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A review by juliedelarosa
Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate by Justin Lee
4.0
Heads up y’all may want to buckle up for this one. If you’re seeing this you might be thinking “hmm seems a little different than what you normally read Julie”, and that would be a fair assessment so let me give you a little context. Last year, at the ripe age of 25, I decided to make the entire year my quarter life crisis year. Seemed as good a time as ever to take a good hard look in the mirror and question some of the things I thought I knew. One of the biggest areas I decided to attack was religion, more specifically Catholicism.
I have been angry with the Catholic Church and Christianity in general for a very long time, and that has caused me to shut the chapter of my life that contains all things religion. My argument has typically been “not my God” when discussing some of the narrow and no doubt, hurtful views the church holds. I’ve struggled to understand that the same God that sent his only son to die on the cross and is the embodiment of love and grace is also turning people away from the gates of heaven b/c they are gay??? Like you can be a wonderful human in all the important ways but if you are a girl that married another girl so sorrryyyyyy that’s just too bad?? Or I’ve always lovvveedddd the argument that gay people are called to a life of celibacy and that is their “cross to bear,” similar to Jesus… In the past this is where I would enter the phrase “not my god” and refuse to look any further. And truthfully I think part of the reason I have put it off so long is the fear of what if. What if the Bible says in a super clear cut way that it is a sin to be gay?? Then what?? B/c that would mean I would have to rethink my image of God as a loving father and maybe find a new religion all together. And just to be clear there are other hot topics/opinions of the church I have been delving into but they don’t concern this book so I am leaving them aside for this review.
I think ultimately I picked up this book and a couple others b/c I’m tired of scripture being used as a sword, inflicting enormous amounts of paint and hurt on individuals in our community. But in order to combat that idea, I needed to see what all this jazz in the Bible is about. So the book. It was a GREAT very easy read. It was somewhat of a memoir, with the author sharing his experiences with being a devout Christian and also being gay. He talks about trying to ~pray away the gay~ and essentially trying everything under the sun… and to his dismay… STILL BEING GAY. He talks about his struggle to find a place in the church where he wasn’t met with bigotry and pity. He writes in a way that is super easy to read and follow. He only discusses the specific passages in the bible a little bit, but that’s okay b/c it kept it easy to comprehend and still got the point across. Also allows the reader to do their own outside research if they want to. At the end of the day 10/10 recommend this book. Only negative thing I can say is I think it was written a while ago so I would love a more updated book!!(:
If you’ve made it this far, gold star for you! Little note to the people in my life -- Before you open your mouth and speak on something you believe b/c of your faith, maybe take a step back and make sure you aren’t just blindly and ignorantly repeating what your pastor/priest/whoever says while standing at the pulpit on Sundays. Maybe do some research, try to understand why they are saying that, and who knows??? Maybe decide they are wrong?? Often I hear the argument that you can’t just change scripture to meet the current times, because God’s word is infallible and unchanging. I read a beautiful article the other day that I am linking below. It discussed different tools used by Catholics to interpret biblical passes. One of which addresses the exact idea above and states that Catholicism acknowledges sometimes interpretations of the Bible need to change. Although God’s word is infallible, at the end of the day it is humans that are interpreting that word…. And I think we all know we are far far far from perfect.
Real talk. I am nowhere near done reading about this topic, but this book along with a few other resources (most recently Pope Francis statement) have allowed me to finally be able to articulate what I believe and back it up with passages and interpretations. Homosexuality is only discussed a handful of times throughout the Bible. The Church along with many Christians are choosing to interpret the scripture passages in a way that perpetuates homophobia. I firmly believe with all my heart that one day we are going to get to the pearly gates and the big man is going to meet us with the shake of his head, a chuckle, and something along the lines of “my child my child you’ve gotten it so wrong.” To be clear, I’m sure the way I interpret the Bible isn’t perfect either… after all I am human. But I can say that I have dissected the passages that supposably tell us how wrong it is to be gay… and I’m just not sold. To be honest I was incredibly appalled and horrified to learn the passages that address the topic, are sparse and not clear cut. I mean the way the church is so adamant in their beliefs I was thinking it would have been something addressed over and over in the Bible and pretty clear cut at that. Sadly that is just not what I found to be true. At the end of the day, I am more than happy to stand before my maker and defend my interpretation, and if that keeps me out of the pearly gates than so be it.
I didn’t get into the specifics of the bible passages and various interpretations, b/c I would have to write a whole separate book for that one… But I would be more than happy to discuss if curious!
Article I talked about above: https://outreach.faith/2023/09/interpret-as-with-the-bible-so-too-with-church-teaching-on-homosexuality/
Lastly, I’m gonna leave y’all with quote by St. Augustine that I love → “Many whom God has, the Church does not have and many whom the Church has, God does not have”
I have been angry with the Catholic Church and Christianity in general for a very long time, and that has caused me to shut the chapter of my life that contains all things religion. My argument has typically been “not my God” when discussing some of the narrow and no doubt, hurtful views the church holds. I’ve struggled to understand that the same God that sent his only son to die on the cross and is the embodiment of love and grace is also turning people away from the gates of heaven b/c they are gay??? Like you can be a wonderful human in all the important ways but if you are a girl that married another girl so sorrryyyyyy that’s just too bad?? Or I’ve always lovvveedddd the argument that gay people are called to a life of celibacy and that is their “cross to bear,” similar to Jesus… In the past this is where I would enter the phrase “not my god” and refuse to look any further. And truthfully I think part of the reason I have put it off so long is the fear of what if. What if the Bible says in a super clear cut way that it is a sin to be gay?? Then what?? B/c that would mean I would have to rethink my image of God as a loving father and maybe find a new religion all together. And just to be clear there are other hot topics/opinions of the church I have been delving into but they don’t concern this book so I am leaving them aside for this review.
I think ultimately I picked up this book and a couple others b/c I’m tired of scripture being used as a sword, inflicting enormous amounts of paint and hurt on individuals in our community. But in order to combat that idea, I needed to see what all this jazz in the Bible is about. So the book. It was a GREAT very easy read. It was somewhat of a memoir, with the author sharing his experiences with being a devout Christian and also being gay. He talks about trying to ~pray away the gay~ and essentially trying everything under the sun… and to his dismay… STILL BEING GAY. He talks about his struggle to find a place in the church where he wasn’t met with bigotry and pity. He writes in a way that is super easy to read and follow. He only discusses the specific passages in the bible a little bit, but that’s okay b/c it kept it easy to comprehend and still got the point across. Also allows the reader to do their own outside research if they want to. At the end of the day 10/10 recommend this book. Only negative thing I can say is I think it was written a while ago so I would love a more updated book!!(:
If you’ve made it this far, gold star for you! Little note to the people in my life -- Before you open your mouth and speak on something you believe b/c of your faith, maybe take a step back and make sure you aren’t just blindly and ignorantly repeating what your pastor/priest/whoever says while standing at the pulpit on Sundays. Maybe do some research, try to understand why they are saying that, and who knows??? Maybe decide they are wrong?? Often I hear the argument that you can’t just change scripture to meet the current times, because God’s word is infallible and unchanging. I read a beautiful article the other day that I am linking below. It discussed different tools used by Catholics to interpret biblical passes. One of which addresses the exact idea above and states that Catholicism acknowledges sometimes interpretations of the Bible need to change. Although God’s word is infallible, at the end of the day it is humans that are interpreting that word…. And I think we all know we are far far far from perfect.
Real talk. I am nowhere near done reading about this topic, but this book along with a few other resources (most recently Pope Francis statement) have allowed me to finally be able to articulate what I believe and back it up with passages and interpretations. Homosexuality is only discussed a handful of times throughout the Bible. The Church along with many Christians are choosing to interpret the scripture passages in a way that perpetuates homophobia. I firmly believe with all my heart that one day we are going to get to the pearly gates and the big man is going to meet us with the shake of his head, a chuckle, and something along the lines of “my child my child you’ve gotten it so wrong.” To be clear, I’m sure the way I interpret the Bible isn’t perfect either… after all I am human. But I can say that I have dissected the passages that supposably tell us how wrong it is to be gay… and I’m just not sold. To be honest I was incredibly appalled and horrified to learn the passages that address the topic, are sparse and not clear cut. I mean the way the church is so adamant in their beliefs I was thinking it would have been something addressed over and over in the Bible and pretty clear cut at that. Sadly that is just not what I found to be true. At the end of the day, I am more than happy to stand before my maker and defend my interpretation, and if that keeps me out of the pearly gates than so be it.
I didn’t get into the specifics of the bible passages and various interpretations, b/c I would have to write a whole separate book for that one… But I would be more than happy to discuss if curious!
Article I talked about above: https://outreach.faith/2023/09/interpret-as-with-the-bible-so-too-with-church-teaching-on-homosexuality/
Lastly, I’m gonna leave y’all with quote by St. Augustine that I love → “Many whom God has, the Church does not have and many whom the Church has, God does not have”