Whatever pictures the label "gay" evokes, you probably don't immediately envision the face of an evangelical churchgoer. Justin Lee, a self-described "gay Christian" and author of the disarmingly vulnerable Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate, is out to change your perceptions.
In communities around the globe, genderqueer, gender-variant and gender-fluid people are rejecting the categories of male and female, and attempting to re-define gender identity. Linda Pressly asks if being non-binary breaks the last identity taboo, and explores the challenges it creates for the law, society and conventional concepts about the very nature of gender.
Stephen Keyworth, Faith and Society Team Leader at the Baptist Union of Great Britain, speaking on the topic of ‘Social Developments in human sexuality’.
Eleanor Whiteway, of the Faraday Institute and Cambridge University, engages with ‘Scientific Aspects of Human Sexuality’.
Biblical Scholar Walter Wink offers a detailed engagement with the Bible on the topic of human sexuality.
In this important and timely book Alan Wilson argues that allowing gay people to marry is a moral purpose. Wilson says: 'I asked myself "what does God want for gay people?". After re-revisiting the Bible, and more importantly getting to know gay people of all types and varying backgrounds, he decided the answer was that God wants for them the same as everyone else - flourishing faith, hope and love, involvement and inclusion. Meanwhile, from a scientific perspective, More Perfect Union? asserts that homosexuality is part of a wide range of human sexual longing and expression, not an anomaly, a sickness, not merely a lifestyle choice. The vast majority of people Wilson encountered on his journey toward being in favour of same-sex marriage were not anti-gay, were 'just trying to love their neighbour as themselves', even if, in some cases, their heads lagged behind their hearts on the issue of gay marriage. The ultimate aim of this book is to help Christians unite head and heart in a fully positive response to gay people marrying, and to enable them to wholeheartedly rejoice in such union, in doing so shaking off the hangover of years of stereotyping, fear and discrimination about gay people.
Simon Woodman and Luke Dowding address the topic of ‘Pastoral care of LGBT Christians’.
Beeching's God-fearing lyrics are sung by millions in America's Bible Belt. Here, the singer and religious commentator discusses her sexuality for the first time and reflects on the political ramifications of coming out as a lesbian gay.
Tony Campolo, professor emeritus of sociology at Eastern University, a former faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania, and the founder and president of the Evangelical Association for the Promotion of Education, has spoken out in favour of same sex marriage.
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