I have never juggled a discussion of three books at once on this blog before.  I have discussed a simple book by John Stott [Basic Christianity] with a more complex book by John Stott [The Cross of Christ] but I have never bounced back and forth between three books at once.

From time to time, feel that I need to write a “Don’t Lose Sight” post just to keep anyone who is reading clear about where I am going. 

I wrote “Sodom and Gomorrah and Revisionism” [August 17, 2023] about Kevin DeYoung’s chapter on Sodom and Gomorrah.  DeYoung emphasizes that God intended to destroy those cities because they had a preponderance of same-sex activity within their population.  DeYoung is a “traditional Christian” who feels that same-sex activity is a mortal sin.   He also discusses revisionist Biblical critics who don’t see that Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed for that reason.  Their views are designed to put forth the idea that arrogance was the real reason for God’s retribution and those homosexual men who come to Lot’s door wanted to have sex with angels, not ordinary men [that clears them of desire for same-sex human activity].  Revisionist criticism of the Bible is often opposed to traditional Biblical criticism.  DeYoung discusses revisionism but does not defend it; in essence, he attacks it.

Now we are poised to move to the third book in this trifecta, Preston Sprinkle’s  People to be Loved: Why Homosexuality is Not Just an Issue.  Sprinkle’s title tells it all.  While Peter Gomes and Kevin DeYoung present opposite sides of the issue of homosexuality and the church, Sprinkle tries to straddle the divide on this issue by focusing on the human element: that LGBTQ+ people are people to be loved, not just an issue to be debated. 

We have already looked at male and female sexual difference as a bedrock for marriage.  DeYoung says it is essential.  What will Sprinkle say?

We will see, as he titles his Chapter 2 “Holy Otherness: Is Male and Female Sexual Difference Necessary for Marriage?”