Description

We Mend with Gold: An Immigrant Daughter’s Reckoning with American Christianity

A Powerful Reflection on Faith, Identity, and the Healing Work of Belonging

“A smart, searching look at the need for more inclusive forms of Christianity in the U.S.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

A daughter of the Asian American church explores the complicated intersections of faith, culture, heritage, and belonging in this deeply personal and thoughtful examination of what it means to follow Jesus while embracing every part of who we are.

Growing up, Kristin T. Lee was taught that Christianity and her Chinese American identity existed separately—that one belonged to faith and the other to culture. Over time, that divide created a painful tension between the beliefs she inherited and the person she was becoming.

In We Mend with Gold, Lee traces the journey of a faith that was broken, questioned, and ultimately rebuilt. Through intimate stories from her childhood in Asian immigrant churches and experiences within white evangelical spaces, she examines how communities shaped by migration often navigate belonging, assimilation, and the search for a spiritual home.

With honesty and compassion, Lee explores the histories, traditions, and inherited narratives that influence how people understand God, community, and themselves. She asks what it means to challenge limiting ideas of faith, make space for difficult questions, and stand in solidarity with those pushed to the margins.

Drawing from Black, Asian, and other marginalized theologians, Lee examines the difference between the message of Jesus and the systems of power that have sometimes been built in his name. Inspired by the Japanese art of kintsugi, the practice of repairing broken pottery with gold, she presents a vision of faith where wounds are not hidden but transformed into sources of beauty, strength, and connection.

Through themes of displacement, exile, identity, and healing, Lee explores how our experiences at the edges of society can deepen our understanding of God and one another. She considers what is lost when we chase acceptance at the cost of authenticity—and what becomes possible when we expand our understanding of family and belonging.

We Mend with Gold is a moving meditation on repairing the fractures between culture and faith, honoring the broken places that shape us, and discovering a deeper, more inclusive vision of love and community.