A review by matthewwester
Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate by Justin Lee

5.0

What sets this book apart from so many others on the topic is that the author, Justin Lee, desired to be faithful to God no matter what the cost. So there is a moment in the book (spoiler alert?) where Justin offers God a lifetime of celibacy if that's what it would mean to be faithful. I can't think of many books that describe a prayer/moment like that. And it's refreshing because I think it's a strong argument to say, "God, this is a tough issue and I'm going to pray through it, turn to you, and be faithful in my living. Your plan may not be the same as my initial concepts." as opposed to a weaker argument I often hear, "God wouldn't want me sad so it must be right to do what I think will make me happy." Whether you agree with the book's conclusions or not, Justin is clearly doing his best to consider different sides of the issue, pray, and remain faithful to how he believes God is leading him.

Oh, also, one of the major points of the book is that 'gay' is not the opposite of 'Christian' and vice-versa. It's true that those words, in whatever ways people mean them, are often set as enemies of one another in pop culture. I find that unhelpful generalizations/polarizations disappear when you get close to an issue and start genuinely dialoguing with people you care about who have an opposing view.

So while I don't totally agree with this book's conclusions, I recommend this book and think it will help readers to dialogue about the topic with more grace (and possibly also more biblical literacy). I'm counting this as "a book about homosexuality" for #vtReadingChallenge