Pride Month Reading
Pride Month Reading
By: Brittany Shields
June is now Pride Month. A month set aside to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community.
This year I wanted to put together a reading list for this month.
I realize this will be a controversial post. If you follow my reviews you probably already know that my views on sexuality, gender, and marriage are based on the Bible and are at odds with the culture at large.
My goal in writing this post is not to be ‘anti-gay’ or ‘homophobic’ as I’m sure many may label me. I’m not even sure what those words mean.
To be clear: I believe all people are created in the image of God and loved unconditionally by their Creator. I believe all people are worthy of dignity and respect. I also believe people are more than their sexuality or their gender and that their identity should not be reduced to those labels.
I hope the Holy Spirit continues to help me interact with people and discuss these topics with grace and compassion and humility. I don’t write as someone who has it all together. I don’t write as a sinless person who does no wrong. I battle my own sins and struggles and I need God’s grace and salvation just as much as the next person.
My hope in providing this list of books is to give people resources that are not promoted (or at least positively) in the media. Resources that provide, possibly new, insights on what the Bible actually teaches about gender, sexuality, and marriage.
These books do not demonize people but reiterate the value of human life. However, they do discuss countercultural ideas and expose the dangers of a lot of cultural ‘givens’ that many people may not agree with.
My heart is ultimately for people to find Jesus. Jesus changes lives. Jesus is the source of all hope, life, love, joy, peace, and freedom.
The rainbow, though taken now to represent the LGBTQIA+ community, is not a symbol of sexual freedom. It represents the promises of God.
Genesis 9:16 says, “When the bow is in the clouds, I [God] will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
The rainbow reminds us that God is a God of second-chances. He placed the first rainbow after the mighty flood that killed all of mankind with the exception of Noah and his family. It was judgment on every manner of sin, including sexual sin. But God promised he would never flood the earth like that again.
The true rainbow is a message of grace. Of freedom from sin, not to sin.
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
None of us deserves the grace God gives us. None of us is righteous. (Romans 3:10).
It’s amazing that even while we were enemies of God, Christ still died for us. And he calls us now to put off our old self that is enslaved to the desires of the flesh and to become renewed by the power of the Holy Spirit. Renewed to be free from the chains of our sin and to pursue the holiness and purity of Christ.
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
There is a wide variety of books here, some secular, probably most are faith-based. Read one, a few, or read all. I think you’ll come to find that the heart of God is not anti-people— he created each of us purposefully in love. He is anti-sin, but people are more than their sin because their sins have been paid for on the cross where Christ died. God is in the business of redemption and renewal. And I am so thankful for these truths.
I don’t deserve his love, but he gives it to me anyway and all I can do is thank him, praise him, and share the good news with others!
*Just a sidenote: I was not paid or asked to promote any of these books on this post. These are all my personal recommendations, however, I am an Amazon affiliate so my purchase links below are associated with that.
What God Has to Say about Our Bodies: How the Gospel Is Good News for Our Physical Selves by Sam Allberry
“Because we live in a created world, our bodies are a gift. But because we live in a fallen world, they might not be the gift we would have wanted.”
Sam Allberry has written this fantastic book sharing with us what God says about our bodies, helping us understand this necessary but at times uncomfortable thing. It is thoughtful, gospel-oriented and very pertinent to today.
Our bodies matter and what we do with our bodies matters.
In this book Allberry, who is same-sex attracted, talks about how our bodies were created, how they are broken, and how they will be redeemed.
Is God Anti-Gay?: And Other Questions about Jesus, the Bible, and Same-Sex Sexuality by Sam Allberry
“When an idol fails you, the real culprit turns out to be the person who has urged you to worship it— not the person who has tried to take it away.”
When someone asks this question, I believe at the heart of their question is this: Is God against LGBTQ people?
In short, the answer to that is No.
That’s the gospel message. We are all sinners and we all need a Savior. God redeems us and calls us out of our sin and offers us freedom and life. And this invitation is extended in love to every person regardless of their sins. God is for us, not against us. Yet this surrender to God requires us to put on a new self that is defined and designed by Him.
This is a very short (100 pages) and easy to read book that addresses all the most common questions like: Can we just pick and choose Levitical laws to follow? Aren’t same-sex relationships fine as along as they’re committed and faithful? and more.
Irreversible Damage: Teenage Girls and the Transgender Crazy by Abigail Shrier
There was a lot of controversy around this book when it first hit the shelves. Before you make any judgements on this book, I’ll clarify: this book is not religiously motivated (it’s secular), it is not anti-trans, and it is not hateful.
“Gender dysphoria—formerly known as “gender identity disorder”—is characterized by a severe and persistent discomfort in one’s biological sex. It typically begins in early childhood—ages two to four—though it may grow more severe in adolescence. But in most cases—nearly 70 percent—childhood gender dysphoria resolves. Historically, it afflicted a tiny sliver of the population (roughly .01 percent) and almost exclusively boys... Before 2012, in fact, there was no scientific literature on girls ages 11-21 ever having developed gender dysphoria at all.”
Abigail Shrier, writer for the WSJ, looked at this information, saw the spike in transgender adolescent girls and decided it was worth investigating. This book is the result of her search, her questions, and her interviews.
I found this book to be intelligent, enlightening, respectful but blunt, courageous, and absolutely imperative to be part of the conversation. Though I do not agree with everything Shrier says, I am thankful for the dogged work she did to put this together.
Born Again This Way: Coming Out, Coming to Faith, and What Comes Next by Rachel Gilson
“Our culture sings that we’re ‘born this way,’ as if that settles the matter. But I’m born again.”
“I want to show you that Jesus is beautiful, powerful, and worthy right at the heart of this conversation, right at the heart of our sexuality. He is not scared or unsettled by anything, and if we are rooted in him, we can be people of power and love and self-control.”
This is the tender and transparent story of Rachel Gilson’s journey from living a lesbian lifestyle, to meeting Jesus and being confronted with the uncomfortable reality of the Bible, and how she came to believe that God and his word are more important than her feelings.
One point she emphasizes is that marriage and sexual relationships are not the peak of human fulfillment and that the church has perhaps put marriage on a pedestal.
I thought this was a very thoughtful, intelligent, compassionate book full of vulnerability, authenticity, truth, and encouragement. And it’s for all people who struggle with sinful desires— which is all of us. God makes us new.
What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? by Kevin DeYoung
"Is homosexual activity a sin that must be repented of, forsaken, and forgiven, or, given the right context and commitment, can we consider same-sex sexual intimacy a blessing worth celebrating and solemnizing?"
That is the question DeYoung seeks to answer in this great resource.
The first part of the book looks at both Old Testament and New Testament passages and what they mean. The second part walks through all of the common objections and questions.
Well-researched throughout, taking into account the original language—what the words mean and how else they are used in Scripture— this book is an excellent, concise, intelligent, and grace-filled discussion on a highly relevant and controversial topic.
“The God we worship is indeed a God of love. Which does not, according to any verse in the Bible, make sexual sin acceptable. But it does, by the witness of a thousand verses all over the Bible, make every one of our sexual sins changeable, redeemable, and wondrously forgivable.”
This is one I’ve read or come back to multiple times and if you’re really wondering what the Bible passages say about everything, I would definitely read this one.
Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything about Race, Gender, and Identity— and Why This Harms Everybody
By: Helen Pluckrose & James Lindsay
“This book ultimately seeks to present a philosophically liberal critique of Social Justice scholarship and activism and argues that this scholarship-activism does not further social justice and equality aims.”
This secular book is not entirely directed at gender, but a good portion of it is as it addresses Queer Theory and Gender Studies as a being a facet of Critical Theory. This book looks at where the postmodern ideas and beliefs we hear today associated with the LGBTQ+ conversation originated.
It discusses blurred boundaries, the power of language, cultural relativism, and the loss of the individual and the universal as four major themes.
It exposes the rejection of objective truth and the embrace of knowledge as a construct and power hierarchies deciding what and how things can be known.
Very insightful and eye-opening.
Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield
“The gospel message hurts our pride in life-giving ways, and for that I praise God.”
Five Lies is not an op-ed. Fully based on Scripture, Rosaria’s bold, truth-telling book exposes the ways the church has compromised truth, with good intent or not, and calls us as Christians back to that truth— the full truth— even if it goes against our feelings and what the culture has deemed ‘nice’.
Rosaria was a lesbian and feminist in academia until she was challenged in her beliefs and became a Christian. She is honest and shares about her beliefs before and what led to her changing them.
This was a refreshing read for me because she doesn’t tip toe around the subject. She confronts it head on. She tells the truths everyone’s afraid to commit to. She forces us to recognize that a ‘Christian’ label does not automatically make something true and we need to be diligent in the ideologies we espouse to make sure they align with the whole of Scripture.
This is an essential read on the topic.
A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption by Becket Cook
“It wasn’t about simply changing my mind, but about changing my mind and heart. I can’t explain all the mechanics of this radical transformation. I just know that no one can be in the very presence of the living God and remain the same.”
Becket Cook was living his dream life as a gay man running in the elite circles of Hollywood doing set design.
Until he encountered God and the truths of the Bible he had previously despised became clear to him.
He shares his story in this memoir-style book.
Some of the main points he hits are how sexuality cannot be our identity and how it is worth it to give up anything we’ve made into an idol— even if it feels like the most important part of ourselves— because Jesus is all we need.
He also has a chapter on how Christians can better relate to and talk with loved ones or others in the church who experience same-sex attraction.
Becket has been there, and now he has changed. He is a new creation in Christ; the old is gone, the new has come!
Raising Confident Kids in a Confusing World: A Parent’s Guide to Grounding Identity in Christ by Ed Drew
“It’s important to have conversations about your kids’ bodies, and to be careful how you speak about your own body, and to consider what messages you send. Because of the fall, no body is perfect. We honor God’s handiwork when we enjoy ours, look after it and use it as he intends, avoiding comparison with others.”
This book was written to help parents talk about identity with their kids. So much of the conversation of gender and sexuality is attached so intimately with identity by the culture.
It is important for us as parents to teach our kids that our identity is not grounded there but as a child of God, forgiven and loved and called to image him and his design for the world.
“Our children are being asked to start from a blank sheet of paper. Who are you? Who do you want to be? What is your gender? What is your sexuality? Where is your value?… Create your own path. Follow your heart. Be the person you want to be. Stand up and declare, without apology, ‘This is me.’”
What is presented as freedom is really a burden. Freedom is found in Christ not in our own ability to fashion a worthy and acceptable identity for ourselves.
Live Your Truth (and Other Lies): Exposing Popular Deceptions That Make Us Anxious, Exhausted, and Self-Obsessed by Alisa Childers
“Will you choose to stand on the unchanging truth of the God-breathed Scriptures, or will you choose whatever trendy catchphrase people are currently obsessed with?”
With boldness and humor, Childers tackles in this book is exposing phrases like ‘Live Your Truth,’ ‘Authenticity is Everything,’ ‘You Shouldn’t Judge,’ and ‘Loving is Agreeing,’ and other ideas that are marketed as positive and life-changing and showing how they actually promote the worship of self instead of God.
Childers takes each of these lies and sheds the light of Scripture on the truth behind the lie. And in case you need this reminder, the truth is not discouraging. The truth actually frees us from having to be our own saviors, our own constant source of strength and sufficiency. The truth actually offers rest, hope, and authenticity and love as God intended.
“Recognizing who we are in Christ is the ultimate self-care because the Word of God doesn’t reinvent itself along with a constantly changing culture.”
Mama Bear Apologetics Guide to Sexuality: Empowering Your Kids to Understand & Live Out God’s Design by Hillary Morgan Ferrer
This is similar to Raising Confident Kids (above) but more specific and expanded.
“Our kids are being desensitized, song by song, cartoon by cartoon, numbed to the point where immorality feels like no big deal. We want them to be able to dispense with the false ideas about sexuality that our culture sends their way.”
Within the umbrella of ‘sexuality’ she covers things like: premarital sex, pornography, same-sex attraction, transgenderism, sex positivity, purity culture, the Genderbread Person curriculum taught in schools, and ultimately what God’s design is for sex and sexuality.
“There are a lot of crosses to bear… No matter how unfair they are, no matter how inborn the desire is, they do not negate Jesus’s command to carry the cross of Christ.”
This is an excellent resource for parents and one I would recommend everyone owning and using as a reference.
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution
By: Carl R. Trueman
Regardless of your views on how sexual identity should take form, I still believe this book, though long and academic, is worth your time because it helps us identify areas of our thinking that are being influenced historically, culturally, emotionally, psychologically, and politically.
I'd say one of the main points of the book is this: "The rise of the sexual revolution was predicated on fundamental changes in how the self is understood. The self must first be psychologized; psychology must then be sexualized; and sex must be politicized." And this is the path his book takes, following figures such as Charles Taylor, Paul Rieff, Marx, Rousseau, Freud, Nietzsche, Charles Darwin etc.
It follows: The uninfluenced self is inherently good and society is what corrupts a person or impedes their ability to be their pure selves (driven by feelings) by imposing their traditions, ethics, or the like. Sexual gratification and fulfillment is central to pleasure and what it means to be human. Religious constructs that limit sexual freedom cause repression of people's true identities. The traditional family unit is oppressive. Oppression is less about economics and legal standing and more about psychological victimhood- hate speech, microaggressions, etc which is more subjective.
Even though Trueman is a Christian, this book is not a study in theology on the issue and isn't even necessarily a persuasion against homosexuality or transgenderism. Per the title, it's tracing the rise and acceptance of how we view the self which directly affects the role of 'sexual identity' within that construct.
Lots of interesting connections and points in this book. If you choose to read it, I would recommend the Kindle version so you can easily look up definitions of words!
The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims by Rebecca McLaughlin
We’ve all seen the multi-colored signs posted in people’s yards or hung in windows that proclaim (in some form):
In this house we believe that:
Black Lives Matter
Love is Love
Women’s Rights Are Human Rights
We Are All Immigrants
Diversity Makes Us Stronger
Former lesbian, Rebecca McLaughlin’s main premise in this book is to emphasize that the very concept of “human rights” is derived from Christianity through its biblical teachings. With every chapter she links the concepts of worth, equality, diversity, family, love, and identity to Scripture and the words of Jesus and his apostles. She posits: “Without Christian beliefs about humanity, the yard sign’s claims aren’t worth the cardboard on which they are written.”
This is a very short book and addresses more than gender or sexuality, but three of the six chapters are relevant.
“The idea that minorities should be protected, not oppressed, came to us from Christianity… when a poor man from a historically oppressed racial and religious group claimed to be God in human flesh, commanded love for society’s most vulnerable and died a slave’s death on a Roman cross, he made the poor, oppressed, and victimized forever central to God’s moral plan.”
Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been by Jackie Hill Perry
“I refused to give in to the convenient misery of being ambiguous about the truth.”
If you want to see how God can reach you even when you aren’t looking for him, read this. If you want to know why you love Jesus but still struggle with sinful desires and temptations, read this. If you don’t know who you are and what the world is telling you doesn’t seem satisfying, read this.
This book is the poetic story of Jackie Hill Perry’s journey- her real-life struggle with homosexuality and how she found her true identity- like we all must do.
She says, “Being born human meant that I have the capacity for affection and logic. Begin born sinful meant both were inherently broken. The unnamed attraction I felt at an elemental level only highlighted how greedy sin can be. Desires exist because God gave them to us. But homosexual desires exist because sin does. Loving him, as we were created to do, involves both the will and the affections, but sin steals this love God placed in us for himself and tells it to go elsewhere. Same-sex desires are actual. Though born of sin, they aren’t an imaginary feeling… But the actuality of the affection doesn’t make them morally justifiable. It is the mind, when conformed to the image of sin, that moves us to call evil good simply because it feels good to us.”
I realize that this list of books does not offer a wide variety of perspectives on this topic. This was intentional. The stories and beliefs that affirm the LGBTQ+ lifestyle are numerous, easily accessible, and promoted by the media and culture at large. I wanted to provide books that support why I believe what I do.
The only book that I’ve read and reviewed that holds a differing perspective is listed below. If you only read one book from this list, I wouldn’t recommend it be this one— I would choose one from above. But nonetheless I thought I would include this one since I’ve reviewed it and I’ve seen it recommended on several other books’ reviews on Goodreads. My full review of it discusses my thoughts and differing viewpoints if you’re interested.
Torn: Rescuing the Gospel from the Gays-vs.-Christians Debate by Justin Lee
I read this book back in 2017. It was one of the first books I read on this topic and was subsequently inspired to read some more and find answers to the questions this book raised for me.
I found the answers in the books listed above.
Even though I disagreed with the way Justin Lee interpreted the Bible, it was still good for me to read his story and how the church could have treated him better.
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