Maybe you think that the Bible opposes same-sex sexual relationships. Where within the Bible would you start to clarify your view? Maybe you doubt that the Bible opposes same-sex sexual relationships. Where within the Bible would you start to construct an argument for affirmation? Or perhaps you’re unsure whether the Bible affirms or opposes same-sex sexual relationships. Where within the Bible would you start to inquire concerning the matter?
Whichever position you may end up in, Rebecca McLaughlin’s latest book will point you to exactly the place within the Bible where you should begin—with the gospel and Jesus. More about that in a bit.
The book, Does the Bible Affirm Same-Sex Sexual Relationships? Examining 10 Claims about Scripture and Sexuality, brings together two recent trends of books by evangelical writers.
One trend is believers who experience same-sex sexual attraction, or self-identify as “gay,” writing first-person accounts about their journeys of religion and sexuality. This trend includes: Wesley Hill’s Washed and Waiting (2010); Christopher Yuan’s Out of a Far Country (2011); Rosaria Butterfield’s The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert (2012); Gregory Coles’s Single, Gay, Christian (2017); Jackie Hill Perry’s Gay Girl, Good God (2018); David Bennett’s A War of Loves (2018); and Rachel Gilson’s Born Again This Way (2020).
These writers, each in their very own style, recount their calling to be followers of Jesus and consider the way to live and love faithfully and fruitfully in accordance with the gospel. Together, they set forth a spiritual vision of holiness and righteousness that’s relevant for each believer and the entire church.
Another trend is scholars and pastors writing popular-level books in an apologetic mode about marriage and sexuality. This trend includes: Sean McDowell and John Stonestreet’s Same-Sex Marriage (2014), Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? (2015), Beth Felker Jones’s Faithful (2015), Todd Wilson’s Mere Sexuality (2017), and Preston Sprinkle’s Does the Bible Support Same-Sex Marriage? (2023).
These writers, each with their very own approach, answer lots of the principal arguments marshaled in support of an affirming position on same-sex sexual relationships. Together, they elaborate and defend a theological vision of marriage and sexuality that’s true to Scripture and good for the entire church.
Addressing arguments
McLaughlin writes on the confluence of those two trends. Alongside the stories of several friends, she relates vignettes from her personal story of religion and sexuality as a believer who experiences same-sex attraction. Along the best way, she weaves these stories with critical examination of claims commonly made in support of same-sex relationships.
In this fashion, McLaughlin’s approach is comparable to that taken by Ed Shaw in his excellent book, Same-Sex Attraction and the Church (2015). By the identical token, McLaughlin’s book is about against yet one more recent trend of books by evangelical writers: those that appeal to their experiences of same-sex attraction to motivate an affirmative case for same-sex relationships. This trend includes Matthew Vines’s God and the Gay Christian (2014) and Karen Keen’s Scripture, Ethics, and the Possibility of Same-Sex Relationships (2018), whose claims and arguments McLaughlin addresses repeatedly inside her own book.
McLaughlin has composed her short book in ten chapters, each running about ten pages and addressing one claim commonly made in support of same-sex sexual relationships. Each chapter follows the identical format: McLaughlin introduces the chapter with a story that illustrates how and why the claim in query matters to the strange lives of real people; she then fastidiously lays out the affirming argument, considers reasons one might think it argument, and explains why she thinks the argument falls short; and at last, she concludes the chapter by tying the theological argument back to the private story. I’ll elaborate on the opening and shutting chapters, which bracket the book and anchor her overall argument.
The first claim addressed is that Christians should just concentrate on the gospel of God’s love. The assumption behind the claim is that while the gospel is primary for the church, Christians should regard marriage and sexuality as a secondary issue on which they will “comply with disagree.”
McLaughlin affirms the claim but disputes the belief. As she writes, “reasonably than being a distraction from the gospel, God’s design for Christian marriage is a pointer to the gospel.” She recounts the Bible’s grand story of God’s love, from God’s design of human marriage in creation (Gen. 1–2) to God’s reunion with humankind in latest creation (Rev. 21–22). God’s original design of marriage—man and woman joined into “one flesh”—is each a prototype for human marriage and an image of God’s covenant: The prophets and apostles depict God because the bridegroom of Israel and Jesus because the bridegroom of the church.
Marriage, ultimately, points to God’s love in Jesus, and male-female difference is crucial to marriage as a model of Christ and the church. Accordingly, McLaughlin argues, we must take seriously the biblical prohibitions of sexual relationships outside male-female marriage. As a result, we cannot put aside the query of same-sex relationships as a secondary issue.
The last claim the book addresses is that a God of affection can’t be against loving relationships. The assumption behind the claim is that because God is love and “love is love,” God would affirm all varieties of loving relationships—and thus, so should the church.
Again, McLaughlin affirms the claim but disputes the belief: “The counterpoint to any type of sexual immorality is love. Conversely, any relationship founded on sexual immorality falls wanting love.” She cites Jesus, Paul, and John, all of whom clearly and consistently say yes to like in marriage and mandate love of fellow believers, neighbors, and even enemies. Yet with equal clarity and consistency, they are saying no to sexual immorality in all its variety, including adultery, promiscuity, and same-sex intercourse.
Accordingly, McLaughlin argues, the church should affirm love between brothers and sisters throughout the Christian family, including believers giving and receiving love in same-sex friendships—but affirm sexual love only inside male-female marriage.
In the chapters between, McLaughlin addresses several familiar claims regarding the Bible and same-sex relationships. These include claims about biblical narratives involving same-sex intercourse (Gen. 19), biblical prohibitions of same-sex intercourse (Lev. 18, 20; Rom. 1), biblical terms referring to same-sex intercourse (1 Cor. 6; 1 Tim. 1), and the biblical trajectories concerning slavery and sexuality.
Too many Christians arguing from either side treat such claims, and the related Bible texts, because the place to begin the controversy and clinch the argument. McLaughlin’s approach puts such claims of their proper place: While essential to deal with, they shouldn’t be given the primary or last word. Such claims are seen in right perspective when framed throughout the biblical story of salvation and the biblical picture of marriage woven throughout that story.
A superb place to start
The book’s major strength is that McLaughlin concludes every chapter by bringing the query, and the reader, back to Jesus. She reminds us repeatedly how the Bible affirms, centrally, that God’s love for us in Jesus is enough for our salvation and abundant life, now and for eternity. Whether we’re married or single, our heart’s deepest desire will likely be fully and at last satisfied in our relationship to Jesus.
The book isn’t without shortcomings, nonetheless. Its major weakness, for my part, is that McLaughlin mentions but doesn’t emphasize procreation in presenting the biblical picture of marriage. This seems an obvious deficiency: Genesis explicitly testifies to God’s procreative purpose in marriage (1:28); Jesus implicitly affirms this purpose in addition to the male-female type of marriage (Matt. 22:23–33; Luke 20:27–40); and the prophets employ procreative imagery within the marital image of God’s covenant (see Ezek. 16).
Granted, emphasizing procreation inevitably prompts sensitive pastoral questions (What about infertility? Contraception? Reproductive technologies?) that can not be adequately addressed in a brief book. Yet we must always not avoid discussing the procreative purpose of marriage when debating the query of same-sex relationships for that reason: The increasing acceptance of intentionally nonprocreative marriage amongst Christians has contributed significantly to shifting opinion throughout the church toward affirming same-sex relationships.
Still, McLaughlin’s book is commendable, not just for her capable defense of biblical teaching but additionally for her winsome presentation of that defense. She acknowledges the truths she finds in affirming arguments while avoiding fallacious arguments to make her own case. She refuses to either overstate arguments that favor her own view or to qualify conclusions that she knows will likely be unpopular with some readers.
Throughout the book, she critiques opposing viewpoints with an irenic tone, showing care and charity for authors with whom she disagrees and for readers who might disagree together with her. She respects her readers as reasoners, appealing to experience to preface her examination of every claim but to not drive her arguments or determine her conclusions.
McLaughlin writes in an accessible style that makes this book suitable for a broad range of readers. It would work well for small groups or Sunday school classes, or in highschool, college, and seminary classrooms as a complement to primary course texts.
Regardless of your starting position on questions of sexuality, McLaughlin’s book is place to start examining it in light of Scripture. Every believer and seeker will find something to learn.
Darrin W. Snyder Belousek is the writer of Marriage, Scripture, and the Church: Theological Discernment on the Question of Same-Sex Union.
