Introduction: Does Jesus love me? -- Beginnings: In the capital of Christian America, Nashville, Tennessee -- The agnostics: New York; Bangor, Maine -- Josh Cook: "My Christianity became a vague spiritual notion" -- Yes, Jesus hates you: Westboro Baptist Church, Topeka, Kansas -- The power and the story: The scandal of the Harding University Queer Press, Searcy, Arkansas -- Exit strategy, part I: Exodus International's Reorientation Ministry, Orlando, Florida; Irvine, California -- Exit strategy, part II: A visit to an Exodus group, Kirkland, Washington -- John Smid: "Things I've taught have been wounding" -- Freedom to marry: Jake and Elizabeth Buechner, a city in the northern United States -- Choosing celibacy: Kevin Olson, St. Paul, Minnesota -- Ted Haggard: "I am being resurrected" -- The ministry is the closet: Ben Dubow, Hartford, Connecticut -- Agreeing to disagree: The Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago -- Benjamin L. Reynolds: "Brothers, I think the church needs a season of prayer" -- What price, unity?: First United Lutheran Church, San Francisco -- New community: The Gay Christian Network, Raleigh, North Carolina -- David Johnson: "My answer is always the same: God loves you no matter what" -- Keeping it together: The Schert family, Valdosta, Georgia -- Return of the exiles: Lianna Carrera and Jennifer Knapp, Hollywood, California; Nashville, Tennessee -- Mary Glasspool : "God said to me: I am bigger than the church" -- A house of prayer for all people: The Metropolitan Community Church, San Francisco; Las Vegas -- Feels like home: Highlands Church, Denver -- I think God understands : Gideon Eads, Kingman, Arizona.

When Jeff Chu came out to his parents as a gay man, his devout Christian mother cried. And cried. Every time she looked at him. For months. As a journalist and a believer, Chu knew that he had to get to the heart of a question that had been haunting him for years: Does Jesus really love me? The quest to find an answer propels Chu on a remarkable cross-country journey to discover the God "forbidden to him" because of his sexuality. Surveying the breadth of the political and theological spectrum, from the most conservative viewpoints to the most liberal, he tries to distill what the diverse followers of Christ believe about homosexuality and to understand how these people who purportedly follow the same God and the same Scriptures have come to hold such a wide range of opinions. Why does Pastor A believe that God hates me, especially because of my gayness? Why does Person B believe that God loves me, gayness and all? From Brooklyn to Nashville to California, from Westboro Baptist Church and their "God Hates Fags" protest signs, to the pioneering Episcopalian bishop Mary Glasspool who proclaims a message of liberation and divine love, Chu captures spiritual snapshots of Christian America at a remarkable moment, when tensions between both sides in the culture wars have rarely been higher.