Sam allberry is god anti gay
I've restructured the book to better reflect the shift in which questions are more urgently asked today. Living Out has always been able to serve a breadth of broadly evangelical churches, but evangelicalism is now much more divided, especially in the US.
Differences, even relatively minor ones, lead to lots of suspicion. In this short, simple book, Sam Allberry wants to help confused Christians understand what God has said about these questions in the scriptures, and offers a positive and liberating way forward through the debate.
Is God Anti Gay
Some of the language that would have been more commonplace a decade ago felt less fitting now, so I've changed some of the terminology in the book. The issue now is to do with whether a Jesus who says what he does about sex and marriage can possibly be good.
I hope this new edition will be better placed to serve the kinds of discussions we're having right now. We thought it would be good to ask Sam a few questions about why he decided to update the book. So, I figured it needed a bit of an overhaul for its 10th birthday.
Same-sex marriage wasn't a legal reality in the UK or the US. It was a different world in many respects. Is God anti-gay is an honest account of God’s grace and mercy. I hope anyone will, but I've had two types of people particularly in mind throughout the whole process: the teen struggling with sexuality and wondering if God could ever love them.
Some of the language has shifted somewhat as well. I think it's changed a huge amount. I've also tried to make it more directly accessible to someone who might not be a Christian, as I've heard so many accounts of people giving the book to friends outside the Church.
At the same time, there are many more churches looking to be both biblically faithful and pastorally sensitive than ten years ago. So there's much to be encouraged by, too. It was ten years ago now. The theology has remained the same!
Sam Allberry challenges some of the most entrenched perspectives in this field, debunking opinions and terminology in order to get to the heart of the topic. Much has changed across the Christian landscape over the past decade, too.
Is God Anti gay
The assumption today is very much that romantic fulfilment and sexual self-expression are such fundamentals that anything infringing on them is deeply harmful. And what do we say, and how do we relate to to both Christians and non Christians who experience same-sex attraction.
So the section on biblical passages that address same-sex relationships is now at the back of the book, rather than the front. This has actually made it harder to have some of the conversations we need to be having. I hope there will be greater pastoral awareness at various points, too.
The cultural shifts that have continued to take place have left many parts of the church angrier and more abrasive both to non-Christian LGBTQ people and to those struggling within the church. I've added material on the goodness of Jesus, expanded some sections where I think we needed slightly more depth and condensed other parts to make some space for that, as I didn't want the overall length of the book to change much.
And Other Questions about Homosexuality, the Bible, and Same-Sex Attraction, Sam Allberry combines pastoral wisdom, authentic autobiography, and sound exegesis to provide Christians with a helpful introduction to the topic of homosexuality.
The questions I typically get asked have evolved. In this brief but important book, Is God Anti-Gay? Ordinarily, I don't read my own books once they're published it's like listening to a recording of your own voice!