IS GOD ANTI-GAY?
By Sam Allberry
The Good Book Company. 88 pages. £3.19
ISBN 978 1 908 762 313
At the heart of this short book is Sam’s personal story of living in Christ while grappling with being sexually attracted to people of the same gender.
His testimony is that biblical faith is a source of great comfort and joy. What comes across is a pastor’s heart for people. Sam offers practical pointers for Christians who are struggling with the issue. There is also some helpful guidance for churches that, perhaps more frequently than ever before, are being called upon to support such believers in their life journeys. All this wisdom is set squarely in the context of a succinct exposition of the relevant Bible texts.
Sam aims to cover a huge amount of territory. So there are also sections about relating to gay non-Christians, living as a single person, the possibility of changing desires, as well as a debate about whether or not our stance on homosexuality is a core gospel issue. Sam clearly explains why it is!
This breadth of material is also one of the book’s weaknesses and some of the way theology is expressed is rather loose. The reader might wish that Sam had restricted his focus and offered more depth to just a few of the key topics. There is regrettably no reference made to other helpful biblical material widely available. Readers who wish to explore the topic more fully will find the Evangelical Alliance publication Biblical and pastoral responses to homosexuality very helpful.
