5 Books I’ve Read on Controversial Topics from a Christian Perspective
There’s a lot of opinions out there on controversial topics.
It’s impossible to keep track of every heated-topic, however I think it’s important to at least have a firm grasp on some of them.
Knowing what you believe will help you make decisions in life based on your own VALUES instead of somebody else’s.
Here’s a quick list of books to learn more about some controversial topics from a Christian perspective.
Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ
by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield
Before you can resolve the issues of our day, you must be able to clarify them. Terms like same-sex marriage, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gay Christian are part of the discourse of daily life; yet enormous controversy surrounds them. They are the stuff of news headlines and vitriolic social media posts. But they also reflect stirrings of the heart in real people with real questions and concerns. Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, once a leftist professor in a committed lesbian relationship and now a confessional Christian, but always the thoughtful and compassionate professor, has written a followup to The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert. This book answers many of the questions that people pose when she speaks at universities and churches, questions not only about her unlikely conversion to Christ but about personal struggles that the questioners only dare to as someone else who has traveled a long and painful journey.
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been
by Jackie Hill Perry
“I used to be a lesbian.”
In Gay Girl, Good God, author Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could?
At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel.
Read in order to understand. Read in order to hope. Or read in order, like Jackie, to be made new.
Loving My (LGBT) Neighbor: Being Friends in Grace and Truth
by Glenn T. Stanton (Author), Jim Daly (Foreword)
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.
Change the Shame- Continuing the Battle for Civil Rights by Perry Underwood
It took a Civil War, a Suffrage Movement, and a Civil Rights Movement to awaken our leadership and the people of our nation to the injustice of the day. Why must we insist on punishing ourselves with such injustice for generations, only to be finally cured at such horrific cost? But we’re doing it to ourselves again. Today, as a nation, we are facing another great injustice. For fifty years, tens of millions have suffered severely under this injustice. For fifty years, the rights of one individual have trampled the Unalienable Rights of another. For fifty years, those who have spoken out against this injustice have themselves been marginalized and ignored. This great injustice is the shame of our nation. THE TIME HAS COME TO CHANGE THE SHAME.
Perfectly Human: Nine Months with Cerian
by Sarah C. Williams
She knew they would only have a few fleeting months together, but in that time Sarah’s unborn daughter would transform her understanding of beauty, worth, and the gift of life.