Press Release

New Book Examines 'Cultural and Faith Identity Crisis' in Gay Rights-Church Collision

A string of youth suicides attributed to anti-gay bullying. State judicial clashes over same-sex parental rights. Church denominations torn asunder over ordination of gay clergy and the definition of marriage. A social overhaul of our armed forces. These are but some of the headlines that establish the gay rights movement as an escalating cultural phenomenon. Do we know who we are as a people anymore? Are we beyond caring?

These vexing questions led Debbie Thurman, veteran author and founder of Sheer Faith Ministries, to research and write a just-published book, Post-Gay? Post-Christian?: Anatomy of a Cultural and Faith Identity Crisis. The book, Thurman's seventh, gains valuable insight from her own journey through the confusing and painful valley of same-sex attraction, an identity prison she did not escape from until midlife.

"My status as someone who is often referred to as "ex-gay" or "post-gay" represents yet another cultural and religious flashpoint," says Thurman. "Are we frauds, unexplained anomalies or simply the picture of what God's grace can look like in a life transformed by faith?"

The term post-gay has dual meaning, Thurman points out. "Secularists have used it to imply that society -- even the Church to an extent -- is moving beyond its discomfort with homosexuality as an unnatural or sinful phenomenon. Those who are on a journey toward transformed sexual identities, almost always a spiritual pilgrimage, also use it to describe themselves."

Thurman believes Christendom has been assimilated in part by a postmodern, gay-affirming culture that is based in scriptural half-truths and secular philosophies. Yet she also knows the Church is guilty of overreacting to homosexuality, as well as marginalizing those prodigals who long to seek reconciliation. Too many Christians, she says, are conflicted over how to respond to avowed gays or confused strugglers with both love and truth, grace and redemption.

"This conundrum cannot be ignored. It is a genuine crisis," Thurman says. "Christians helped create a culture of sexual permissiveness and tolerance that gave rise to an army of gay-rights activists and sympathizers, many of whom see homosexuality as a benign token of God-ordained diversity and its expression as a human right largely denied them."

Is the Church on a collision course with irrelevancy because it is too widely perceived today as rigid, hateful and hypocritical? "Jesus Christ's Church will never be irrelevant," Thurman says. "This is an opportunity for us to take inventory of our message and methods and move forward into the Third Millennium with a renewed mission."

The author's ministry website (www.debbiethurman.com) contains a list of 10 dos and don'ts for those who are willing to take the lessons of the book into their churches and the world. Decidedly evangelical, Thurman asks readers to "pray without ceasing" and to "graciously stand on the authority of all Scripture" as they confront this gay-Christian identity crisis.

Post-Gay? Post-Christian? retails for $14.99. For additional information, interview/speaking requests or a full media kit, visit www.cedarhousepublishers.com (Sheer Faith's publishing imprint), e-mail debbie@cedarhousepublishers.com or call (434) 929-8002.