Michael L. Brown - Can You Be Gay and Christian?: Responding With Love and Truth to Questions About Homosexuality

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CAN YOU BE GAY AND CHRISTIAN? by Michael L. Brown, PhD
Published by FrontLine
Charisma Media/Charisma House Book Group
600 Rinehart Road
Lake Mary, Florida 32746
www.charismahouse.com

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwisewithout prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NET are from the New English Translation, copyright 1996-2006 by Biblical Studies Press, LLC. http://netbible.com. All rights reserved. This material is available in its entirety as a free download or online use at http://netbible.org/.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, International Bible Society. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NJV are from the New Jewish Version, copyright 1985 by Jewish Publication Society. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked RSV are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Copyright 1946, 1952, 1971 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

All italics in Scripture quotations reflect the authors emphasis.

Copyright 2014 by Michael L. Brown, PhD
All rights reserved

Cover design by Justin Evans
Design Director: Bill Johnson

Visit the authors website at www.AskDrBrown.org.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Brown, Michael L., 1955
Can you be gay and Christian? / Michael L. Brown, PhD. -- First edition.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-62136-593-8 (trade paper) -- ISBN 978-1-62136-594-5 (e-book)
1. Homosexuality--Biblical teaching. 2. Homosexuality--Religious aspects--Christianity. I. Title.
BS680.H67B75 2014
261.835766--dc23
2014002789

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication.

Dedicated to all those who identify
as LGBT or same-sex attracted
and who desire to love and
serve the Lordand to know the
fullness of His love in Jesus

CONTENTS

Chapter 1
Love Does No Harm to Its Neighbor

Chapter 2
To Judge or Not to Judge?

Chapter 3
Are We Using the Bible to Sanction Antihomosexual Prejudice?

Chapter 4
The Bible Is a Heterosexual Book

Chapter 5
Levitical Laws and the Meaning of Toevah (Abomination)

Chapter 6
What Did Jesus Say About Homosexuality?

Chapter 7
The Healing of the Centurions Servant

Chapter 8
Paul and Homosexuality

Chapter 9
Everything Reproduces After Its Own Kind

Chapter 10
Balancing Grace and Truth

C AN YOU BE gay and Christian? How we answer that question has a lot to do with our definition of terms. Does gay simply mean having same-sex attractions? Does it mean practicing homosexuality romantically and sexually? Does it mean having a gay identity? And what about Christian? Does it mean going to a Christian church? Being born into a Christian family? Being a true follower of Jesus?

This book intends to answer the question of whether you can truly follow Jesus and practice homosexuality at one and the same timeand it has not been written lightly. For many of you reading, this is the biggest (and most urgent and painful) question in your life. Perhaps you grew up in a Christian home and, as long as you can remember, you were attracted to members of the same sex. Did this mean that God rejected you? That He preordained you to damnation? That you could never be married or have a family of your own?

Perhaps you deeply prized biblical morality and sexual purity, but you found no legitimate outlet for your romantic and sexual desiresa God-blessed outlet for the love you felt for someoneand so you went for counseling, for therapy, maybe even for some kind of deliverance and exorcism, only to find your desires unchanged. And perhaps you contemplated (or attempted) suicide.

Or perhaps you simply lost your faith, being unable to reconcile your romantic and sexual desires, which for you were not merely something you did but rather an essential part of who you are to the core of your being. Or perhaps you decided to study the theological issues afresh, coming to the conclusion that the Bible was not against loving, monogamous, same-sex relationships but rather against abusive relationships involving rape or pederasty or prostitution, or it was against homosexual acts in the context of idolatry.

If Im describing you here, then this book is for you.

Perhaps youre on the other side of the spectrum. Perhaps youre a committed follower of Jesus and youre quite sure that the Scriptures, which reflect Gods heart and will, forbid homosexual practice. Perhaps youre concerned with the pervasive effects of gay activism in our culture, and you are convinced that they are a real threat to our freedoms of speech, conscience, and religion. And perhaps you know people who claim to be ex-gayin other words, former homosexuals or people who simply no longer identify and live as homosexualsand youre quite sure that Jesus can set us free from anything.

This book is for you as well. In fact, this book is for all readers who are simply interested in what the Scriptures teach about this very important subject or in how we are to respond to the issue of homosexuality (for ourselves or for those to whom we minister).

As a happily married heterosexual man, I do not claim to be able to relate in full to the challenges faced by those who identify as gay or lesbian (or, for that matter, bisexual or transgender), but I can honestly say that I have taken these issues to the Lord in tears, that I have listened carefully to the stories of LGBT people (both those who identify as Christian and those who do not), that I have reviewed the relevant scriptural arguments in depth, and that every word of this book was written with a heart for God and a heart for people.

Although this book is written in a popular as opposed to academic style, it is based on decades of serious academic scholarship and makes reference to the most important studies on the subject. And although this book is written with a pastoral heart, it is not a counseling manual, nor is it a guide for helping those with unwanted same-sex attractions, although I believe it will prove helpful for pastors, counselors, and individual believers (or even nonbelievers) of all backgrounds.

The bibliography is meant to be selective rather than exhaustive, listing only directly relevant books (rather than articles) and excluding biblical commentaries and lexicons along with general works on homosexuality and relevant websites. I have also included a new book by Matthew Vines, scheduled to be released about the same time at this one. I did not have access to his manuscript, but because his lecture on the Bible and homosexuality went viral, I wanted to reference his book. (To be frank, I found nothing new or persuasive in his talk, despite its popularity.)