CRAVING FOR LOVE
Relationship addiction, homosexuality and the God who heals
By Briar Whitehead. Monarch. 320 pages. £8.99
ISBN 1 85424 607 0
This book was first published in 1993. To be in print for over a decade means there must be a need it is meeting and doing so well. It has a great deal of helpful material for addicts in general - 'Women dependent on food, work, men, on spending money, helping people É. Men addicted to sex and porn and denying it, seeking power, status and success and camouflaging it in acceptable Christian ways' all come within its scrutiny, but homosexuality is its main focus.
It certainly won't win many plaudits in psychiatric journals. It follows an orthodox biblical viewpoint that the only appropriate context for sexual intercourse is within heterosexual marriage and follows Elizabeth Moberley in understanding the origin of homosexuality to lie in 'unmet same-sex needs' in childhood. Thus homosexuality is not a fixed unchangeable state but one of dynamic flux with potential for change. Many testimonies from 'ex-gays' in the USA and her native New Zealand are used to illustrate Briar's largely-helpful consideration of the issues.
