Jonathan Merritt's book reminds kids what makes them different makes them special
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
A new children's book, "My Guncle And Me," is about helping kids embrace the things that make them different. NPR religion correspondent Jason DeRose reports on the author who wrote it, a former pastor from a prominent evangelical family who found his inspiration close to home.
JASON DEROSE, BYLINE: You might not expect a book about a gay uncle from the writer Jonathan Merritt. His previous titles included "Jesus Is Better Than You Imagined" and "A Faith Of Our Own" - but Merritt had an idea.
JONATHAN MERRITT: (Reading) My name's Henry Higgleston, and kids think I'm strange. My hair, clothes and voice - there's a lot I would change.
DEROSE: The idea was to write a book that celebrates not fitting in.
MERRITT: (Reading) But right now, I'm excited, because today's Saturday, and my most fabulous relative is coming to stay.
DEROSE: That fabulous relative is Henry's Guncle.
MERRITT: You write the book you wish you had as a child, and when people read this, they immediately say, OK, I get it - you're the Guncle. I mean, the Guncle even kind of looks like me - the illustration does.
DEROSE: A bit of a dandy, with a five o'clock shadow and a French bulldog named Jimmy Chew. That's C-H-E-W.
MERRITT: The present-day me was able to travel back in time to a past version of me, and to get down on one knee, and look that kid in the eye and tell him what I know now he needed to hear.
DEROSE: But Merritt didn't always know what he needed to hear. He's the son of a former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and a former pastor himself. Coming out meant rethinking his life - though not, it turns out, the core of his faith.
MERRITT: (Reading) At church the next morning, my Guncle sings loudly. He prays and gives thanks, and he does it devoutly. His bright-colored outfit makes two women stare. When we pass, they both snicker, but he doesn't care.
DEROSE: Merritt says not many children's books include LGBTQ characters who are clearly Christian.
MERRITT: A lot of people today are told, by the religious people in their lives, that they can either be people of faith or they can be gay, and that is a false choice, and I think it's important for children to know that.
DEROSE: What he's found surprising are the reactions he's getting while doing queer story time at bookstores and libraries.
MERRITT: I'm so used to very religious people looking at me strange because I'm gay, and now I'm in the opposite situation, where I have my queer brothers and sisters who are looking at me with those same weird faces because of my faith.
PHOEBE RIDDLE: He looks like he doesn't notice, and he's like, oh, I don't care. I'll just move along.
DEROSE: Here's 6-year-old Phoebe Riddle, describing the look on the Guncle's face as he sings his heart out in church.
PHOEBE: I liked when the Guncle told him to, like, get up his feelings, and I really liked that part because sometimes, at school, I feel sad, but then I just get back up.
DEROSE: The lesson is slightly different for Phoebe's 11-year-old brother, Thomas.
THOMAS RIDDLE: I don't think gay is funny. I think it's, like, something that people actually, like - like, LGBTQ people don't want to be made fun of.
DEROSE: "My Guncle And Me" isn't just for kids with Guncles, says author Jonathan Merritt, or kids who might be LGBTQ.
MERRITT: All of us come to understand the what of our identity - what are we like? What do we feel? What are we attracted to? But there's always a why behind the what. Why are we this way?
DEROSE: That why, for Merritt, isn't based on endless arguments of nature versus nurture, but rather, it's grounded in his faith.
MERRITT: The driving force that's making us who we are - at least in the Christian conception - is God, and God is love. That means that love is making you who you are - gay or straight, cisgender or transgender. Love is the driving force that is making you that way, and that love is loving you always.
DEROSE: Even, says Jonathan Merritt, when everyone else thinks you're strange.
Jason DeRose, NPR News.
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