What I love about Wesley is his ruthless honesty. He essentially spends all of chapter 5 making sure the reader understands he is not presenting a quick fix to the emotional ache that gay / SSA people feel. He wants to make sure gay / SSA Christians, as well as pastors looking for the magic bullet solution to all of this, understand that there is no magic bullet. He wants to make sure people understand if they walk down the path of kinship / covenantal friendship, they will meet pain and disappointment. This is not a good sales pitch! But it is real and it is honest. Us pastors hate this. We want a systematic theology that fixes everything. We want the right answer that grounds us in Scripture and that gives everyone warm fuzzies.
Another Path for Gay / SSA Christians: Friendships that Go Deeper than Family or Romance
What you have to love and appreciate about Wesley and his writing is that he is dealing with real issues for real people. I find it is so easy for heterosexual married pastors to come up with cookie cutter sermons and treatises on what the Bible says on homosexuality that are just preaching to the choir. They are really only intended to help biblically conservative, heterosexual Christians feel good about their biblical position on a sin that they don’t struggle with at all. These teachings have little-to-no intention of actually helping gay / same-sex attracted Christians who are held in a daily chokehold by their same-sex attraction, something they have little-to-no control over. These church leaders give them very little in the way of options or action steps, which is why so many end up turning away from the Church and pursuing gay sexual relationships and/or keep things bottled up inside with no one to help them as they struggle down paths of deep depression and suicide.
Another Path for Gay Christians: Friendship as a Lost Vow
Wesley Hill is a gay, celibate Christian. While I can’t speak for all people in all places, his 2010 book Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality was groundbreaking in my corner of biblically conservative evangelicalism. In a topic that had become bifurcated into only two camps, Wesley presented a third camp: Christians […]
Is Masturbation a Sin?
“Is masturbation a sin?”
I intentionally did not address this question when I wrote my book for men on sexual purity. My reason was not from fear of talking about controversial or sensitive subjects, it was because I didn’t want those who disagree to tune me and the rest of my message out. I thought it would be an unnecessary distraction. Because whenever you talk about masturbation, no matter your stance, people will disagree.
Ep. 34: Interview with Todd A. Wilson on a biblical theology for sex, marriage, and LGBTQ+ issues
Noah sits down to talk with Todd Wilson about God’s design for sex within marriage between a man and a woman–balancing the need to hold on to biblical truth while holding on to biblical compassion for those who identify as gay or as same sex attracted.
The topics of gender dysphoria, transgender issues, homosexuality, pornography, and sex outside of marriage are all discussed. Also discussed is how the Church must do a better job in talking about sex and in providing a supported lifestyle path of community for those who are committed to living a single, celibate life.
How to Respond When Your Friend Looks at Porn
Brian hopped on his laptop to see if any grad schools had gotten back to him yet. He knew he had just sent out his transcripts an hour before, and he knew that clicking the refresh button on his browser had no scientific ability to generate new emails that had yet to be written. But Brian’s job was really in the doldrums, and the hope of getting to funnel his pent-up energy toward a master’s degree and a new career field was exciting.
No emails.
Not from grad schools at least. What did appear after the 5th time hitting the refresh button was the familiar weekly Ally email from Covenant Eyes that Brian received on behalf of his old college roommate Jonathan.
While Brian was sometimes tempted to delete these reports because of their familiarity and Jonathan’s long track record of success, he knew how important it was for Jonathan that he take a few seconds to open and check each one.
It was a good thing he did.
There was no ambiguity about the blurred images that displayed on Jonathan’s report this time. He had been looking at porn—and a lot of it.