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Can Homophobia Be Cured?: Wrestling With Questions That Challenge the Church
Can Homophobia Be Cured?: Wrestling With Questions That Challenge the Church
- GenresLGBT
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 11, 2024
The book is aimed at Christians, which is good. Unfortunately, the author is a United Methodist, which many other Christian denominations stick their collective noses up at. United Methodists are often considered "false Christians" by these other denominations. Since there are over 45,000 Christian denominations around the world, the chances are high that the Christians who need to read this won't just because the author is a United Methodist.
Near the end of the book, Hilton claims that he is a liberal. This is also going to put off many politically conservative Christians of any denomination.
Which is a shame. This is a well-written little book, told mostly in a question and answer format. Some questions were just for United Methodists. Again, That's a little off-putting.
One of Hilton's goals in writing this book was to change the United Methodist stance on homosexuality. Sadly, it didn't work.
Hilton does not take everything in the Bible literally, but he does believe in supernatural beings like God and the Holy Spirit. This means he has to do some impressive mental gymnastics to try and reconcile the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality and allowing homosexuals in his church.
Although it's laudable that Hilton is trying to help the gay people in his church, and stop oppression of homosexuality, ultimately, his arguments fail because Christianity is incompatible with logic, science and human rights.
Hopefully, Hilton came to his senses and became an atheist, or at least an agnostic. Organized religion needs scapegoats to survive. Christians love to pretend that they're oppressed. Gay people are just one of many groups of people that Christians love to hate.
This book is currently available at The Open Library.
Near the end of the book, Hilton claims that he is a liberal. This is also going to put off many politically conservative Christians of any denomination.
Which is a shame. This is a well-written little book, told mostly in a question and answer format. Some questions were just for United Methodists. Again, That's a little off-putting.
One of Hilton's goals in writing this book was to change the United Methodist stance on homosexuality. Sadly, it didn't work.
Hilton does not take everything in the Bible literally, but he does believe in supernatural beings like God and the Holy Spirit. This means he has to do some impressive mental gymnastics to try and reconcile the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality and allowing homosexuals in his church.
Although it's laudable that Hilton is trying to help the gay people in his church, and stop oppression of homosexuality, ultimately, his arguments fail because Christianity is incompatible with logic, science and human rights.
Hopefully, Hilton came to his senses and became an atheist, or at least an agnostic. Organized religion needs scapegoats to survive. Christians love to pretend that they're oppressed. Gay people are just one of many groups of people that Christians love to hate.
This book is currently available at The Open Library.
January 2, 2020
This book was published by a Methodist minister during a particularly turbulent time in recent Methodist history. He and his wife Ginny had become supporters of GLBT people in the United Methodist congregation after their son had come out to them as gay. The Hiltons died in 2008.
In the book, Rev. Hilton takes an approach that the problem is not homosexuality, but homophobia. He discusses definitions, studies and the history of homosexuality in Western culture, then goes into an overview of homosexuality in the Bible and how it was addressed in the Methodist congregation in then-recent history. He then talks about various ways of incorporating LGBT issues into one's ministry and groups that can help. One cogent point he makes is that becoming more accepting of LGBT people can actually increase one's congregation. Funny how inclusion rather than exclusion has that effect.
The book is short and succinct. What is heartbreaking is how long it has taken for churches to come to the same point in the road the Hiltons clearly hoped we were already at in 1992.
In the book, Rev. Hilton takes an approach that the problem is not homosexuality, but homophobia. He discusses definitions, studies and the history of homosexuality in Western culture, then goes into an overview of homosexuality in the Bible and how it was addressed in the Methodist congregation in then-recent history. He then talks about various ways of incorporating LGBT issues into one's ministry and groups that can help. One cogent point he makes is that becoming more accepting of LGBT people can actually increase one's congregation. Funny how inclusion rather than exclusion has that effect.
The book is short and succinct. What is heartbreaking is how long it has taken for churches to come to the same point in the road the Hiltons clearly hoped we were already at in 1992.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews