• A family member will come out of the closet and expect you to be okay with it.
• Your elementary-age child's curriculum will discuss LGBT families.
• Your company will talk about building a tolerant workplace for LGBT co-workers.
• Your college-age child will tell you your view on homosexuality is bigoted.
Are you ready?
In their role as pastors, Adam Barr and Ron Citlau have seen how this issue can tear apart families, friendships, and even churches. In this book they combine biblical answers with practical, real-world advice on how to think about and discuss this issue with those you care about. They also tell the story of Ron's personal journey from same-sex attraction and sexual brokenness to healing.
Truth does not preclude kindness--and a good dose of humility is necessary to love our neighbors. With sensitivity and winsomeness, this book will offer an honest but inviting message to readers: We are all in need of the healing that can only come from the truth of the gospel.
My review:
Occasionally a book comes along that everyone should read. This is one such book. You'd have to be totally asleep to not see the militaristic and bullying-like tactics of those who want to further the gay agenda with the end result of silencing anyone who dares disagree.
And yet for every gay person marching in a gay parade and trying to force his views on anyone who dares disagree, there are people in our churches and families quietly struggling with the issue. And those who may be out, yet are not confrontational about it and we may work with or live beside, or even have in our family.
How does one stand against the gay bullies, stand against the push for this lifestyle to be taught in schools, to fight for religious freedoms that seem to get bulldozed in the name of gay rights, while still loving those who struggle with same-sex attractions and/or fully embrace them? How does one show compassion without compromising and going against God and His Word?
This isn't a long book, coming in at only 158 pages, but the authors do a great job of covering the issue and providing some great answers. They address and answer several questions throughout the book from people from things like if you should attend a gay wedding, what to do if your child tells you they are gay, etc.
They also cover why we can't cave into the idea that God is OK with homosexuality. They use Scripture to back up their points, and answer some common arguments used by those who are trying to revise what the Bible says about the issue.
Christians need to be ready to deal with things they will face in regards to this issue, and they need to understand it better and how to love and relate to those who are dealing with it. This book will help in those areas. I highly recommend it.
There is a website with more about the book and authors, including a downloadable study guide for the book at CompassionWithoutCompromise.com
About the authors:
Adam T. Barr serves as senior pastor at Peace Church, a healthy, growing community in Grand Rapids, Michigan. As the president and founder of Borderlands, a worldview ministry, Adam has lectured across the country on this topic and produced video curriculum. He also serves with Kevin DeYoung on the board of RCA Integrity, a renewal movement in the Reformed Church in America that gathers pastors from across the denomination each year for the Integrity Conference, which has hosted speakers like Mark Dever, Ligon Duncun and Carl Trueman, and where Adam has presented some of the material in this book.
He graduated magna cum laude from Hope College with a B.A. in Religion and Philosophy, earned his MDiv from Western Theological Seminary and a ThM from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and completed several PhD-level courses at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia.
Adam's book Exploring the Story (Zondervan) has sold more than 20,000 copies. In 2004-05, Adam revised, edited, expanded, and wrote for the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Commentary, originally edited by F. F. Bruce. Currently he is under contract with Baker, producing preaching and teaching components for the Teaching the Text commentary series.
But Adam's first calling is as a husband and father. Together with his wife, Jennifer, and their four sons, he seeks to embody the ideas he has been called to communicate.
Ron struggled with same-sex attraction his whole life and has worked with and walked alongside many others who have struggled with sexual brokenness, as well as equipping pastoral leaders to serve those dealing with sexual sin. He also worked with Andrew Comiskey, producing curriculum on sexual healing now used by Desert Stream Ministries in hundreds of churches throughout the country. When he isn't working, he loves to be with his wife, Amy, and their four boys: Jack, Sawyer, Eli, and Crosby.
Compassion Without Compromise is available from Bethany House Publishers, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
Thanks to Bethany House for the review copy.
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