Customer Reviews

Same Sex Controversy, The: Defending and Clarifying the Bible's Message About Homosexuality

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a comprehensive book that details the many and varied attempts to circumvent the Bible's plain teaching condeming homosexuality. All the relevant texts are dealt with in a thorough manner and the modern day revisionists are refuted by cogent scriptural exegesis. What is especially noteworthy are the chapters dealing with the book of Leviticus and its interpretation (pages 53-108). The arguments that focus on "Holiness Codes" being inapplicable to modern day Christians are disposed of by deft and insightful reasoning. Most Christians are thoroughly unfamiliar with the book of Leviticus and are thus misled rather easily by bad arguments. Niell and White are conversant with the objections to the traditional interpretation and interact well both with the text of Leviticus and the objectors. The Biblical arguments showing forth the distinction between "moral" and "ceremonial" laws in Leviticus is worth the price of the book. Recognizing this Biblical distinction allows one to properly understand a great deal of the Old Testament law and which parts are applicable for the modern Christian. It is such argumentation that allows one to understand why it is that Christians can eat pork sandwiches and still condemn homosexuality as a sin before the face of God. If your looking for a book that is strong on logic, exegesis, and theological reasoning then this is the book to read.

Let me say up front that my 3 star rating may not be indicative of how good this book is. As I will explain below, I think the book is between 3 and 4 stars, and whether one should give the book a 3 or 4 star rating depends on the type of reader who reads the book.

White and Neill have rightly felt called to put pen to paper and attempt a formal response to what they feel is the increasing decibal level of those within the church who are urging a legitimization of homosexuality within Christianity. I agree with the authors that this is a challenge that deserves an answer, and I applaud the authors for stepping into the middle of what is becoming a warzone where this issue is ground zero.

In this book, the authors attempt to accomplish two basic things. They seek, through their own exegesis, to maintain the traditional Christian view regarding homosexuality - this it is incompatible with the Bible's teachings. Second, they attempt to critique many of the arguments that have recently been made by more liberal Christians advocating compatibility between Christianity and 'modern day monogamous homosexual intimacy'. In both of these areas, the authors hit on some good points and produce some sustained strengths. But in the end, I felt that the authors came up short too often, thus the less than flattering review I'm giving it.

Among the sustained strengths of the book are the identification of Biblical hermeneutics and authority as being the core issue of debate. White and Neill rightly emphasize that Biblical authority is really what's on trial in this debate, and do a good job of demonstrating that apologists for homosexual legitimacy within Christianity are forced to adopt an inconsistent and very weak Bibliology that necessarily discounts entire sections of the Bible. In this vein, the authors do a good job of dealing with the Old Testament law and effectively outlining a Biblical basis for applicability of Leviticus 18 and 20. In addition, the authors mostly succeed in dismantling the exegetical rationales offered by the other side and showing them to be amateurish and logically flawed in many cases.

Having said all that, the book itself is flawed in a number of ways. First, the book does not answer every argument given by the other side and in particular, the book does not deal with two central arguments of the pro-homosexual side - the relationship of David and Jonathan in the Old Testament, and the argument that Jesus Himself never condemned homosexuality. The lack of treatment of the first of these arguments in particular is a glaring oversight that leaves the book decidedly deficient in the very area that is supposed to be its strength. Secondly, while White's exegesis of Romans 1 and other pertinent passages is quite good most of the time, the exegetical responses to the other side's exegetical arguments are often too surface level. The point to be made here is that while the authors do a good job in showing that the arguments coming from the other side tend to be from the low rent district of scholarship, it appeared to me that the authors fall prey to this by sinking to the level of the arguments and offering less than thorough responses. It's as if the authors concluded that many of the arguments were so bad they didn't deserve much of a response, but if that's so, they shouldn't have written a book with the express intent of refuting such arguments.

Lastly, the main reason I'm giving the book 3 stars is because I expected better from White. White is one of the more outstanding exegetes around, and it was clear from his fairly recent debate with Barry Lynn on the homosexual issue that he has firm command of the pertinent issues and can devastate the other side in a debate, as he did with Lynn. Yet in this book, I did not find a high level of rigor in the critiques, certainly not the level that we're used to seeing from White. In the end, I had expectations for something more scholarly and more rigorous, and this book doesn't really produce it in sufficient quantity.

However, I think that because this book is purely a popular level of treatment, someone looking for an introductory work on this issue will likely find many things of great value in this work. I think if that's the kind of reader who is contemplating looking at this book, a 4 star rating is appropriate. But for someone who wants a more comprehensive analysis, the book is a decidedly qualified success. On the back cover of this book, Fred Zaspel claims that he knows of no other book that so thoroughly deals with this issue. If this opinion is right, that's bad news for those who hold to the traditional view, because the book is not thorough and not very in-depth, in my opinion.

James White and Jeffrey Niell explain and defend what the Bible teaches about homosexuality. Other issues, such as science and statistics, are discussed only briefly. There's a lot of documentation of church fathers and other ancient sources discussing and condemning homosexuality, however. This is a book primarily for those who want to know what the Bible teaches about homosexuality and related topics, such as homosexual marriage.

The book is about 250 pages long. It's well-organized, moving from Old Testament passages to New Testament passages in canonical order, and it's well-written. There's no index, though.

There are eight chapters and four appendixes. They cover Sodom and Gomorrah, Leviticus 18 and 20, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1, Romans 6:14, and some other topics. The arguments of people like Daniel Helminiak, John Boswell, Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott, L. William Countryman, and Choon-Leong Seow are cited and refuted. Relevant passages of scripture are quoted and discussed, followed by a discussion of pro-homosexual arguments. I noticed that some of the material cited is as recent as last year (2001). There's a lot of recent, up-to-date material in this book. White and Niell effectively refute the pro-homosexual arguments, with a lot of attention to detail, though there are some arguments I'd like to add to their case and I sometimes disagreed with their emphasis. Overall, though, their arguments are convincing and much better than the arguments of the pro-homosexual movement.

Basically, the pro-homosexual side of this dispute does three things:

1.) Dismiss as insignificant the absence of any approval of homosexuality in hundreds of Biblical passages about marriage, sex, etc.

2.) Reject as mistaken the traditional interpretations of relevant passages of the Bible, interpretations spanning thousands of years in countries around the world.

3.) Propose textually and contextually unlikely interpretations of passages like Romans 1 and Jude 7 in place of more likely interpretations.

...

White and Niell give a good biblical response to those who want to promote a "homosexual Christian" lifestyle. For those in this camp who believe in the authority of the Bible, they ought to consider the cogent arguments offered by these gentlemen.

At this point I wish to disagree with the several reviewers before me (from Virginia and Canada) who criticized the book. As far as not answering all homosexual arguments, the writer from Virginia lists two:

1) Jesus did not mention homosexuality (well, they basically answered this when they said that not everything is listed in the Bible, i.e. pediaphilia, Trinity, etc. Just because something is not specifically named does not make it wrong if the principle is there. The gospels don't specifically have Jesus naming many things as wrong, though he certainly would have thought they were);

2) The issue of the "love" shared between Jonathan and David. (There is absolutely nothing in the context of the relationship between these men to hint at anything erotic between them; it seems to be such a ludicrous argument that it hardly needs a response.)

As far as the argument that the authors already had their minds up and did not take the scripture to heart--as the critique from Canada says--this is an unbelievable statement! Everything about The Same Sex Controversy deals with scripture. It is up to the pro-homosexual advocate to show where in scripture the Bible endorses or promotes homosexual behavior. Besides inuendo and far stretches, there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that the biblical commands were not meant for all time, such as for today.

For those who want answers in response to the homosexual agenda, I would recommend The Same Sex Controversy. The only thing the book lacks is a scripture index in the back. However, the authors probably felt this was not needed because the main passages referring to homosexuality (i.e. Leviticus 18, Romans 1, etc.) are listed in the "Contents" section. Besides this, I will keep the book on my shelf as a reference tool for this issue.

This recent (2002) paperback is a very good, comprehensive and comprehensible review of biblical texts and interpretations concerning homosexuality.

The authors conclude that the traditional position of the church, that homosexual behavior is contrary to scripture, is supported by scripture and that contrary recent "revisionist" views are not supportable. All the relevant biblical texts are addressed and explicated, and all major objections to the traditional interpretations of these texts are carefully examined and refuted.

This book is readable, scholarly, and comprehensive. I heartily recommend it to all persons who want to understand the scriptural teaching on this matter.

First off, this book is an easy read. Both White and Niell write with a great clarity and help the readers see how weak the arguments really are that support the view that the Bible approves modern homosexual relationships. What is great about this book is that each chapter ends with an array of objections raised by supporters of the pro-gay view and are then dealt with systematically. This makes it very useful for debating purposes. James White is a master exegete an applies his skills to the relevant passages affirming the view of the historical Christian church - Homosexuality and Christianity is incompatible. The authors arguments are devistating to their opponents and show how morally bankrupt the gay "Christian" movement really is.

I expected nothing less than a thoroughly Biblical defense of tradition marriage and relationships. White and Niell use Scripture as their grounding for their work. They cover all of hotly contested Bible verses on homosexuality and prove that they, indeed, prohibit homosexual behavior.

My issue is that they brought hardcore truth but there didn't seem to be hardcore love and compassion in the book. There is no plan for a recovering homosexual to find help. They merely say to repent and follow Scripture, which is 100% accurate but a person coming out of a homosexual life will need support and counseling. They don't give much advice on that end and there is listing of additional resources or organizations that can help. For a person that struggles with same-sex attraction, they are given a very biblical argument of why its wrong to act on those desires but they aren't pointed toward practical help. It would have been nice is someone like Joe Dallas, who was in the "gay Christian" movement, wrote this with White and Niell. The truth needs to be communicated in love with practical steps.

I would recommend this to those that are ministering to people with unwanted same-sex attraction but I would not recommend giving it to them directly.

I have just finished reading this fine book, which has bolstered my resolve to leave my church of 14 years, a United Methodist congregtion which like so many others is showing "compassion" to gays by approving of their behavior and even promoting gay marriage. James R. White and Jeffrey D. Niell have presented clearly and uncompromisingly the biblical passages that teach on the subject of homosexuality, while presenting the major arguments used to contradict what the Bible seems to be so clearly saying. Each rationale in favor of homosexuality as an "alternate lifestyle" that apologists believe the Church should accept is exposed for its weaknesses and flaws. I deeply appreciated also the introductions to certain Hebrew words and explanations of why they mean just what Jesus, Paul and Jude believed they did. I highly recommend this book, which although it is dense in a few occasional places, is easy enough for any intelligent Christian or non-Christian to understand.

This book is typical of Dr. James White's extensive apologetics ministry.

He more than blatantly proves that the bible does in fact attack the subject of homosexuality in literal wording. Homosexual apologists can only maintain their position by questioning the accuracy and the truth of G-d's word, as is evident from the various experiences from debates he has reiterated in his book.

The only reason why this book is not 5 stars is because he does not attend (much) to the 2 (rather vain) arguments that Homosexual apologists use. These 2 being the healing Roman Soldier's servant and the "David and Jonathan" issue. Homosexual apologists are ignorant of the fact that Slavery was the only way non-naturalized people could become Roman citizens. Secondly, they heterophobically claim that David's friendship with Jonathan immediately meant a sexual relationship, which is and always had been against the Torah; whom David upheld during his reign.

I would suggest this book to anybody who wishes to refute the claims of Homosexual apologists.

Dr. James White is known for his strong exegetical skills in the Reformed tradition. He is a Bible-based theologian and an accomplished debater. Given his exemplary contribution to the Christian community, it is with sadness that I cannot recommend his most recent book.

It is clear to me that Dr. White did not approach his writing of this book so as to discover what Scripture has to say, but rather, he appears to have already had a long standing position, and based on his own views, wrote a book to substantiate it. This is the very definition of isegesis (inserting one's own views into the text).

That Dr. White's left his field of expertise (Bible) and included material from the medical and social sciences is also unfortunate as he sites methodologically flawed material to buttress his position.

In the end, Dr. White confirms what he already affirmed prior to his study, namely that the Bible condemns homosexuality outright. It is interesting that Dr. White concludes what the majority of pew sitting Christians believe, but in opposition to what the majority of moral theologians affirm.

Dr. White presents a strong (albeit erroneous) argument against homosexuality. I hope that Dr. White's book may serve as a catalyst to motivate a pro-gay apologist of equal stature to write a rebuttal.

In summary, I do not recommend this book.