WASHED AND WAITING
Reflections on Christian faithfulness and homosexuality
By Wesley Hill. Zondervan. 160 pages. £9.99
ISBN 978-0-310-33003-5
This small but powerfully-written book has been long overdue. There is plenty of literature available setting out the biblical perspective on homosexuality and some on its pastoral implications. But this book does us all a service by bringing to life the personal experience of believers who struggle with homosexual feelings and yet are committed to walking the way of the Cross.
Wesley Hill is to be commended for his honesty as he describes his own journey to faith as a young boy and then his pain as a young adult grappling with feelings and yearnings for the affection of other men. The author’s inspiring faith in the love of God for him in the most difficult of emotional circumstances is challenging. Page by page we read of how God works in the lives of people like Wesley.
There are no shortcuts to holiness and Wesley does not spare the reader the struggles that have beset his soul. This makes it an uncomfortable read at times. Not because of anything sexually explicit in the book — it’s not there — but rather because his thoughtful writing and Bible-based insights all conspire to deeply challenge how the reader handles God’s sanctifying work in his own life.
Time and again the author carefully crafts a sentence or paragraph that weaves Bible truth into the lived out experience of a believer wanting to remain celibate in order to honour God. You get a real sense of him longing to communicate his story clearly and with great relevance to his reader. I think he achieves his aims.
The author draws upon a range of well-known writers for illustration, including Henri Nouwen, the poet Gerard Manley-Hopkins and C.S. Lewis among others. However, it’s Wesley’s biblical perspective and profound insights that add the greatest value to the text. While the past and the present may be full of pain and loneliness, the reader is regularly pointed to the hope we have in heaven. I think this makes it a book for a wide audience.
He has dedicated the book to his ‘fellow Christians who wrestle with their sexual identity and hope for their promised redemption’. This must be all of us! And I think it is a book that speaks to the church. It is highly relevant to those struggling with homosexuality, with loneliness and with the call to celibacy as a single person. It is also a helpful resource to those pastoring churches and to those who want to compassionately understand and respond biblically to brothers and sisters in Christ struggling with same-sex attraction. This is a book full of practical insights and a great source of encouragement.
Thank you, Wesley, for stepping up to the challenge of writing this valuable, God-centred and inspiring book.
Stefan Cantore,
member of Chertsey Street Baptist Church, Guildford
