Product Description

101 Probing Questions...101 Compassionate and Scriptural Answers

from Focus on the Family’s Mike Haley

Almost daily we hear news reports that confirm the acceptance of homosexuality in our culture.  Homosexuals are adopting children, appearing as characters on television programs, taking vacations catering to an exclusively gay clientele, and  even seeking the right to “marry” their partners.  But is this acceptance healthy for society? 

Few topics can raise so many questions so quickly. And for many readers, those questions hit close to home as they learn of the homosexuality of a loved one or close friend. 

Here are the answers to the most often asked questions about homosexuality, fielded by an expert on the subject...and a former homosexual himself.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #170037 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

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Customer Reviews

If you want to ignore all the sociological data...
While no one has yet proven where homosexuality comes from (just as no one has proven where heterosexuality comes from) the normal approach for a reference book such as this would be to study the facts and data and THEN form an opinion as did the American Psychological Association when they declassified homosexuality as a disorder back in the 1970's. This is one of those books that is based around a particular conservative religious view and then plays with all the facts in order to prove the authors thesis.

Homosexuality is and always will be a minority orientation but (like being left handed) that doesn't make it in and of itself wrong. This book is motivated by the so called ex-gay movement where men are supposedly "cured" of their nasty little habit by the grace of god. The fact that most relapse back into a gay lifestyle appears to be no matter to the ideologically minded authors of books like this. And neither does the fact that many of these men are nominally bisexuals and simply repress the gay side of their identity in order to be acceptable to themselves (something that most psychologists will accept as an option for some men). On the other hand NO psychologist out there worth his or her salt will sanction this sort of belief that the millions of gay/bisexual people in the world are some sort of cosmic mistake in need of change. Nope.

The book Is it a Choice? Answers to the Most Frequently Asked Questions About Gay Men and Lesbians by Eric Marcus was published back in the 1980's and has been available in updated editions ever since, including a Spanish language translation titled ¿Se elige? 300 Preguntas y respuestas sobre la homosexualidad. That book is based on facts and does address religious aspects of this issue in an evenhanded way. The fact is that every major religious group with the exception of Islam has significant gay-positive material out there. Love is love and a gift from god not to be tampered with by sanctimonious, small minded fundamentalists.

A compassionate, informative, authoritative look at a complex issue
It's funny that in just about every area of life, we consider someone who has personal experience with a topic to be an excellent offerer of insight on that topic: The recovering alcoholic mentors the guy just into treatment, and we applaud; people who exercised their way from fatness to fitness write books and make videos about how to lose weight, and we buy them; Donald Trump tells us how to master the art of the deal, and all's right with the world.

Strange, then, the hits Mike Haley is taking here for "101 Frequently Asked Questions About Homosexuality" -- criticism obviously motivated more by the critics' political agendas than by their reading of Haley's book.

And what about the book? Haley says it grew out of actual questions he's been asked by gays and family members and friends of gays during his travels across the country. He recreates those questions and offers straightforward, informative answers that are in no way filled with the kind of invective or judgment suggested by other reviewers here -- some of whom admit they haven't even read the book.

What Haley offers here is desperately needed, rendered in the spirit of Christian love and filtered through his experience not only as a former homosexual, but as a counselor. If you're the parent of a gay child, somebody who wants to better interact with a gay coworker or someone just coming to grips with your own same-sex attractions, you will find both hope and help in these pages.

The debate some people want to avoid
Much of the criticism aimed at this book misses the point: Many gay men and women and their families struggle with homosexuality, and they want help in understanding who they can trust to answer their concerns. Mike Haley is a brave man for trying to do something few others are willing to do.