Read Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality Online
Authors: Wesley Hill
Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (16 page)
F
INISHING THIS BOOK WOULD NOT
have been possible without the encouragement of many friends. I am deeply grateful to those who read chapters and, in some cases, an entire draft of the manuscript, and gave me constructive feedback: Wayne Martindale, Alex Kirk, David Lincicum, Brian and Kristin Tabb, Todd Wilson, Luke Neff, Agnieszka Tennant, DeWayne Stallings, David Sims, Walter Moberly, Misty Irons, Noah Dennis, Roger and Haley Scharf, Jono Linebaugh, and Kathryn Greene-McCreight.
A few friends went above and beyond the call of duty. Charlie Shepherd and Tommy Grimm were there for me in a way no one else was during the writing process. Alan Jacobs not only read and commented insightfully but also put me in touch with others who helped move the project from rough manuscript to published book. Mardi Keyes believed in this book from the beginning; without her and the morning we spent together talking it over, I’m not sure I would have had the courage to move ahead toward publication. She went through the entire manuscript three times with a fine-toothed comb and made numerous helpful suggestions for improving it. Michael and Emily Allen were unfailing in their friendship, prayerfulness, and ability to give wise counsel. At later stages, Denis and Margie Haack, Abraham Piper, and Madison Trammel kept me convinced that this book deserved to see the light of day, and they helped make it happen, in concrete ways.
Dan Treier, John Wilson, and Lil Copan gave generously of their time to help me understand and navigate the publishing process.
For spiritual direction, theological and pastoral oversight, and prayer, without which my life, and hence this book, would be immeasurably poorer, I am grateful to Scott Hafemann, Mark Talbot, Todd Augustine, Tom and Julie Steller, David Michael, Dan and Liz Holst, Chris Mitchell, and Ross and Barbie Anderson. Above all, I’m thankful for the constant, self-giving love of my family, my parents, sister and brother-in-law, and brother.
Any missteps—spiritual, theological, pastoral, or otherwise—are, of course, my own. Without the people mentioned here, there would be many more such missteps than there are already.
Lastly, I’m especially grateful to my editor, Ryan Pazdur, and Dirk Buursma, Chris Fann, and the rest of the team at Zondervan for believing in the message of this book and taking a risk on a first-time author.
ZONDERVAN
Washed and Waiting
Copyright © 2010 by Wesley Hill
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of Zondervan.
ePub Edition July 2010 ISBN: 978-0-310-59181-8
Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan,
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hill, Wesley, 1981-
Washed and waiting : reflections on Christian faithfulness and homosexuality / Wesley Hill.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-310-33003-5 (softcover, gatefold)
1. Homosexuality—Religious aspects—Christianity. 2. Gays—Religious life. 3. Hill, Wesley, 1981-I. Title.
BR115.H6H55 2010
248.8’408664-dc22
2010005802
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*
As I was preparing this introduction, I came across the following comment by Philip Yancey: “Much of what I read on depression, on doubt, on suicide, on suffering, on homosexuality, seems written by people who begin with a Christian conclusion and who have never been through the anguished steps familiar to a person struggling with depression, doubt, suicide, suffering, or homosexuality. No resolution could be so matter-of-fact to a person who has actually survived such a journey.” I hope in what follows to convey something of what it’s like to have survived—or, rather, to be surviving—the anguished journey of struggling with homosexuality.
*
Some Christians have gone further and spelled out what such a commitment to celibacy might involve. Rather than live alone, some celibate gay Christians may choose to join an “intentional Christian community” in which sexual purity could be practiced alongside other single and/or married Christians. Throughout much of Christian history, whenever Christians took on vocations of celibacy, they did so most often in community—in monastic orders, for example. Those committed to a life of sexual abstinence recognized that such a choice would best be undertaken not in isolation but with others and would be sustained by the rhythms of corporate worship and the mundane tasks of providing for one another’s daily needs.