Still Time to Care: What We Can Learn from the Church's Failed Attempt to Cure Homosexuality

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 forty 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. Review 'Dr. Greg Johnson deserves our thanks for writing such a grace-filled book full of wisdom and insight. As a model pastor-theologian, Greg handles the sensitive and controversial topic of homosexuality with both pastoral candor and theological nuance. Drawing inspiration from such evangelical luminaries as C. S. Lewis, Billy Graham, Francis Schaeffer, and John Stott, Greg makes a compelling case for a 'paradigm of care' as opposed to a 'paradigm of cure.' The result is an excellent book with an inspiring gospel vision whatever your orientation--a vision marked not by hope in heterosexuality but hope in Christ. Highly recommended!' -- Todd Wilson, PhD, cofounder and president, The Center for Pastor Theologians 'In the suffocating quagmire of the church's debates about same-sex sexuality, Greg Johnson's Still Time to Care is a breath of fresh air. While Johnson unflinchingly documents the failures of the ex-gay movement of the 1980s and '90s, he also defends a traditional sexual ethic and articulates a 'paradigm of care' to counter the 'paradigm of cure' that has harmed so many people. Drawing deeply from history, evangelical leaders, and Scripture, Johnson articulates a way forward for sexual minorities and those who love them. Winsome, intelligent, personal, and warm, this book is important and profoundly needed. I want everyone I know to read it.' -- Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest; author, Liturgy of the Ordinary and Prayer in the Night 'Greg Johnson offers a fascinating look into the rise of the ex-gay movement and the reasons for a diminished ex-gay narrative today. He takes the reader back in history to key voices evangelicals admired to move the reader forward into a vision of biblical faithfulness and nuanced pastoral care and communal support for those who are both gay and Christian.' -- Mark A. Yarhouse, PsyD, Dr. Ar