Coming out.
Colby Martin presents insightful ways to deal with what are commonly called the “clobber” passages in the bible. He does this in the even numbered chapters of the book. In the odd numbered chapters he tells of his personal struggles in life because of his changing alignment in getting his real life to reflect his spiritual journey. He shares the personal costs and trials that his coming out of the closet theologically brought to his family and friends. It’s thought provoking and challenging but one doesn’t need to be an academic to understand what he’s saying.
If you’re a hard core member of the Evangelical Party or your mind is already made up about LGBTQIA+ people and you aren’t about to be dissuaded this book isn’t for you. It’ll just make you mad. I made it a point to read critiques from a number of conservative reviews and they were what I expected. One day I hope that they will surprise me and deal with the world from a position of Love rather than punishment and hate.
I won’t hold my breath.
Short list.
And what are those clobber passages? Here’s a list of those verses for folks that like lists and bullet points. (I know I do!)
- Genesis 19:1-38
- Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13
- Romans 1:26-27
- 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
- 1 Timothy 1:9-10
It seems like if homosexuality is such a big deal, there should be more verses than that on the subject out of the over 31,000 verses that are in the bible but there you are. If you throw in marriage there would be more, but Colby Martin deals just with the issue of homosexuality in the bible.
I have read other papers dealing with the clobber passages and they weren’t nearly as easy to read as the analyses presented in this book. Not only were they easy to read but they made sense. If your mind is open on the subject this is an excellent book to read. If nothing else seeds will be planted that things aren’t quite as cut and dried as some would have us believe. After all we’re dealing with interpretations of text from an ancient language.
It’s all Greek to me.