The Bond That Breaks: Will Homosexuality Split the Church?
Author DON WILLIAMS
Publisher GOSPEL LIGHT PUBLICATIONS
This little book was first published in 1977. I was glad to see that it is still available new for it has not dated in any way, but proven to be somewhat prophetic. At the time of writing the author was teaching at Fuller Theological Seminary and had been on the staff of the Hollywood Presbyterian Church. He had also been involved in counseling homosexuals and spent two years working with the National Task Force to Study Homosexuality that had been undertaken by the United Presbyterian Church of USA. He has the credentials to engage in a Biblical assessment of this crucial subject. Almost forty years ago he saw that the crisis about same sex relationships would hit the churches in a way that would challenge them to their roots as to their faithfulness to the Scriptures and to the Lord Jesus. It is a monumental challenge and this book, though brief covers the ground succinctly and clearly. There is nothing superfluous. He begins with an examination of the contemporary views regarding homosexuality as they were around fifty years ago. Actually nothing has changed in those, they are still present and vociferously so. He then moves into the main meat of the book, which is the Biblical teaching. He insists in beginning in the Creation narratives of Genesis chapters one to three and having laid a ground work there for heterosexuality as being God’s norm and the true manifestation of His Own Being Williams then moves through the various references to homosexuality as found in both Old and New Testaments. The result is a very cogent and powerful unfolding of God’s truth for human sexuality and the way aberrations emerged as a result of the entrance of sin into the world. This author does not avoid the issue that the church tends towards homophobia, something ceaselessly emphasized and exploited by its critics, but Williams shows some of the reasons for that homophobia and shows it to be unnecessary and utterly inappropriate. After looking at the Biblical evidence there is a short analysis of the positions of several theologians both those who uphold the Biblical position and those who do not. This survey leads to a chapter of conclusions that both glorify God, man as God made man to be both male and female and it upholds the integrity of the Scriptures. The book closes with a look at the document produced by the UPC of USA and attempts to answer questions that would arise from the exponents of that document. All in all, this is a little book to recommend to every pastor and leader. We need to come to the kind of clear thinking evidenced by this author on this most crucial of matters.
