Still Time to Care

What We Can Learn from the Church’s Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality

By: Greg Johnson

Narrated by: Tom Parks

Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

At the start of the gay rights movement in 1969, evangelicalism's leading voices cast a vision for gay people who turn to Jesus. It was C.S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer, and John Stott who were among the most respected leaders within theologically orthodox Protestantism. We see with them a positive pastoral approach toward gay people, an approach that viewed homosexuality as a fallen condition experienced by some Christians who needed care more than cure.

With the birth and rise of the ex-gay movement, the focus shifted from care to cure. As a result, there are an estimated 700,000 people alive today who underwent conversion therapy in the United States alone. Many of these patients were treated by faith-based, testimony-driven parachurch ministries centered on the ex-gay script. Despite the best of intentions, the movement ended with very troubling results. Yet the ex-gay movement died not because it had the wrong sex ethic. It died because it was founded on a practice that diminished the beauty of the gospel.

Yet even after the closure of the ex-gay umbrella organization Exodus International in 2013, the ex-gay script continues to walk about as the undead among us, pressuring people like me to say, "I used to be gay, but I'm not gay anymore. Now I'm just same-sex attracted."

For orthodox Christians, the way forward is a path back to where we were 40 years ago. It is time again to focus with our Neo-Evangelical fathers on care - not cure - for our non-straight sisters and brothers who are living lives of costly obedience to Jesus.

With warmth and humor as well as original research, Still Time to Care will chart the path forward for our churches and ministries in providing care. It will provide guidance for the gay person who hears the gospel and finds themselves smitten by the life-giving call of Jesus. Woven throughout the book will be Richard Lovelace’s 1978 call for a "double repentance" in which gay Christians repent of their homosexual sins and the church repents of its homophobia - putting on display for all the power of the gospel.

©2021 Greg Johnson (P)2021 Zondervan

Both academically engaging and empathetically spoken

This book does such a good job presenting the theology, history, culture, philosophy, and stories of the Ex-Gay movement and the people involved in it.

It may move the needle...

Overall, I thought it was very good. Well-written and probably the best arguments I have heard for so-called "Side-B Christians". I think it would challenge most readers. I assume that most readers have camped out on either a more conservative or more liberal stance.
There is a lot in the book so forgive me as I jumble it all together!
I certainly agree that the "care" model is superior to the "cure" model. As the author points out, any attempt to "cure" any sin is doomed from the outset. The historical context seemed to be quite thorough and perhaps even academic (I mean that as a complement). I was not clued in to any potential footnotes, if there were any.

I think the book was written to persuade and, for me, it moved the needle, but probably not as far as the author would have liked. I would like to think that I came away from the book having and desiring more empathy. I also appreciated the author's comments on "word policing" given the mine-field presented by our current culture. It is helpful for someone to help navigate the terms "same-sex attracted", "gay", "queer", etc. along with their common usage, favored audiences, and the negative reactions that other audiences have to their use.

Some of the terminology was too "inside baseball" for me to understand. I hope that I got the gist from the context of whatever passages I am referring to.

I thought the author's argument for the church to elevate celibacy as a good and valid lifestyle for any believer was good. I found some notes of solidarity with all kinds of single, celibate believers. I wish that he had developed that thread of solidarity a little more. He seemed to conclude that because one is not attracted to the collective opposite sex, that one would only rarely find a person of the opposite sex to whom they would feel romantic attraction. He noted some of the rare examples, but overly down-played their significance in my opinion. I think I can understand the motivation to down-play their significance in light of the "cure" movement that he refuted.

Helpful, hopeful, challenging

So helpful, informative and challenging. All Christians should read this to learn, to grow, to care for our LGBTQ siblings and to learn from their costly, faithful testimonies. In addition, this book opened my eyes to aspects of the Bible I had not considered. I have so much respect for Greg Johnson and am so thankful for this book.

Massively helpful book

This book provides an incredibly refreshing vision for how the church can maintain fidelity to the scripture while simultaneously providing genuine love, care, brotherhood, and sisterhood to LGBTQ+ people. I have already recommended this book to a dozen or so people, and will be urging many many more to read it. Excellent job! ~Brent Roam, lead pastor, One Family Church, St. Louis Missouri.