A Time to Embrace: Same-Gender Relationships in Religion, Law, and Politics by william stacy johnson

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

William Stacey Johnson is a gay-affirming theology professor at Princeton Theological Seminary (PCUSA) and also happens to be a lawyer. This is his look at the gay marriage issue from both the theological and legal perspective. It's an interesting read but I'd say definitely more on the academic end of things. The text is sometimes dry, in that academic sort of way. The book does contain a lot of interesting information, though.

The first part deals with the continuum of theological perspectives on gay marriage, ranging from completely unaccepting to affirming. The second part deals with the legal, and particularly judicial, aspects of gay marriage. I'm not particularly knowledgable about legal stuff so I learned a lot about the levels of scrutiny that are applied by judges. I think the legal chapters definitely were the strong part for me.

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BorisSoad

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

brilliant biblical and historical research

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ritoyuuki13

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I'm still in the middle of this book, but I want to recommend it because it tries to take all perspectives into account. I know the author, he was a professor at Princeton while I was there. I was privilidged to sit down and have dinner with him one night and talk a little about his approach. He wanted this book to be something that all christians could read and gain perspective from whether they agreed with him or not. He also doesn't just look at one area, such as what it means for the church, but wanted this to come at the issue from several angles. He used his knowledge as a lawyer, theologian and pastor to come from three angles: religion, law, and politics. It is a very timely book if you ask me. You can get it on amazon.

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Asim_OV

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This book is written for a theologian, not a lay person. As a lay person, I could not get through the first section. Had to give it up.

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lordmurgia

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

This book is very well written and covers the same-sex marriage debate from several useful perspectives that aren't often addressed in conversation with one another. As a lawyer and theologian (I believe...), Johnson does a great job with scriptural exegesis and boils the law down into distilled and easily understandable points. From a religious perspective, I found this book very refreshing. I'm not entirely on board with Johnson's recommendations for political change but this is a thoughtful and well-crafted tome. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to do some theological/legal geeking out on a hot-button issue.

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Ritinal

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

April 26,2025

I read the second edition (2012) as part of a study group at my local United Methodist Church. The writing style is straight forward and easy to follow without a deep knowledge of law. It does help if you are fairly familiar with the Bible (preferably RSV). The author breaks down the topic from a religious, legal and political POV.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in thinking through the gay marriage in America issue and how it plays out in a Christian context. Although written before the Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage in the USA (Obergefell v. Hodges) , it is still well worth reading.

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