The Same Sex Controversy: Defending and Clarifying the Bible's Message About Homosexuality

Rating:
Summary: A Decent Popular Level Treatment of Explosive Issue
Review: Let me say up front that my 3 star rating may not be indicative of how good this book is. As I will explain below, I think the book is between 3 and 4 stars, and whether one should give the book a 3 or 4 star rating depends on the type of reader who reads the book.

White and Neill have rightly felt called to put pen to paper and attempt a formal response to what they feel is the increasing decibal level of those within the church who are urging a legitimization of homosexuality within Christianity. I agree with the authors that this is a challenge that deserves an answer, and I applaud the authors for stepping into the middle of what is becoming a warzone where this issue is ground zero.

In this book, the authors attempt to accomplish two basic things. They seek, through their own exegesis, to maintain the traditional Christian view regarding homosexuality - this it is incompatible with the Bible's teachings. Second, they attempt to critique many of the arguments that have recently been made by more liberal Christians advocating compatibility between Christianity and 'modern day monogamous homosexual intimacy'. In both of these areas, the authors hit on some good points and produce some sustained strengths. But in the end, I felt that the authors came up short too often, thus the less than flattering review I'm giving it.

Among the sustained strengths of the book are the identification of Biblical hermeneutics and authority as being the core issue of debate. White and Neill rightly emphasize that Biblical authority is really what's on trial in this debate, and do a good job of demonstrating that apologists for homosexual legitimacy within Christianity are forced to adopt an inconsistent and very weak Bibliology that necessarily discounts entire sections of the Bible. In this vein, the authors do a good job of dealing with the Old Testament law and effectively outlining a Biblical basis for applicability of Leviticus 18 and 20. In addition, the authors mostly succeed in dismantling the exegetical rationales offered by the other side and showing them to be amateurish and logically flawed in many cases.

Having said all that, the book itself is flawed in a number of ways. First, the book does not answer every argument given by the other side and in particular, the book does not deal with two central arguments of the pro-homosexual side - the relationship of David and Jonathan in the Old Testament, and the argument that Jesus Himself never condemned homosexuality. The lack of treatment of the first of these arguments in particular is a glaring oversight that leaves the book decidedly deficient in the very area that is supposed to be its strength. Secondly, while White's exegesis of Romans 1 and other pertinent passages is quite good most of the time, the exegetical responses to the other side's exegetical arguments are often too surface level. The point to be made here is that while the authors do a good job in showing that the arguments coming from the other side tend to be from the low rent district of scholarship, it appeared to me that the authors fall prey to this by sinking to the level of the arguments and offering less than thorough responses. It's as if the authors concluded that many of the arguments were so bad they didn't deserve much of a response, but if that's so, they shouldn't have written a book with the express intent of refuting such arguments.

Lastly, the main reason I'm giving the book 3 stars is because I expected better from White. White is one of the more outstanding exegetes around, and it was clear from his fairly recent debate with Barry Lynn on the homosexual issue that he has firm command of the pertinent issues and can devastate the other side in a debate, as he did with Lynn. Yet in this book, I did not find a high level of rigor in the critiques, certainly not the level that we're used to seeing from White. In the end, I had expectations for something more scholarly and more rigorous, and this book doesn't really produce it in sufficient quantity.

However, I think that because this book is purely a popular level of treatment, someone looking for an introductory work on this issue will likely find many things of great value in this work. I think if that's the kind of reader who is contemplating looking at this book, a 4 star rating is appropriate. But for someone who wants a more comprehensive analysis, the book is a decidedly qualified success. On the back cover of this book, Fred Zaspel claims that he knows of no other book that so thoroughly deals with this issue. If this opinion is right, that's bad news for those who hold to the traditional view, because the book is not thorough and not very in-depth, in my opinion.

Rating:
Summary: James White thoroughly refutes Homosexual Doctrine
Review: This book is typical of Dr. James White's extensive apologetics ministry.

He more than blatantly proves that the bible does in fact attack the subject of homosexuality in literal wording. Homosexual apologists can only maintain their position by questioning the accuracy and the truth of G-d's word, as is evident from the various experiences from debates he has reiterated in his book.

The only reason why this book is not 5 stars is because he does not attend (much) to the 2 (rather vain) arguments that Homosexual apologists use. These 2 being the healing Roman Soldier's servant and the "David and Jonathan" issue. Homosexual apologists are ignorant of the fact that Slavery was the only way non-naturalized people could become Roman citizens. Secondly, they heterophobically claim that David's friendship with Jonathan immediately meant a sexual relationship, which is and always had been against the Torah; whom David upheld during his reign.

I would suggest this book to anybody who wishes to refute the claims of Homosexual apologists.

Rating:
Summary: Good rebuttals to the homosexual arguments
Review: White and Niell give a good biblical response to those who want to promote a "homosexual Christian" lifestyle. For those in this camp who believe in the authority of the Bible, they ought to consider the cogent arguments offered by these gentlemen.

At this point I wish to disagree with the several reviewers before me (from Virginia and Canada) who criticized the book. As far as not answering all homosexual arguments, the writer from Virginia lists two:

1) Jesus did not mention homosexuality (well, they basically answered this when they said that not everything is listed in the Bible, i.e. pediaphilia, Trinity, etc. Just because something is not specifically named does not make it wrong if the principle is there. The gospels don't specifically have Jesus naming many things as wrong, though he certainly would have thought they were);

2) The issue of the "love" shared between Jonathan and David. (There is absolutely nothing in the context of the relationship between these men to hint at anything erotic between them; it seems to be such a ludicrous argument that it hardly needs a response.)

As far as the argument that the authors already had their minds up and did not take the scripture to heart--as the critique from Canada says--this is an unbelievable statement! Everything about The Same Sex Controversy deals with scripture. It is up to the pro-homosexual advocate to show where in scripture the Bible endorses or promotes homosexual behavior. Besides inuendo and far stretches, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the biblical commands were not meant for all time, such as for today.

For those who want answers in response to the homosexual agenda, I would recommend The Same Sex Controversy. The only thing the book lacks is a scripture index in the back. However, the authors probably felt this was not needed because the main passages referring to homosexuality (i.e. Leviticus 18, Romans 1, etc.) are listed in the "Contents" section. Besides this, I will keep the book on my shelf as a reference tool for this issue.