With plenty of time on my hands, I began reading God’s Word and disclosed my past to a prison chaplain. After several years of heartache, I landed in federal prison for drug-dealing and found a Bible in a trashcan. They prayed for a miracle-not that I’d become straight but that I’d surrender my life to Christ. I, however, headed in the opposite direction.

I wasn’t raised in a Christian home, though my parents became believers after I came out in dental school. My journey couldn’t have been more different from Lee’s. But what does “more loving” mean? If homosexual sex and same-gender romantic relationships are sinful, then wouldn’t the most loving thing be to help people not sin in this way? Or, if God blesses homosexual unions, then shouldn’t we affirm these unions also? Different Journey I agree with Lee that vitriol and venom often accompany the discourse from both sides and that believers must be more loving. how much more should we Christians-all sinners ourselves-treat ?” Yet, Lee points out, Jesus spent time with outcasts and sinners. Evangelicals are often perceived as being against gay people and quick to lecture about how they’re living in sin. Lee explains the church has failed in its responsibility to extend Christ’s love to gays and lesbians. One side shouts, “More truth” the other side, “More love.” Is there a solution to this impasse? For Lee, the answer is more love. On the one side are Christians who espouse the traditional view of sexuality, and on the other are Christians who believe homosexual sex is not inherently sinful. The premise of Torn is that the gays-vs.-Christians cultural debate is tearing apart the church not externally, but internally. Lee identifies as an evangelical who believes the gospel, which is “a personal relationship with Jesus and salvation through his death and resurrection.” Currently, he’s the founder and executive director of a nonprofit organization called The Gay Christian Network. In Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate, Justin Lee recounts his journey from being raised in a loving, two-parent, Southern Baptist home where he was convinced that the Bible clearly condemned homosexual sex, to now believing that God blesses same-sex unions.

Torn by Justin Lee