Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's Journey to God. A Broken Mother's Search for Hope. [Paperback]

In this joint memoir, mother Angela Yuan and son Christopher Yuan alternate chapters in describing Chris' prodigal son experiences, in parallel with Angela's experiences as a mother moving from suicidal depression to Christian community, along with hope and prayer for her still-troubled son. Their voices trade off as describe Chris' early successes in grad school, his growing identification with the gay community and embrace of a partying lifestyle, and his movement into success as a drug dealer. His crash when busted and jailed, along with his mothers' prayers and involvement, leads to his conversion to Christianity and eventual role as a prison minister. Now, it seems, he and his mother speak at Christian events about his transformation, a role which I assume has produced this book.

I got this review copy for free from WaterBrook Multnomah (full disclosure!), and was initially quite skeptical and concerned with how the book would portray homosexuality. Because the book is written within the conservative Christian social field, it probably will not be appreciated by liberal or secular readers. But for its intended audience, it strikes the right note. Addressing this social issue with both grace and truth has been a difficult issue for the American church, and it would be easy to turn this story into a polemic about sexual identity and the church.

But the Yuans, in general, refrain. While their story clearly fits within the cultural genre of "Christian testimony" (with overtones of Augustine's confessions as well as an identification with the specific trope of the prodigal son, moving from pride to fall to faith to restoration), it is well-handled, emotive, and lovely -- a good example of the genre. In his chapter on Holy Sexuality (182-189), Chris is frank about his long-standing desires and rejects movements which focus on trying to change a person's sexual orientation:

"But now, as I searched the Scriptures for the way I should live, I began to ask myself a different question: Who am I apart from my sexuality? ... I had always thought that the opposite of homosexuality was heterosexuality. But actually the opposite of homosexuality is holiness. God never said, 'Be heterosexual, for I am heterosexual.' He said, 'Be holy, for I am holy.' ...Holy sexuality is not focused on becoming straight -- orientation change -- but on obedience." (p.187)

Chris recommends that Christian sexuality remain within cross-gender marriage or celibacy, the most predominant framework within the Christian faith. In acknowledging his inborn nature but reframing the discussion from sexual identity to Christian identity, Chris moves away from sexual identity as a central social marker for the Christian and towards the question of what it means to be a Christian. This seems to be one appropriate stance within the Christian context -- I would love to hear others address Chris in dialogue about this. I know that Jenell Williams Paris has recently written a related book, The End of Sexual Identity, and hope to review her book soon!

In the 1990s, Christopher Yuan was a gay man who worked hard and played harder. After an experience with the drug Ecstasy, Yuan quickly became one of the top drug dealers in the major gay clubs of the Southeast, living the glamorous lifestyle marked by cars, clothes and the adoration of his new family in the homosexual community. As spectacular as the story of his life in the 90s is, it is not the subject of this book.

Yuan's world eventually came crashing down. Arrested for conspiracy and intent to distribute illegal drugs and later sentenced to six years in prison, Yuan was abandoned by all but a very few of his supposed "friends". To add insult to injury, Yuan learned, while wearing the tell-tale orange jumpsuit of the Atlanta Detention Center, that he was HIV positive, likely the result of one of his sexual encounters of the previous several years. As dramatic as the story of his Yuan's fall is, it is not the subject of this book.

In recent years, Yuan, now a Christian speaker and HIV/AIDS activist, has garnered a fair amount of notoriety for his frequent speaking engagements in which he talks about HIV and issues surrounding sexuality and Christianity. For this he has been both praised and roundly (and often angrily) criticized. Though one of this book's thirty two chapters is entitled "Holy Sexuality", neither HIV nor questions of Christian faith and sexuality are the subjects of this book.

What is Out of a Far Country about? It is a modern-day prodigal son story, about a son who rebels against his parents and effectively abandons his natural family in favor of living life on his own terms. It is about an awkward boy whose struggle to fit it and to make sense of his attractions led him on a journey into manhood defined by rises, falls and, ultimately, redemption. It's about a God who says to us "I created you in my image and, for that reason and that reason alone, I love you. Period." It's a story that demonstrates that God's ways are not our ways and that God uses whomever He wills, however He wills and does so perfectly. Yuan's journey from outcast kid to drug dealer to HIV statistic to Christ follower is, at bottom, simply a story of God's unconditional love for even "the least" of us.

More than that, Out of a Far Country, is about a mother's struggle. In alternating chapters running roughly chronologically with Christopher's story, his mother, Angela, tells her own story of redemption through the trials of a rebellious son, a lifeless marriage, and lifelong scars that haunted her inmost being. From her childhood in Shanghai and Taiwan to her life in the United States with husband, Leon, Angela describes for us her journey from atheist to Christian, from staunch anti-religionist to powerful prayer warrior, from suicidal mother to child of God. Hers is a story not only of redemption but also of the power of a praying parent who asks God not to bail her son out of whatever situation he might be in, not to allow him to remain in a school threatening to expel him, not to spare him from prison, but to do "whatever it takes" to bring her son to a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. It was a bold prayer. It was an instructive prayer. It was an effective prayer.

At bottom, Out of a Far Country is a story of hope. No matter how far from God we may think we are, God pursues us in the most unlikely ways and in the most unlikely places, in a swank Atlanta apartment, in a prison bunk--even in a trashcan. Read the book. You'll understand.

A mother and son both struggling with their lives, and losing. He has come out as a homosexual and rejected his family to pursue something new. She has lost her son to something she doesn't understand, while living a cold, dying marriage. Over time, they realize God's presence in their lives, but not after a rough and rocky journey.

This book markets itself as a story of a son who is gay and leaves to live a prodigal son's life, while the distraught mother turns to the only thing left in her life, God, to find a way to bring him home. The preview focuses heavily on his homosexuality and how difficult and unknown a lifestyle that is to come out of. But to be honest, they didn't really discuss his homosexuality very much. It was in the beginning, and he resolved it in the end but the majority of the book is about his drug addiction and the troubles that came with this.

Its not a bad book, a little dry to read at times because they are not writers, they are people telling their story. But the end is very encouraging, and his idea of 'holy sexuality' is something I've never heard of before, but very biblical.

All in all, I would recommend this book, but not as a guide on a Christian's response to homosexuality. Its a redemption story, pure and simple.