Hill Wesley - People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue

With the poignant accuracy of a scholar and the passionate heart of a pastor, Preston challenges Christians to look at the LGBT community from a deeper level. Specifically, he drives home the point that LGBT people in our lives arent nameless faces, but real individuals that God loves. Each person has a voice, deserves to be listened to, and needs to be valued. Im thankful Preston has pushed us further into the tension of grace and truth.

CALEB KALTENBACH, lead pastor, Discovery Church; author, Messy Grace

This is a remarkable book. The tone overflows with love, compassion, and grace. Preston is an exceptional biblical scholar, and as such, his exegesis of Scripture is excellent. As I read, I kept thinking, Preston really loves the LGBTYQ Community. This book will be a resource at Transformation Church.

DERWIN L. GRAY, lead pastor, Transformation Church; author, The High
Definition Leader; Building Multiethnic Churches in a Multiethnic World

In his new book, People to Be Loved, Preston Sprinkle serves as a trustworthy guide through the debated passages of Scripture that relate to homosexuality. His thoughtful, balanced reflection on the arguments on both sides, as well as his willingness to share with the reader what he has concluded, reflect the kind of convicted civility that is often lacking in any discussion of the topic. Sprinkles approach also models for the Christian a commitment to respectful engagement with others with whom you may disagree.

MARK A. YARHOUSE, PsyD, Professor of Psychology and Rosemarie
S. Hughes Endowed Chair, Regent University; author, Understanding
Gender Dysphoria: Navigating Transgender Issues in a Changing Culture

In a conversation polarized by hate, fear, and misunderstanding, Preston Sprinkle steps into the fray with a thoughtful, articulate, nuanced, humble, and courageous take on the current debate over sexuality and the Bible. His particular cocktail of professor, pastor, and down-to-earth regular Joe is an intoxicating blend that makes for good reading and even better learning. Im thankful for Preston and this book.

JOHN MARK COMER, pastor for teaching and vision,
Bridgetown: A Jesus Church in Portland

Preston Sprinkle has a deep reverence for Scripture and a great love for people, meaning this book is not just accessible and lively, but rewarding and compassionate. It deserves to be widely read.

SAM ALLBERRY, associate pastor, St. Marys Church, Maidenhead, UK;
author, Is God Anti-Gay? and James For You

Preston Sprinkle does conservative Christians a needed service by guiding them into the complexity of biblical interpretation, sexual ethics, and compassionate listening. His meticulous research is applied with an even hand as he affirms and critiques arguments coming from both affirming and nonaffirming Christians, all the while offering wise pastoral counsel to straight and gay alike. Affirming scholars will disagree with various points in his interpretation but there is no question that Sprinkle is going as far as he can go within a nonaffirming viewpoint to move this debate away from the rhetoric of the culture war toward a more productive, respectful, loving conversation.

MEGAN K. DEFRANZA, author, Sex Difference in Christian
Theology: Male, Female and Intersex in the Image of God;
visiting researcher, Boston University School of Theology and
the Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion

With honesty, empathy and all-too-uncommon grace, Preston Sprinkle contributes brilliantly to the ongoing conversation our culture is having regarding Christianity and sexuality. Preston has done a rare thing: addressing controversial issues and dealing with perplexing questions in a way that is fair and gracious to all participants. This is a refreshing and immensely helpful book in navigating the deep waters of sexual ethics. I highly recommend it!

MIKE ERRE, pastor, First Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton

Amidst the arguing at fever-pitch comes Preston Sprinkle and People to Be Loved. I am grateful for his thoughtful perspective and great desire to love at the risk of being both criticized and marginalized. I pray more people will opt into relationship and conversation with one another in the way Preston has and find deeper friendship and understanding.

ALAN CHAMBERS, author, My Exodus: From FEAR
to Grace; www.AlanChambers.org

Powerful and accessible, People to Be Loved engages top scholarship from all sides of this conversation in a way thats easy to read and down-to-earth, respectfully avoiding straw men while exploring Scripture with conviction and grace. Moreover, Preston models a posture for straight Christians to allow the abuse and mistreatment gay people have experienced to break and reshape us, to let their beauty and dignity draw our eyes to Jesus, and to front love as we seek to embody the sacrificial love of our King for his world.

JOSHUA RYAN BUTLER, pastor, Imago Dei Community (Portland);
author, The Skeletons in Gods Closet

ZONDERVAN

People to Be Loved

Copyright 2015 by Preston M. Sprinkle

ePub Edition October 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-51966-9

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sprinkle, Preston M., 1976

People to be loved : why homosexuality is not just an issue / Preston M. Sprinkle. pages cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-0-310-51965-2 (softcover)

1. HomosexualityBiblical teaching. 2. HomosexualityReligious aspectsChristianity. I. Title.

BS680.H67S674 2015

261.8'35766dc23

2015031812

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Wolgemuth & Associates, Inc.

Cover design: Dual Identity

Cover photo: Anton Zabielskyi, Glebstock/premier.shutterstoc.com

Interior design: Kait Lamphere

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For Matt, Brian, Nick, Julie, Nate, Wesley, Lesli,
and the millions of other Christians
who daily wrestle with their Christian faith
and same-sex sexuality.

CONTENTS

by Wesley Hill

WESLEY HILL

I know a Christian scholar who for many years has participated in a weekly meeting with two rabbis. The three mens purpose is to study Scripture together. Initially their meetings focused on the Hebrew Bible, a text that both Jews and Christians treat as inspired and trustworthy. Later, as they went on, they moved to the New Testament.

Hearing about their times together, you might be tempted to focus on all the ways the Scriptural study could go badly. Convinced of the rightness of their own positions, each man might have assumed he had nothing to learn from the others. Or, if he kept an open mind, each man might have treated the others views as historical or sociological curiosities, much in the way one might catalog a new animal species, without being willing to have his own views challenged and expanded in the process. But, it seems, none of these things has happened. At least for these three men, studying Scripture together in the face of deep division has proved, again and again, to be worth continuing.