Respectful LGBT Conversations

In stark contrast to the shrill and nasty interactions among many Christians regarding contentious LGBT issues, this book models a redemptive mode of engagement by featuring respectful conversations among deeply committed Christians who hold to diverging traditional and non-traditional views. The foundational values guiding these conversations are the quest for truth, giving the gift of love to all brothers and sisters in Christ, and modeling Christian unity. Emerging from these conversations are practical steps for a way forward that include creating safe spaces for ongoing conversation and practicing courageous Christian leadership. Based on case studies for a Christian university and two Christian churches, this book provides helpful advice for navigating conflict within churches, Christian denominations, and Christian educational institutions.

""Through several different channels, Harold Heie has worked very hard at getting Christian believers to talk to each other directly, even on sensitive issues like the subject of this book. As someone who leans strongly toward traditional views on sexuality and marriage, I find myself leaning even more strongly toward efforts at encouraging charity, mutual comprehension, and respect for the extraordinary diversity within the body of Christ. This book should be appreciated by all who share a commitment to those ideals.""
--Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame

""Harold Heie has an excellent track record as a convener of conversations on vexing topics--genuine conversations, in which the participants listen carefully and engage one another. Are their differences magically resolved? Not at all. But such conversations serve as a model for the 'confident pluralism,' as John Inazu calls it, to which we should aspire. We should all be grateful to Heie and the conversation-partners who contributed to this volume. May their tribe increase.""
--John Wilson, Christianity Today

""Harold Heie is one of the few people in evangelical Christianity who could manage what he will be able to do in this book--host and synthesize a thoughtful conversation about LGBT issues among evangelicals. . . . His track record is impeccable.""
--David Gushee, Mercer University

Harold Heie is a senior fellow at The Colossian Forum. His website, www.respectfulconversation.net, is devoted to encouraging and modeling respectful conversations concerning contentious issues about which Christians have strong disagreements. His previous books modeling respectful conversation are Evangelicals on Public Policy Issues: Sustaining a Respectful Political Conversation, and A Future for American Evangelicalism: Commitment, Openness, and Conversation.