More than welcome : learning to embrace gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered persons in the church /

There is no more divisive issue among Christians than the place of people with alternative sexuality. Waun (pastor, First United Methodist Church, Pittsburgh) presents a viewpoint not often heard in the current cacophony. She writes to a religious audience struggling to get beyond the sin model, which views nonheterosexuals as "evil" due to freely made choices. She opposes the illness model, which connotes a genetic problem needing to be "fixed" or "cured." Her variance model views homosexuality as a gift in the overflowing ebullience of God's created order. Presenting poignant vignettes of people from various parts of the gay/lesbian community, Waun also chronicles her own evolution from ignorance, to visceral avoidance, to active advocacy. Two cautionary notes: 1) this is not a scholarly presentation--many generalizations are not referenced; 2) it does not deal specifically with biblical interpretation of the seven passages usually marshaled as normative for Christian teaching. More scholarly, but accessible, presentations of the biblical perspective can be found in Daniel A. Helminiak's What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality (1994) and Victor Paul Furnish's The Moral Teaching of Paul (CH, Oct'79, 2d ed, 1985). Waun, however, provides an eloquent alternative to traditional literature that calls for a "conversion" from alternative lifestyles. General readers; undergraduates. S. A. Sanders; Southeastern Louisiana University