FREE TO LOVE: SEXUALITY AND PASTORAL CARE
By Dr. Margaret Gill
Eagle. 319 pages. £8.99
ISBN 0 86347 310 5
This book has brought me much heartache.
It is a revised and updated edition of the original, published in 1994. The passage of five years or so has not eroded the beautiful phrasing of the text, the insightful observations and the many thought-provoking case histories and anecdotes which illustrate it throughout. As well as being a highly experienced doctor in psychosexual counselling, the author works with the Acorn Trust - a Christian organisation renowned for its work in helping Christians to listen more effectively to others.
However, if we listen more effectively to siren voices, the consequences can sadly be predicted. Though there is a great deal of wholesome, compassionate and wise counsel here, the completely rewritten chapter on homosexuality clearly charts the change in direction in the author's thinking. In place of a helpful and sensitive exploration of the possible roots of homosexuality, we are advised to 'let go of this 'comfort blanket' of 'causes and cures''. Quotations were originally from Elizabeth Moberly, David Field, Christopher Guinness, Leanne Payne and Jack Dominian: 'Within relationships which make possible sustaining, healing and growth, abstinence can be encouraged for those who accept the Scriptural interpretation.' Such pearls have now gone; the substitutes are provided by Elizabeth Stuart, Shere Hite, the late Michael Vasey, Richard Kirker and Richard Holloway.
