The question of the millennium

Matthias Media recently published a book by Steve Morrison called Born This Way, addressing the issue of same-sex attraction by examining both the scientific studies and what God says in the Word. After reading the book, I felt the need to write a short post to encourage others to read it too (no, I wasn’t asked by Matthias to do so!). I am not writing a book review, but instead, offering a reason and rationale for why every Christian should read this book.

Looking at the history of the church since Christ, it is easy to see the major issues that the church has had to tackle. In the first millennium, the church had to deal with the question “Who is Jesus?” They were working to determine whether or not Jesus was the Son of God who became the son of Mary, or if he was Jesus the son of Mary who became the Son of God. This issue of Christology was tackled by many faithful theologians, who unpacked the doctrine of the incarnation and Trinity, and who helped us to understand the nature of Jesus—Son of God, Son of Man, the second person of the Trinity.

In the second millennium, the big question shifted to “How is man reconciled to God?” and was then broken down into questions such as: How is a person justified? What is the role of the church in mediating sin? What is the balance between faith and works? Once again, faithful theologians helped us understand the nature of sin, the glorious work of redemption, and the nature of how one is justified by faith.

I believe that, in this third millennium, the question has shifted once again. I believe that the question that the church is in the early stages of answering is “What does it mean to be human?” In other words, we have moved from Christology to soteriology to anthropology. Before us today are questions pertaining to human sexuality, gender roles, social justice, global poverty, and more. The church must call upon its faithful theologians to rise up once again to lead us into biblical conversations about creation, men and women’s roles, marriage, and social equality. It is time to unpack the issues so that we can offer the world an understanding of humanity that reflects the nature of man that God revealed in the Scriptures.

Born This Way is a book that offers a look at the issue of same-sex attraction from a biblical foundation, and delivers more than just an emotional polemic of a conservative position. Instead, it shows how to use God’s word to us to think through this issue, on both the spiritual and scientific plane, distinctly as Christians. We must read this book, not only to hear Steve’s conclusion, but also to learn how to engage with the questions that our generation is asking.

Steve has done us a service in showing how the different streams of an argument can be dealt with in a manner of intellectual honesty and Scriptural fidelity. For this reason, Born This Way is a must-read for the church.

I am firmly convinced that the body of Christ should take the time to open this book, listen to the argument, observe how it is unpacked, witness the shepherd’s heart, and find comfort in the clear biblical conclusions that are drawn. This is not just a great addition to the conversation concerning human sexuality, but also a wonderful model of how we are to approach the questions of our millennium.