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    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?
    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?
    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?
    Ebook90 pages1 hour

    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?

    By Mark A. Yarhouse

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    About this ebook

    Gain an informed perspective on Christianity and homosexuality.

    There are many misconceptions about Christianity and homosexuality. Christians are often perceived as being simply reactionary or behind the times. We can sometimes speak where we do not understand. We can do better. Do you have an informed and biblical view on homosexuality?

    In How Should We Think About Homosexuality?, Mark. A. Yarhouse brings his expertise to bear on this question. If we are to speak with clarity and conviction, we must first be informed. Christianity has long held a sexual ethic regarding creation, family, and sexuality, and Christians must know how to relate to other views of sexuality. Yarhouse considers how to think about recent scientific findings and sexual identity language before suggesting avenues of fruitful discipleship for same--sex attracted Christians.

    The Questions for Restless Minds series applies God's word to today's issues. Each short book faces tough questions honestly and clearly, so you can think wisely, act with conviction, and become more like Christ.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLexham Press
    Release dateFeb 2, 2022
    ISBN9781683595243
    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?
    Author

    Mark A. Yarhouse

    Mark Yarhouse (PsyD, Wheaton College) is the Hughes Endowed Chair and professor of psychology at Regent University where he directs the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity and is a core faculty member in the doctoral program in clinical psychology. A licensed clinical psychologist, he practices privately in the Virginia Beach area, providing individual, couples, famil,y and group counseling. Yarhouse has published over eighty peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters and is author or coauthor of several books, including Understanding Gender Dysphoria, Modern Psychopathologies, Understanding Sexual Identity , Sexuality and Sex Therapy, and Homosexuality and the Christian. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Psychology and Theology and Christian Counseling Today, and has served as an ad hoc reviewer with Journal of Homosexuality.

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    • 5/5
      Excellent -- this really provides an excellent understanding of same-sex desires, and how a Christian with these desires does not have to identify as gay. Instead, he or she can follow a path of singleness and celibacy, for the glory of God.

    Book preview

    How Should We Think About Homosexuality? - Mark A. Yarhouse

    Cover.png

    QUESTIONS FOR RESTLESS MINDS

    How Should We Think about Homosexuality?

    Mark A. Yarhouse

    D. A. Carson,

    Series Editor

    LogoBCopyright

    How Should We Think About Homosexuality?

    Questions for Restless Minds, edited by D. A. Carson

    Copyright 2022 Christ on Campus Initiative

    Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

    LexhamPress.com

    You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at permissions@lexhampress.com.

    Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

    Print ISBN 9781683595236

    Digital ISBN 9781683595243

    Library of Congress Control Number 2021937704

    Lexham Editorial: Todd Hains, Abigail Stocker, Danielle Thevenaz, Mandi Newell

    Cover Design: Brittany Schrock

    Contents

    Series Preface

    1.Introduction

    2.Science, Homosexuality, and the Christian Sexual Ethic

    3.Sexual Identity

    4.Identity and the Christian Faith

    5.Resolving Sexual Identity Conflicts

    6.Trusting in God’s Good Character

    7.Homosexuality, Singleness, and Celibacy

    8.Conclusion

    Acknowledgments

    Study Guide Questions

    For Further Reading

    Series Preface

    D. A. CARSON, SERIES EDITOR

    The origin of this series of books lies with a group of faculty from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (TEDS), under the leadership of Scott Manetsch. We wanted to address topics faced by today’s undergraduates, especially those from Christian homes and churches.

    If you are one such student, you already know what we have in mind. You know that most churches, however encouraging they may be, are not equipped to prepare you for what you will face when you enroll at university.

    It’s not as if you’ve never known any winsome atheists before going to college; it’s not as if you’ve never thought about Islam, or the credibility of the New Testament documents, or the nature of friendship, or gender identity, or how the claims of Jesus sound too exclusive and rather narrow, or the nature of evil. But up until now you’ve probably thought about such things within the shielding cocoon of a community of faith.

    Now you are at college, and the communities in which you are embedded often find Christian perspectives to be at best oddly quaint and old-fashioned, if not repulsive. To use the current jargon, it’s easy to become socialized into a new community, a new world.

    How shall you respond? You could, of course, withdraw a little: just buckle down and study computer science or Roman history (or whatever your subject is) and refuse to engage with others. Or you could throw over your Christian heritage as something that belongs to your immature years and buy into the cultural package that surrounds you. Or—and this is what we hope you will do—you could become better informed.

    But how shall you go about this? On any disputed topic, you do not have the time, and probably not the interest, to bury yourself in a couple of dozen volumes written by experts for experts. And if you did, that would be on one topic—and there are scores of topics that will grab the attention of the inquisitive student. On the other hand, brief pamphlets with predictable answers couched in safe slogans will prove to be neither attractive nor convincing.

    So we have adopted a middle course. We have written short books pitched at undergraduates who want arguments that are accessible and stimulating, but invariably courteous. The material is comprehensive enough that it has become an important resource for pastors and other campus leaders who devote their energies to work with students. Each book ends with a brief annotated bibliography and study questions, intended for readers who want to probe a little further.

    Lexham Press is making this series available as attractive print books and in digital formats (ebook and Logos resource). We hope and pray you will find them helpful and convincing.

    1

    INTRODUCTION

    Several years ago I was talking with a colleague about our mutual interest in teaching in Christian higher education. She shared with me that she enjoyed being a more liberal voice in a conservative environment. She could push students beyond their place of comfort to reflect on difficult topics. I understood what she was saying, but as I thought about it further, I realized that most people like to be able to do that; most instructors like to challenge their students, and our culture supports challenging norms and sources of tradition. Some would argue that our entire education system is challenging traditional assumptions and structures in ways that call many beliefs and values into question. Perhaps the greater challenge lies in identifying truths that are sustained over time, regardless of a changing sociocultural landscape. Of course, some topics necessitate a balancing act in which an accurate understanding of what is true and right requires reevaluating existing understandings while recognizing the need to conserve teachings that are correct. Perhaps no topic in the twenty-first century in the modern, Western culture fits this description better than homosexuality.

    Educators can always push students to learn more about the topic and to challenge their assumptions. At the same time, there is a need to discern what one believes about sexuality and, in particular, a Christian sexual ethic. The Christian sexual ethic itself is under fire; some think that science decisively refutes its core assumptions and assertions. Stan Jones and I wrote about four areas of scientific research that are often brought into the church’s moral debate in order to change the church’s doctrine and policy regarding same-sex unions and ordaining those in same-sex relationships: the prevalence of homosexuality, the etiology (or causes) of homosexuality, whether homosexuality is a pathology, and whether sexual orientation can change.¹

    Stan Jones and I recently updated the research in some of these central areas,² so I begin below by briefly summarizing the relevant scientific material. Then I turn to sexual identity and recent research on identity

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