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| God, Gays and the Church: Human Sexuality and Experience in Christian Thinking |  | Authors: Christopher Sugden, Lisa Nolland, Peter Ould, James Parker, Michael Goeke, J. Budziszewski, Ronald G. Lee, Neil Whitehead, Jeffrey Satinover, Joseph Nicolosi
Creator: Sarah Finch
Publisher: The Latimer Trust
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £9.97
You Save: £0.02
New (2) from £9.97
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 288736
Media: Paperback
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0946307938
EAN: 9780946307937
ASIN: 0946307938
Publication Date: February 12, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Poor compendium littered with tired anti-gay arguments August 24, 2008
This book contributes very little to the debate on sexuality in the Anglican Communion. The editors make the blunder of appealing to the discredited research of Paul Cameron, whose studies have been proved time and time again to be unscholarly and informed simply by anti-gay prejudice.
The worst example of homophobia is in the essay by Roland Lee, which is peppered with slanderous accusations about gays, such as the charge that gay churches only exist as "places where worshippers can go to sleep it off and cleanse their consciences after a Saturday night spent cruising for sex at the bars." He claims that the porn section of a gay bookstore is "where most [homosexuals] will spend the rest of their lives, until God or AIDS, drugs or alcohol, suicide or a lonely old age, intervenes." He says that the gay rights movement is "rotten to the core" and its adherents will "wake up from the dream or else die." He calls gay monogamy a "scam" and decries accepting it as "the suicide of western civilization."
This is unfortunately a very ugly and offensive book.
 Good material, but a little rushed June 24, 2008
The purpose of this book is summed up succinctly on the cover:
"In contemporary discussions about human sexuality, great prominence is given to personal stories from gay people. This emphasis can also be seen in recent Christian debates, such as those in the General Synod of the Church of England in February 2007. But there it was a one-sided testimony, and this book is intended to redress the balance."
That may make this book sound quite Anglican-centric, and parts of it are, slightly (and, of course, the timing of the release is not accidental), but the denominational affiliations of the contributors range from Presbyterian to Roman Catholic, so all Christians will find it useful. Indeed, what has been the historic and unanimous teaching of all Christian denominations until very recently is under increasing pressure from many angles. What is offered here by way of a redress is a collection of articles which have been grouped together under the headings "Narratives", "Genetics", "Psychology and Psychotherapy", "Biblical Theology", "Pastoral Care and Advice" and "Cultural Analysis and Social Ethics", which together aim to show that this historic and unanimous teaching is not only still credible but commendable, and in fact indispensable for anyone who takes orthodoxy remotely seriously.
As might be expected from a collection of essays, this book is a mixed bag. The sections on personal testimony and Biblical Theology are very good, in particular the essays by Jeremy Budziszewski (which are really a bit of both). Robert Gagnon's article is solid, too, although it is a response to a paper by John Thorp, which isn't reprinted here (although details of where to find it are given). This gives some indication of the bittiness of the collection and seems a bit strange: why not make your own positive case first and then respond to opposing views and objections? Also, I am sceptical of the details of the chapters on psychology and psychotherapy--which won't come as a surprise to anyone who knows me--although the overall message is clear enough: very many people have dealt with unwanted same-sex attraction and found the experience to be liberating. So much was confirmed by the personal testimonies of change.
Some parts of this will be more controversial than other, and for different people. For instance, Peter Ould, one of the contributors (who has an uplifting testimony of healing), is not happy with Ronald Lee's essay arguing (from his own experience) that gay culture is predominantly narcissistic, promiscuous and destructive. I agree with Rev. Ould inasmuch as Dr. Lee's argument is not strictly relevant to the main thrust of the book, and in any case there is (sadly) plenty of narcissistic, promiscuous and destructive heterosexual behaviour to worry about as well. The other socio-political chapters--on civil partnerships, the redefinition of marriage, the sexualisation of youth, what makes a stable family unit and the culture wars over "discrimination"--will doubtless prove to be just as controversial in many quarters but are backed up with much more evidence and are, in the end, far more interesting.
Overall, this book could have been better. It obviously came out in a rush: there's even a typo on the back cover. That said, it's still a good, overall convincing book, and a valuable resource. Over at the Stand Firm blog someone was wondering how much longer this sort of publication will remain legal. If those worries are well-founded (which is a subject for another day), then this book could be worth getting now for that reason alone.
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