First Person • NonFiction  • 208 Pages

About the Book (Backcover Blurb):

Ever feel like we’re just fumbling through the LGBT conversation, always asking but never really finding answers to questions like:

• What does it look like to be friends with my lesbian neighbors?  
• How should I love my gay child and his partner?
• What if I’m invited to a same-sex wedding?
• What did Jesus say—and not say—about homosexuality?
• What is the role of the church in the same-sex debate?

We don’t have to fumble. While the questions are hard, answers can be had. Just ask Glenn Stanton.

Stanton, of Focus on the Family, travels widely meeting with and debating LGBT advocates across the country. In doing so he has had the privilege of becoming friends with a number of them.

He says, “We disagree on certain convictions, but we still admire and esteem one another . . . Since when was it decided that people who see the world in polar opposite ways can’t be friends?” He shares his personal journey building bridges with the LGBT community and offers candid insights on hard questions.

In Loving My (LGBT) Neighbor, Glenn Stanton shows us how to speak the truth in love on this difficult but important issue.

Why I Choose This Book: 

Because I’ve asked all those ^ questions before (well, if you substitute “child” in the second question for “relative”). I really wanted to read a book where the author had really researched with the Bible had to say about the topic and then used that as the foundation for his book.

What I Thought about this Book:

I wasn’t sure what to think going into the book, but before long I was nodding along with what the author was saying and picking the book up every chance I got to read more.

There were a lot of things that when I first read it I was like “No, no, that can’t be right.” But then after thinking through it and really reading what the author had actually written, plus the scripture passages he’d quoted, and in nearly all the cases I ended up realizing that I did agree with him after all.

This book is special and unique because it’s written by a guy who is standing strong on the Word of God, debates gay people, and yet is also good friends with many, many people from the LGBT community. He writes the book in such a way that is brimming with love, truth, and grace, which is what we’re called to be. Throughout the book, he explains what it looks like to be friends with someone who believes so differently from him. He talks about how sometimes you have to work through misunderstandings and hurt feelings, but that when you build a strong friendship based on the places where you do agree, then this is very possible.

The author also talks about how it’s important not to make friends with someone from the LGBT community (or anywhere, really) just so you can witness to them. He said, of course, he witnesses to his friends from the LGBT community because that’s who he is and what he’s called to do. But if that was the reason for his friendship then that wouldn’t be a real friendship. (Really, you should read the book because he does a LOT better of a job explaining it.)

Throughout the book, he also defines and explains different terms like what “LGBT” really means – what each letter stands for, etc…. It was interesting to me and I was happy to have that knowledge.

Conclusion:

I plan on re-reading this book. It’s written from a Biblical stand point and brimming with grace and truth. I recommend this to Christians (Ages: twenties and up) who want to study out what the Bible really says about this topic.

There are still a few things that I’m not sure if I agree with them, but it’s given me a lot to think about.

Rating: 

I’m giving Loving My LGBT Neighbor 4 out of 5 stars, and 8 out of 10.

*I received this book from Moody Press in exchange for a review