2013/01/06

review: Torn - Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs-Christians Debate

Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs-Christians Debate   
Justin Lee

(to be published in the UK as Unconditional: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays Vs Christians Debate)

I had this book shipped from the US because I was eager to read it, as soon as it was published (Nov 2012), not willing to wait until the UK publication (mid-Jan 2013) - I'm not sure why the publishers felt it necessary to stagger things this way (nor, to change the title, and apparently to re-write a few sections), but hurray for the global marketplace, even if it prevented me from getting the Kindle edition.

My eagerness was repaid.  It's a good book which deserves to have a significant impact.

Like the sainted Andrew Marin's Love is an Orientation, the central theme is that the Evangelical world needs to re-evaluate how it responds to gay people (and, perhaps, that gay people need to re-evaluate how they relate to the forces of Evangelicalism).  Whereas Marin's experience is driven by his experiences of friends coming out to him, Lee's account is largely autobiographical: he was the teenage "god boy" who to his horror and considerable dislocation, reached the conclusion that he was gay and he needed to report this honestly to those around him.

Lee comes from a loving conservative Christian context, so this was quite a big deal.  His parents helped him to access counselling of various kinds, and he briefly explored the 'ex-gay'/'cure' ministries.  These are dismissed with candour in the book: Lee, together with the great majority of those with any experience of such things, quickly concluded that no matter how well-meaning those folks were, they suffered from a mix of self-delusion and a considerable confusion of nomenclature.  'Success' was determined by promiscuous gay men ceasing to be sexually active - a positive thing in some conceptions of sexuality, but by no means whatsoever a 'cure for being gay'.

The author had anticipated a lifetime in Christian service.  Instead of the conventional paths through Evangelical ministry he has found himself leading the "Gay Christian Network" (GCN) - and in so doing, encountering vast numbers of people with similar stories.  He explains that their ministry embraces both those who believe that the Creator's will is for gay people to enter into full, loving relationships with members of the same sex, totally on a par with heterosexual relationships (the so-called 'Side A' position), and also those who believe that the calling of everyone who doesn't enter into heterosexual marriage is to lifelong celibacy ('Side B').  Lee is unambiguously on Side A, but in embracing both, the GCN is a model of peaceful co-existence on the non-essentials.

The book is undoubtedly the stronger for its autobiographical element.  This is not a dry treatise; it is not a theoretical treatment of the topic.  It is built from experience - and many tears, much heart-searching, and a careful and long-lived review of scripture.  The latter is important: the perspective and methodology  is solidly and fully evangelical, even if the conclusion would be similar to that which might be found in more liberal-minded denominations and groups.

Everyone's experience is different.  Some day soon I'll be ready to talk about mine here.  But the subtitle is exactly right - the gospel desperately needs rescuing from the sterile "Gays-vs-Christians" debate.  It's an absurd false dichotomy and is doing immeasurable harm to the message of Jesus.  Robust grown-ups can draw their own conclusions.  Those who are more vulnerable - particularly lonely and confused teenagers - need a whole lot more help.  If Lee's book helps them, and those close to them, then it will already be worthwhile.  As it is, I hope and pray that it has even more impact than that (and I see that other reviews and reports suggest it is doing just that).