I bought this book with a gift card and to thumb my nose at an obnoxious visiting authority at a Latter-day Saint stake conference from over four years ago. This guy spent the Saturday evening session of the conference complaining about young adults who supported gay marriage and parents who pushed back against school discipline instead of giving their kids a whuppin’ (his words, not mine) and then still had the gall to talk about how great Mormonism is because it doesn’t believe in a fire and brimstone angry God.

On Sunday morning, he referenced a news story about Nadia Bolz-Weber and her congregation’s famous acceptance of “all sinners” without judgment for them or their sins. The passage from the news story spoke to me, and it seemed hard to believe that the guy would be quoting it. But then, he opened his Book of Mormon and read a fairly well-known passage to make the argument that Bolz-Weber’s tolerance and grace made her an antichrist. This was the last stake conference I ever attended, and while this dude wasn’t the primary reason for that, he certainly wasn’t helping.

So, the past couple of times I’ve browsed the religion section at my indie bookstore of choice, I’ve seen this book and wanted to buy it—both out of interest in Bolz-Weber’s ministry and to stick it to a small-minded Mormon guy. The book is so good. It’s not perfect, but I think it brought me to tears every time I picked it up.

Bolz-Weber’s views on sin and grace deeply moved me, and I want to be more like her in my belief and ministry. She believes that grace is big enough for all of us—even small-minded Mormon dudes—and I hope that I can come to believe that as deeply as she does.

• Accidental Saints
• Nadia Bolz-Weber
• ministry
• grace
• Mormonism