Homosexuality Book Report

Alan Shlemon’s book, The Ambassador’s Guide to Understanding Homosexuality seeks to equip believers to defend their convictions about Biblical marriage, sexuality, and gender identity by communicating truth in a compassionate way. Shlemon realizes that truth spoken without compassion will lead to hostility while compassion spoken without truth leads to compromise. Both are essential when being applied to the LGBT issue. The Ambassador’s Guide to Understanding Homosexuality seeks to explore the issue of homosexuality from a Biblical perspective and to equip Christians to handle the issue adequately in an increasingly hostile culture. One major argument that Shlemon makes is that homosexuality is a developmental condition that is based primarily

A heterosexual male will have a gender identity that matches his biological body. In heterosexual gender identity development, the key step is that the male bonds and identifies with his father. From the ages of 1 to 5, the boy will transition his identification from his mother to his father. During the nurturing phase from 3 to 12 years old, the boy will draw his male identity from his connection to his father and maleness in general. This close connection, where his father gives him the “Three A’s” of healthy connection (attention, affection, and affirmation) is imperative as the boy develops and continues his development of male identity. As this process progresses, the boy will become more familiar with maleness and less familiar with femininity. This is the “cootie stage” where girls will seem mysterious, eerie, and foreign since they are the opposite gender. The boy will predominantly male friends and will engage in rough and tumble play. However, when the boy goes through puberty stage, he will become attracted to the mysterious of women. Their mysteriousness will now be attractive because the foreign gender is always the one that becomes sexually appealing. The “exotic” has now become the

Shlemon divides his book into 3 main sections: the “Introduction,” “Know(ing) the Truth,” and “Speak(ing) with Compassion”. In the introduction, Shlemon discusses the current cultural climate regarding homosexuality and the need for an adequate Christian response. He clarifies the difference between “Same-sex attraction,” “Homosexual,” and “Gay” and discusses the relationship between being gay and being a