UNWANTED SAME-SEX ATTRACTION
Issues of pastoral and counselling support
By Andrew Goddard and Glynn Harrison . CMF Publications. 32 pages. £2.00
ISBN 978 0 906 747 07
With a foreword by a past-president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and written by a professor of psychiatry and a theologian/ethicist, this booklet, which could not be more timely, is also written from a breadth of professional experience and many years of combined pastoral wisdom. Its 44 useful references attest to how intensively researched the 22 pages of actual text are. But are so few pages worth having at all? Yes, definitely.
This booklet assumes its readers already know what the Bible says about gay sex. The content is a summary, in an easily readable format, of what pastoral challenges are presented by Christians with unwanted sexual attraction to the same sex (SSA) and what the latest evidence is on how sexual desire is patterned in men and women.
It also offers a framework for ministry to Christians with SSA that offers hope without hype and, most importantly, focuses on safeguards for those ministered to as well as those offering help. At a time when the very possibility of changing sexual desire is increasingly ridiculed, and those open to it are being systematically silenced or driven out of the caring professions, a booklet of this nature has never been more needed. Every evangelical in church leadership should read it and have copies for reference available.
Dr. Trevor Stammers,
past Chair of Christian Medical Fellowship
The book is available from http://www.cmf.org.uk/bookstore
