In Messy Grace: How a
Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others without Sacrificing Conviction
Kaltenbach shares his experiences of growing up attending Lesbian parties, Gay
Pride parades, and watching a friend from one of his mother’s parties die from
AIDS. With two parents who were antagonistic towards Christianity, the story of
how the author came to Christ and eventually became a pastor is an incredible
lesson in why we should learn to love like Jesus did and to share the good news
with others even when it seems that it might be a waste of time. Kaltenbach is
fairly candid about the fact that he went to that first bible study, not
because of any real desire to learn about Jesus, but, as so often seems to
happen, to prove that Christianity was not in his future.
Along
the way something happened that changed his mind and his heart, and in the
process he learned several lessons, some of which he shares in this book.
Particularly
heart-breaking are the accounts of how he and his mother and her partner were
treated by Christians. Love was certainly not a factor in some of those
interactions. When he told the story of how after his mother visited the church
where he was pastoring and the following Sunday he was met by the elders with
the admonition that he was never to bring “that kind of people” to the church
again, I wanted to cry.
This is Kaltenbach’s story of
growing up immersed in the LGBT community, and it’s the story of his
conversion, but it’s also a text book of how the church should be responding to
the cultural shift over the past 60 years, and especially in light of the
recent Supreme Court decision regarding Same Sex Marriage as opposed to the
Biblical definition of marriage as something that happens between a man and a
woman.
Nor is this a suggestion that we
just open our arms to everyone and love them without sharing biblical
principles. Kaltenbach offers several suggestions grounded in scripture for why
we should love sinners (and we’re all sinners, regardless of which community we
belong to) but like Jesus we should encourage them to repent and leave the life
of sin behind. He presents some of the justifications that he has heard
concerning the relationship between the Bible and LGBT activity, and shares how
he has responded.
It must
have been cathartic for the author to write this book detailing his personal journey,
but it is also a wake-up call for the church. Christians need to respond in
love to changing cultural values rather than react in hate, disgust and loathing.
Kaltenbach offers a way to reach out in love (after all, that member of the LGBT
community is still a member of your family, a friend, someone you love) without
compromising biblical standards.
I received a review copy of this book from the publisher in
exchange for the review.
I highly recommend it. 5/5
No comments:
Post a Comment