In an Instagram post, author Jonathan Merritt said writing a children’s book on diversity and inclusion, called “My Guncle and Me” was “risky,” but he has been surprised by the positive reception he’s received.
“We live in a time when various identities have become cause for contention and explosive public debate.” Merritt, the son of a Southern Baptist pastor, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in response to emailed questions.” This book reminds readers young and old that they can embrace who they are even if others can’t. It doesn’t attack anyone or any belief system, rather it asserts a core message that every story matters and should be welcome.”
Merritt and Matthew Paul Turner, a popular Christian author, have teamed up on the “The Stories God Tells Tour.” The tour brings the two bestselling Christian authors to Vinings Lake Church, 75 Cooper Lake Rd SE Mableton, at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Turner has written numerous children’s books. His latest, “You Will Always Belong,” illustrated by Lauren Gallegos, encourages children to know that they are free to be their authentic selves and to understand that God loves and created everyone to be exactly who there are.
Turner, a father of three who came out as gay several years ago, said he realized he wrote the book as more for himself as for children. Divorced, Turner found much support from his children. He recently returned from a family trip to Europe with his ex-wife and children.
“I believe that God made all of us exactly the way we are in our diverse display of identities, whether that includes ethnicity, race, sexuality or gender,” said Turner, who had a conservative, fundamentalist Christian upbringing. “I think God celebrates all of us.”
Both books come at a time when efforts have increased to ban books in schools and libraries across the United States.
According to the American Library Association, the number of titles targeted for censorship rose 65% in 2023 compared to 2022, marking the highest levels ever documented by the association.
A large number of those included books by and about the experiences of the LGBTQ community and people of color, according to the ALA.
Merritt, the son of Duluth’s Cross Pointe Senior Pastor James Merritt, has written several articles and books, including “A Faith of Our Own: Following Jesus Beyond the Culture Wars.”
“My Guncle and Me,” illustrated by Joanna Carillo, is suggested for children ages four to eight. It tells the story of Henry Higgleston, who feels like an oddball at school because of the ways he is different. He likes doing math homework, for example, and is always picked last for sports. Then his Guncle, a term that blends the word gay and uncle, comes for a visit and takes Henry on an adventure that teaches him the importance of embracing his differences.
Merritt grew up in Atlanta in a politically conservative environment and in the home of an evangelical minister.
“I was taught that gay people like me were threats to traditional ways of life,” Merritt said. " I was told stories about how gay people were sinful abominations and how they were destroying the American family. So I never had an imagination for what it might be like to be an openly gay man who was an honored and celebrated as part of a broader family.”
He said the story is inspired “in so many ways, by the life I’ve lived with both my biological and chosen family.”
As his brothers married and started families, Merritt reveled in being who he was with his nieces and nephews. Later, he moved to a communal living environment in Manhattan alongside half a dozen other families and gained 10 more chosen nephews and nieces.
“ The story I’ve been living is so much more beautiful than the stories I was told as a child,” he wrote in an email to the AJC. “So I decided to write a better, truer story for children and families about the importance of loving our differences.”
