Same-Sex Partnerships?: A Christian Perspective

Rating:
Summary: Solid Christian view, but has blind spots
Review: Stott's book is an excellent introduction to the conservative view of homosexuality and the Bible. In this area, however, he fails to acknowledge the fact that homosexual sexual behavior as spoken of in the Bible is consistently abusive behavior involving aberrations from what was then considered the heterosexual norm. The Bible shows no understanding of mutually loving homosexual relationships on the part of those for whom such orientation is a given and natural part of their makeup (other than, perhaps, David and Jonathan, in whose relationship, however, no genital sexual contact is mentioned), but Stott dismisses that as a humanistic fallacy. (Yet the biblical authors thought the sun revolved around the earth, but such limited understanding is not critiqued by Stott.) In addressing the issue of the possibility of faithfulness among homosexual couples, he quotes statistics taken from gay researchers, but he fails to critique such data regarding the degree to which it reflects only the gay population who are "out", thus ignoring the (probably) much larger number of homosexual persons--let alone homosexual Christians seeking to be faithful to Christ and their life partners--whose lifestyles would not reflected in such data. To balance Stott's views, I commend the chapter "Gayness and Homosexuality" in James Nelson's Embodiment and Letha Dawson Scanzoni's and Virginia Ramey Mollenkott's Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? A Positive Christian Response to those seriously interested in getting a variety of views on the issue before coming to a conclusion. Those who want to adhere to the "Christianly correct" line (there is a "political correctness" enforced among and by Christians, too, you know!) need read no further than Stott.

Rating:
Summary: A nice introduction to the homosexuality debate
Review: This is a short, but very good book concerning the debate about homosexuality and Christianity. Stott gives a very clear and concise overview of important issues and arguments in this debate. He offers some new insights into this issue as well as tackling the usual arguments. I would recommend this book as a good starting point and introduction for learning and thinking about homosexuality and Christianity.

Rating:
Summary: Romans
Review: This is obviously a sensitive topic and judging by the types of reviews, a difficult one to understand from a biblical perspective. John does a decent job of trying to gain common ground between homosexuals and heterosexuals. What may be the cause for concern is really just each readers interpretation of the Bible or lack there of. Romans is very explicit about the issue. Along with God's grace comes repentance and sanctification. A process that the Bible calls all sinners to strive for. Homosexuality, bisexuality and promiscuous heterosexuality are sins like alcoholism, infidelity, murder, addictions, and any other thing that heterosexuals do as well. In fact, we're all sinners. Welcome to the club. Grace and forgiveness is a gift from God and John does remind us of God's grace and what results from his grace. Yes, even for the homosexual as well as the heterosexual and bisexual. It may be difficult to recommend this book to anyone bereft of God's grace or word. Although I would recommend the Bible over this book as a more complete source of how God feels about homosexual behavior, I would say that overall, John has tried to reach out and bridge a gap often filled with rhetoric, from believers to non-believers and all those in between. Tolerance is not a virtue. Tolerance seems to be the "new" answer for all religions and beliefs except Christianity. No one seems to be very tolerant of Christianity. Outdated? Hardly. Revealing is more to the point and no one likes to be shown their depravity. Not even heterosexuals. I would argue that John has tried to focus us to God's word so we see that tolerance doesn't solve our problem, it merely amplifies the sin on both camps and perpetuates our depravity.

Rating:
Summary: Romans
Review: This is obviously a sensitive topic and judging by the types of reviews, a difficult one to understand from a biblical perspective. John does a decent job of trying to gain common ground between homosexuals and heterosexuals. What may be the cause for concern is really just each readers interpretation of the Bible or lack there of. Romans is very explicit about the issue. Along with God's grace comes repentance and sanctification. A process that the Bible calls all sinners to strive for. Homosexuality, bisexuality and promiscuous heterosexuality are sins like alcoholism, infidelity, murder, addictions, and any other thing that heterosexuals do as well. In fact, we're all sinners. Welcome to the club. Grace and forgiveness is a gift from God and John does remind us of God's grace and what results from his grace. Yes, even for the homosexual as well as the heterosexual and bisexual. It may be difficult to recommend this book to anyone bereft of God's grace or word. Although I would recommend the Bible over this book as a more complete source of how God feels about homosexual behavior, I would say that overall, John has tried to reach out and bridge a gap often filled with rhetoric, from believers to non-believers and all those in between. Tolerance is not a virtue. Tolerance seems to be the "new" answer for all religions and beliefs except Christianity. No one seems to be very tolerant of Christianity. Outdated? Hardly. Revealing is more to the point and no one likes to be shown their depravity. Not even heterosexuals. I would argue that John has tried to focus us to God's word so we see that tolerance doesn't solve our problem, it merely amplifies the sin on both camps and perpetuates our depravity.