upheld the evil of slavery in the Americas, apartheid in South Africa, the Crusades, and internment camps around the globe. And religious wrongdoing is more than what might feel like long-ago history. Many today have suffered church-related trauma themselves or have loved ones hurt by fellow believers. Some of us have distanced ourselves from the church as a result. Others who have remained, perhaps reluctantly, may feel a certain low-grade sickness from constant disappointment with religious people and institutions. Does admitting this make us bad Christians?

As someone who has spent 40 years working for a Christian organization and attending the same local church, author Scott A. Bessenecker has faced plenty of disappointment with the church—yet has found a richer spirituality by acknowledging the harms done by people who profess to follow Jesus. In Bad Religion, Good News, he offers a pathway for holding the historical and ongoing sins of the church alongside our conviction that God is good. Speaking openly about the sins of the church can help lead everyday Christians to examine our own entanglement with domination and wrongdoing and bring recovery from the ways we’ve been wounded and wounded others.

Healing begins with an honest confrontation of the church’s sins—and our complicity in them. This invitational guide will not only help you to overcome disappointment with the church, but will invite you to embody the prophetic alternative to control and empire that the church was always meant to be.