Understanding Homosexuality By Alan Shlemon Sparknotes

In the book, Understanding Homosexuality, public speaker and author Alan Shlemon equips the reader to be both thoughtful and considerate as a Christian ambassador to the lost and confused of the world, specifically regarding the sin of homosexuality. Throughout the book, he argues for why Christians cannot endorse homosexuality and why instead they must be ready to defend their beliefs. Shlemon provides solid and reliable information for the everyday Christian to approach the issue of homosexuality not only with facts and truth but also with wisdom and compassion.

Alan Shlemon has multiple reasons for his position based not only upon scriptures but also science. One of the core ideas for his refusal to except homosexuality as natural and moral

In both the Old and New Testament there are passages condemning homosexual behavior, the Mosaic Law in Leviticus 18:22 states that males should not lie with other males as they do with females. In Romans 1:26-27 Paul discusses the immoral behavior and idolatry of the people and how they were replacing God in their lives. One of the immoral behaviors mentioned is men and women exchanging their natural functions for unnatural ones, such as desires for members of the opposite sex. Shlemon presents the idea that the passage of Scripture in Romans in the best in the entire bible to show why homosexuality is wrong from a Christian perspective because it condemns lesbianism as well. The same passage also discusses the rejection of natural desires and Gods designed function. This is given even firmer ground when you use science to defend this position that you can’t be born with homosexual desires. Shlemon also refutes pro-gay arguments for the bible endorsing homosexuality in this portion of the

In addition to giving evidence disproving that homosexuals are born with their tendencies he also discusses the developmental condition that is homosexuality. A human is made up of both a physical body and a non-physical self. Shlemon makes a case as to why homosexuality is in fact an issue of gender identity. Gender identity, much like personality, is non-physical. Although everyone is born biologically either male or female, psychologically their gender identity will develop over time, primarily during early childhood through puberty. This is where the bonding with the father and mother figures affects the way they identify themselves. The most common way for young boys to go down a road where they begin to express homosexual desires is one where they have absent or emotionally distant fathers. They will naturally bond with their mothers and begin to pick up more feminine traits and habits, thus pushing males further away and making them somewhat mysterious. When they reach puberty, Shlemon argues, they will perceive males as their opposite and the male gender will feel erotic. He also outlines the path of homosexual development for females in this part of the book. Without the scientific evidence that genetics play no part in homosexual desires, this argument would lack