Book Rec
What The Bible Says - And Doesn't Say - About Homosexuality A 24-page booklet written by the Rev. Dr. Mel White that offers a biblical response
to the question people often ask: "How can you consider yourself a
Christian when you are also gay?"
I downloaded this booklet from the soulforce.org website yesterday and read it all in about half an hour. It is written by Rev. Dr. Mel White who is a highly trained theological scholar but it is in language that is concise accessible and easy to understand. One of the most important things that I think Dr White brings out in this booklet is that when we read the Bible we ought to be looking for what it says about God, not what it says about sexuality or culture or science. The Bible is not a handbook on sex, it is a book that tells us about God.
His approach is to take the scripture passages most often used against homosexuals and ask the reader to set aside his or her preconceived notions, looking at them in light of what they teach about God rather than what they teach about sex.
My favorite quote:
Even when we believe the Scriptures are “infallible” or “without
error,” it’s terribly dangerous to think that our understanding of
every biblical text is also without error. We are human. We are fallible.
And we can misunderstand and misinterpret these ancient
words-with tragic results.
"What the Bible Says -- And Doesn't Say -- About Homosexuality" Page 7
I recommend this booklet to anyone who is interested in an honest discussion of what the Bible says about God and Homosexuality.
You can download a free .pdf copy of this booklet from: http://www.soulforce.org/pdf/whatthebiblesays.pdf