Glaser defines "The Word" as an intimate, loving encounter with God. Through reflection on the Bible in the light of the particular experience of lesbians and gay men, that Word may emerge and embrace a community that the church has often rejected. Each entry of this year-long daily devotional begins with a scripture verse and concludes with a prayer or affirmation.
In this thoughtful introduction to a sensitive topic, Dr Horner considers all the references to homosexuality in the Bible – the stories of Sodom and Gibeah, David and Jonathan, Ruth and Naomi, and passages from Deuteronomy, Leviticus, Romans, Corinthians, and I Timothy. He includes an important discussion of the words and actions of Christ in their biblical and historical context, to determine what conclusions can validly be inferred about Jesus and sexuality.
“A fine example of a truly critical but respectful approach to the Holy Scripture. All texts dealing with with homosexual practice are examined in their original context to determine the exact extent of the biblical statements.”-Insight“A good biblical history of the practice of homosexuality. I would recommend this book for anyone endeavouring to understand this heated issue. It is a provocative tool for the kind of thinking necessary to resolve the issue in the individual Christian’s mind.”
"Jonathan Loved David" by Thomas M. Horner is one of the early books dealing with homosexuality in the Bible and it still maintains its place as a good survey of the history of homosexuality in the Holy Books. We learn from Horner that it was the historical background that brought about the early admonitions of same-sex relations.-NaDine Rawls
Over the number of years I have been involved in Homosexuality and the Bible workshops and/or classes, Horner brings forth some very enlightening and eye opening facts. Such as, Pauls writings, that some can and cannot be attributed to him and how he uses the list of vices called "game counters" and homosexuality is NOT on this list. Although Ruth and Naomi's relationship was not a physical one, however, it is truly a lesson in UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, which many of us as HUMANS are still learning. We still make the statement "I love you but..." As for those of us who are in clery and server the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexaul and Transgendered community, we should encourage them to read and study this book and continue to discover where we as LGBT people are in the bible.-Amos Lassen
"Gay marriage has become the most important domestic social issue facing twenty-first-century Americans -- particularly Americans of faith. Most Christians are pro-marriage and hold traditional family values, but should they endorse extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians? If Jesus enjoined us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and the homosexual is our neighbor, does that mean we should accept and bless gay marriages? These and other, related questions are tearing many faith-based communities apart.Across the country, states have voted, courts have debated, and churches have divided over the legitimacy of same-sex marriage. Amid the uproar one perspective is decidedly missing: that of thoughtful, pro-marriage Christians who, informed by their faith, are struggling to make sense of this issue. What God Has Joined Together? is an effort to bridge the divide between marriage-supporting and gay-supporting people of faith by showing why both sides have important things to say and showing how both sides can coexist. Drawing on scientific research as well as on the Bible, the authors explain that marriage is emotionally, physically, financially, and spiritually beneficial for everyone, not just heterosexuals.They debunk myths about sexual orientation, assess claims of sexual reorientation, and explore what the Bible does and does not say about same-sex relationships. The book ends with a persuasive case for gay marriage and outlines how this can be a win-win solution for all."
Reviews:
From "Evangelicals Concerned"
This is the work of an Old Testament scholar at the University of Helsinki. Published by a major Lutheran press, it is comprehensive and succinct in surveying the primary texts on homoeroticism from the world in which the Bible was written. In his Preface, Nissinen says that, as he undertook his research, he “soon had to face the problem that sources that go back two or three millennia do not fit modern categories. Whether the texts I studied were biblical or Jewish, Assyrian, Greek, or Roman, the term ‘homosexuality’ was absent from them and the concept alien.” This early and sustained finding is precisely what those who use the Bible to wage a “culture war” against gay men and lesbians today do not take seriously – if they even understand it at all. (Ironically, lesbigayt apologists who take their own homosexuality back to the Bible make the same mistake.) He argues that any attempt to mechanically apply a few Bible verses on same-sex behavior to the phenomena of contemporary homosexual orientation and peer-relations fails in its hermeneutics. He is convinced – and convincing – that today’s discourse on homosexuality must not confuse modern phenomena with the various forms and perceptions of homoeroticism in the ancient Mediterranean world. Chapter by chapter, Nissinen illustrates the contemporary observation that sexual categories and interpreted sexual experiences are socially constructed and are not the same from culture to culture and from age to age.
.......
Nissinen explains that in Romans 1 and 2, “What matters is the theology of justification by faith, not homoeroticsm as such. Paul’s rhetorical strategy … seems to be to stimulate his readers’ moral indignation by listing sins traditionally associated with Gentiles, in conventional Jewish wordings – but this is a rhetorical trap: Paul turns the force of his criticism against” self-righteous Jews. According to Nissinen and other scholars, the meaning of Paul’s terms in I Corinthians 6:9, often automatically applied today to homosexuals, “remains obscure.” He says: “The modern concept of ‘homosexuality’ should by no means be read into Paul’s text.” Indeed, he concludes: “No single passage in the Bible actually offers a specifically formulated statement about same-sex eroticism.”
Thus, with no correspondence between the ancient texts and phenomena and our own responsibilities around contemporary homosexual orientation and behavior, Nissinen calls his readers to “love [as] the central hermeneutical principle when applying biblical commands, advice, and ideals to the lives of people today.”
