Violet Charson

For anyone looking for a good, godly, biblical conversation about about understanding and treating LGBTQ persons as a Christian, especially engaging LGBTQ Christians as a Christian, I cannot stress enough to avoid this book. By the grace of God, I was saved at 4 years old, grew up as a pastors daughter in a conservative evangelical home, attended Cedarville University where I graduated with a Bible degree, and for the past several years I have been deeply studying what a godly response to the LGBTQ community would be. I have read dozens of books from both the revisionist and traditionalist perspective. I didn’t even make it through the preface of Rosaria Butterfield, “5 Lies of Our Modern Age” before weeping before God. Never have I encountered a perspective so venomous and hurtful. From the example of Scripture, Rosarias approach is un-Christlike. She demonizes the LGBTQ “issue” and makes any person who disagrees with her as “barely Christian” if not unchristian altogether. The LGBTQ “issue” isn’t an issue at all, but human beings struggling to understand how to live godly lives in a broken world. There is no place in the Christian community for hateful language against sinners. But instead, like Jesus who ate with sinners, spoke tenderly to sinners, washed the feet of sinners, I hope our example as believers is to treat the least of these people with compassion, and not as culture war issues. And I hope we respond with humility to anything we disagree with, knowing we are the greatest of sinners, saved by the grace of God, seeing Truth dimly through a mirror this side of heaven. For those looking for good nonaffirming//traditional perspective books, I would recommend Kevin DeYoung, What Does the Bible Really Say About Homosexuality and Sam Allberry “Is God Anti-Gay?” And for those willing to dip their toes into affirming literature, I would recommend Matthew Vines , “God and the Gay Christian.”