I will be participating in a panel on “Faith, Sexuality, and Identity” at George Fox University Wednesday, November 7, 2012. This is part of an ongoing dialogue with OneGeorgeFox, (http://www.onegeorgefox.org/), a group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer and allied alumni of George Fox University. The official Fox statement on the movement is at www.georgefox.edu/onegeorgefox. I will be dialoguing with Nathan Meckley, Pastor of Metropolitan Community Church here in Portland. The other two panelists are Erica Tan, a licensed clinical psychologist who often collaborates on research projects with Mark Yarhouse, and Judge Darleen Ortega, current Oregon Court of Appeals judge. This is a list of resources related to the issue.

I posted a draft recording of my presentation here. The Power Point is here.

Books

Stanley J. Grenz, Welcoming but Not Affirming: An Evangelical Response to Homosexuality, Westminster John Knox Press, 1998

Mark A. Yarhouse, PsyD, Homosexuality and the Christian: A Guide for Parents, Pastors, and Friends, Bethany House Publishers, 2010

Christopher Yuan and Angela Yuan, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope, WaterBrook Press, 2011

Robert A. J. Gagnon and Dan O. Via, Homosexuality and the Bible: Two Views Fortress Press, 2009

Robert Gagnon, has an excellent summary of his major book, The Bible and Homosexual Practice, Abingdon Press, 2002 here. There is a good video presentation called, “What Does the Bible Teach About Homosexuality?” here. Matthew Vines has an hour long teaching on the Bible and homosexuality from the perspective of a Gay Christian here. Gagnon’s website is here.

Mark Yarhouse is the executive director of The Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity (http://www.sexualidentityinstitute.org/) at Regent University. The mission of ISSI is to further our understanding of sexual identity, its development and synthesis, and to be a resource to students in training and those in the community who are stakeholders in these discussions. “At the Intersection of Religious and Sexual Identities: A Christian Perspective on Homosexuality” is a helpful article here. His blog is here

Stanton Jones, Provost & Professor of Psychology, Wheaton College, and Mark Yarhouse authored Ex-Gays?: A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation IVP Academic, 2007. Jones summarizes five major failures of the Evangelical Church in approaching the contentious issues of homosexuality and sexual identity in a chapel talk at Dallas Seminary. Video and full text is here. He has an article summarizing the current state of same-sex attraction in social and biological scientific perspectives here

Rick McKinley preached an outstanding sermon on the question of homosexuality at Imago Dei here in Portland. It is here. Chris Dolson of Blackhawk Church also has an excellent sermon here.

Al Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, confessed the sins of the church in relation to homosexuality before the SBC National Convention here.

Peter Ould, http://www.peter-ould.net/ is post gay. He refuses the ontological polarities of straight, gay or bisexual or whatever desires one may have. The biblical categories are chaste or sexually immoral. With God’s help, one can be chaste and have any kind of sexual desires. Your desires do not define a person, no matter how many people say they do. Ould believes human personhood is defined by relation with God, our choice of lifestyle, and the direction of our journey not our sexual attractions. He has a great video “Post Gay – A Lecture at St John’s Nottingham, 6 Nov 2008” here. His blog on being post gay is here. It includes posts by many who come from the LGBTQ perspective.

One example of this is Wesley Hill, author of Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality Zondervan, 2010. Author’s video is here. Dr. Hill is open about his sexual attraction to men but lives a very successful life as a chaste man. He is on faculty at Trinity School for Ministry, an evangelical Anglican seminary. His faculty profile is here

“I, Josh Weed, am homosexual.” He is also LDS (Mormon), married, the father of three children, and a marriage and family therapist. In his blog he and his wife, Lolly, tell their story here. Their Nightline story is here.

Christopher Yuan http://www.christopheryuan.com is the author along with his mother of Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope, WaterBrook Multnomah Press, 2011, The book is a very personal account of their journey from atheism, his homosexuality, and her sucidiality to their conversion to Christianity and him becoming a celibate man with homosexual attractions who is a follower of Jesus.

Portland Fellowship is local ministry https://www.portlandfellowship.com/ for those who have been wounded by past hurts and taken captive by the desire to fulfill unmet needs for love and affirmation through (unwanted) same-sex desires and relationships. They have an excellent program for people struggling with unwanted homosexuality called taking back ground at https://www.reachtruth.com/

If you really want to be in an embattled minority, try being an ex-gay man! That challenge is recounted in the Op Ed in the New York times here.

Sy Rogers (http://www.syrogers.com) and Joe Dallas (http://www.joedallas.com) are two of many who have changed their life style and identity but not their attractions and are engaged in ministry to help people struggling with sexual addiction, homosexuality and other sexual/relational problems.

The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (http://narth.com) is an association of psychiatrists and psychologists who believe that if a person comes to them wanting change in sexual orientation, they are ethically committed to try for that change. Although they are not a “religious” organization, there are Christian, Jewish and Moslem resources and links on this site. NARTH’s whole site is full of resources and research. Other useful resources include http://www.desertstream.org/ and http://www.newdirection.ca/

I would be deeply grateful for other resources or suggestions.

Here is one dialogue from William Jessup University suggested by a friend. Another friend suggested this older but well thought out report from the Christian Reformed Church which is  here. There are others in the comments. The NY Times article on “My Ex-Gay Friend” about Michael Glatze is particularly intriguing.  His recent statement on the power of the gospel to heal is here.