God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines

The publisher, Convergent Books, says that the book will 'radically change the conversation about being gay in the church.' God and the Gay Christian was released Tuesday.

There is no biblical teaching about sexual orientation, nor is there any call to lifelong celibacy for gay people,' Vines – now founder of The Reformation Project, which seeks to reform church teachings on sexual orientation – maintained. 'The Bible never directly addresses, and it certainly does not condemn, loving, committed same-sex relationships. In a September 2012 interview with The Christian Post, Vines, who was raised in a Christian home in Wichita, said he came to that conclusion after taking a leave of absence from Harvard to study the Scriptures and scholarly works on the subject of homosexuality. The former Harvard University student, who is gay, rejected traditional Christian teaching on homosexuality and explained in an over hour-long argument using Scripture that the Bible does not condemn loving, same-sex relationships. Vines drew attention in 2012 when a video of him making the case that homosexuality is not a sin went viral.

All that needs to happen for Vines to claim victory is for his readers to be confused and not necessarily convinced of his argument,' Walker writes. 'This book need not be 100 percent compelling or accurate in order to succeed. In his review, Walker notes that not only does Vines identify himself as a conservative evangelical and claim to uphold the authority of the Bible, but his book also comes at a strategic time for the gay rights movement as it was likely written to introduce confusion among Evangelicals – 'one of the last remaining constituencies in America that has not embraced homosexuality with gusto.' The book, Andrew Walker – director of Policy Studies for the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission – says, 'is the first step in a larger effort to fundamentally recast long-held, universally acknowledged norms pertaining to sexual ethics.' With the release of Matthew Vines' God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships, conservative Evangelicals are responding with warnings that the book should not cause confusion regarding Scripture's teaching on homosexuality.

God and the Gay Christian by Matthew Vines