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Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would: A Fresh Christian Approach
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Item Description...
Overview
Outreach magazine Year's Best Award Winner, 2004
Chances are you know someone who is gay--a coworker, parishioner, family member, student, or friend. And chances are, as a Christian, you're not exactly sure how to relate to this person. Should you welcome him to church? Confront him? Avoid the topic altogether? While the church has been pretty good at "hating the sin," it hasn't really known how to love the sinner without homophobia or fear of condoning a homosexual lifestyle. Oddly, many Christians feel they need "permission" to love gay people.
In Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would, Chad Thompson, a man who has struggled with homosexual feelings, calls Christians to disarm the gay community by "loving first." Drawing from the life and words of Jesus, Thompson teaches readers how to love and befriend homosexuals before they change--and even if they never change--their sexual orientation. He addresses in detail many common questions surrounding homosexuality: Is being gay a choice, or is it genetically determined? Can homosexuals change their orientation? If so, how does it happen?
This book includes an appendix of additional resources as well as a useful list of endnotes. It will be a valuable tool for pastors, educators, therapists, and any Christian struggling with the controversy over homosexuality.
Publishers Description
Chances are you know someone who is gay--a coworker, family member, or friend. And chances are, as a Christian, you're not exactly sure how to relate to this person. While the church has been pretty good at "hating the sin," it hasn't really known how to "love the sinner" without fear of condoning a homosexual lifestyle.
Chad Thompson, a man who has struggled with homosexual feelings, argues that "homosexuality needs to be solved through relationships." Drawing from the life and words of Jesus, Thompson gives readers permission to love and befriend homosexuals before they change--and radically, even if they never change--their sexual orientation.
This candid book includes an appendix of additional resources. It will be a valuable tool for pastors, teachers, counselors, and any Christian who knows someone who is gay. |
Item Specifications...
Pages 184
Dimensions: Length: 8.39" Width: 5.42" Height: 0.44"
Weight: 0.56 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date Dec 1, 2004
Publisher Baker Publishing Group
ISBN 1587431211
EAN 9781587431210
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Availability 5 units.
Availability accurate as of May 23, 2012 06:25.
Usually ships within one to two business days from Johnson City, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | loving homosexuals as jesus does Nov 15, 2007 |
Shalom,
While this book created a lot of sadness for me, I feel enriched and more enlightened because of it. I have been prayerfully reading and researching from as many Christian perspectives as possible to mature my faith and understanding about same-gender attraction. I call this a relational orientation. I now pray for Chad, that he will perhaps one day come to know more perspectives to his convictions as well. I COR 13 is a prayer offering to him as he travels on his journey. I also like the part of Galatians that states we are neither male nor female in the Spirit.
Learn about the language of the scriptures. What was the original text? When did the word homosexuality get inserted into our modern day text? Does inspired by God mean literalism or metaphor?
Check out films such as God and Gays and For The Bible Tells Me so. Do not let yourself be afraid to be open to new ideas, experiences, and perspectives. I pray that more love be brought and less pain on this topic for both heterosexuals and the GLBT Christian community.
Christ Consciousness is what we as Christians are to incarnate. Selah. | | |  | Refreshing, encouraging, and transparently written - a great resource! Jan 29, 2007 |
After hearing Chad Thompson speak at Urbana06, I ordered his book and have thoroughly enjoyed reading and responding to it. The book is well written and accomplishes a number of things: it stretches typical default assumptions regarding how the church ought to show love tangibly to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered) community and challenges the Christian community to act in love; it helps one to overcome certain stigmatisms that come as a result of a certain degree of unfamiliarity with the issue of homosexuality, homophobia, or simply the lack of being in a friendship with someone who struggles with and/or identifies themselves as homosexual; it encourages those who struggle with same-sex attraction but do not want to embrace the lifestyle (for whatever reason) that there really are healthy alternatives; finally, this book is at heart the story of Chad's journey written with great transparency, compassion, graciousness to all parties, and humility.
I recommend this book to anyone interested in this issues for whatever reason (especially if you are afraid of or unsure of how to approach this issue), and I would particularly recommend it to anyone who has been hurt by the church's sometimes un-compassionate, homophobic, or truly -unethical- response to those in the LGBT community. Hopefully we will all realize that evil per se is not found in any certain political party, activist group, or sexual orientation but it is found partly in every human being (us), and that we must all first deal with our own inner evil tendencies. Only then might we begin addressing the evil found outside of us, in our institutions and communities, with the kind of truth-seeking, humble, sacrificial love to which we have been called. | | | | So Simple, Yet so Profound Nov 27, 2006 |
I had heard about this book recently while listening to the author (Chad) on an interview from local Christian radio station in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area. His message, while certainly not backed up with tremendous scientific studies, is simple and quite profound. What struck me the most in this book was his point that there is a signficant difference between homosexual attraction and homosexual activity. While the author even admits he continues to struggle with male-to-male attraction from time to time, he nevertheless has found hope in non-sexual contact with men, which he believes fills a longing need that underscores his attraction to men in the first place - namely, a truly loving relationship without sexual activity.
Wow! In this macho-crazed America that we live in, how refreshing for someone to step forward and admit that perhaps men need each other as well, not in a sexual connotation, but in fulfilling a need that dates back to our earlier years when perhaps we had no father, or we had a father that was distant, or a father that was abusive and never loved us. We all need to be loved, men and women alike, and we all need each other. While non-sexual touch has worked for this author, it may not lessen homosexual desires among all men. Still, the author never intimates that this is a solution for all men with homosexual attractions. Nevertheless, I found the book, simple, yet quite profound in its approach and discussion of something about which most men simply choose NOT to discuss, period.
Thanks, Chad, for showing us tremendous compassion and warmth for many men and women alike that struggle with homosexual attractions, especially in a world that is often full of contempt and hatred toward people it deems "abnormal". | | | | Thompson answers Christian Questions about Homosexuality Aug 30, 2006 |
I loved this book. It answers the question of "is it a choice" in a fresh way that both Christians and homosexuals can agree with. He recommends that we love homosexuals to bring them to Christ rather than the fire and brimstone option.
And he does this by sharing his journey into and out of the homosexual life style.
Recommended reading for anyone who had friends,family, neighbors, co-workers that are gay and who wonders how to respond to them with a Christian perspective.
I shared this book with my mother is a lesbain and we were able to find may places to begin a conversation about "lifestyle" and Christ's love.
| | |  | FALLS SHORT, BUT STILL HELPFUL Aug 11, 2006 |
Although this book falls short in some ways, I still feel it has a lot to offer.
Its major shortcoming is that the author seems to downplay the failure rate of orientation-change therapy. Chad Thompson writes, "...we know from the testimonies of thousands that HOMOSEXUALITY IS A CHANGEABLE CONDITION" (p. 109, capitals added).
This statement seems to imply that ANY and ALL homoerotic persons who wish to change will be able to. Yet I seem to recall reading somewhere (possibly in NARTH literature) that of all same-sex oriented individuals who undergo orientation-change therapy, only 30% are completely successful, while another 30% are partially successful, and the final 40% fail to change.
Chad never mentions these statistics. (Perhaps he is afraid the high failure rate will scare people off, or make them lose hope? Or maybe he fears he will discover that, when limited to using current therapy methods, some homoerotic persons will find it, practically speaking, impossible to change?)
In spite of the book's main defect outlined above--underplaying the extreme difficulty some people face in attempting orientation-change--this book also has some good points.
Chapter four discusses teaching about sexual orientation in the public schools, and I think does a good job of advocating a balanced presentation (rather than just allowing a one-sided viewpoint which is favorable to same-sex erotic relationships).
Chapter five gives an overview of the scientific research about homoeroticism. It seems to me a fair, factual, and honest summary of the few actual studies that have been done to date.
Chapter six clearly outlines the author's understanding of the causes and development of same-sex erotic attractions. (Thompson feels that a deficiency of same-sex love and affirmation in childhood--particularly a boy's lack of a supportive/involved father, or a girl without a caring/nurturing mother--appears to be at the root of much homoerotic attraction in adulthood.)
Another strong area of the book is the author's description of the heaing/growth/transformation process that he himself has been going through. Central to this process is having healthy nonsexual relationships with other men. (Forgiving one's parents is also crucial to healing.)
Chad Thompson also feels it is unhealthy (and unwise) to remain secret about onen's sexual orientation, and I agree. Hence his challenge to the Christian community: "I believe that loving gay people requires us to fight for their right to live outside the closet without consequence, whether or not we agree with homosexuality" (p. 29). ("Without consequence" meaning without such things as derogatory jokes, slashed tires or losing one's job.)
Finally, Chad tells of his struggle in going public as an "ex-gay," and encourages other who hve made a similar orientation change to do the same.
Having looked at this book's main problem (minimizing the near-impossibility of orientation-change for some people, when limited to using current therapy methods), as well as having overviewed some of the book's positive aspects, I turn now to an area the author has entirely left out.
In addition to the widely-practiced "reparative therapy" which Chad Thompson advocates for homoerotic persons seeking orientation-change, there are other, less well-known therapeutic techniques which he never mentions. I believe including a section on these lesser-known types of therapy would make "Loving Homosexuals as Jesus Would" a stronger, more complete, and more valuable book.
For those who wish to read about such alternative therapies now, I recommend "Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy," by Stanislav Grof, M.D. (Grof believes male homoeroticism has its deepest roots in the trauma of birth, and describes his unique form of therapy in [successfully] helping homoerotic men and women who desired orientation change.)
I also recommend two of his other books: "LSD Psychotherapy: The Healing Potential of Psychedellic Medicine" (my review mentions how today's therapists may still be able to apply the knowledge in this book to [legitimately] help their clients), and also Grof's "The Adventure of Self-Discovery" (about his method of group-hyperventilation therapy, which he calls "holotropic breathwork").
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