Generous Spaciousness: Responding to Gay Christians in the Church by Wendy VanderWal-Gritter (review)

The appearance of Generous Spaciousness in 2014 is said to have been something of a history-making event for Brazos Press, given its mission to foster ''the renewal of classical, orthodox Christianity.'' The slowly growing recognition among at least some of the laity, clergy, and hierarchy of conservative and traditional churches that there may be valid theological grounds to re-examine questions of sexual and gender variance in human nature, and especially its place in ecclesial life, represents a much needed if not universally applauded development with direct application for pastoral praxis.

Wendy VanderWal-Gritter holds the MDiv (1999) from Tyndale Seminary and the DMin (2016) from Knox College and the University of Toronto. Her concern for a pastorally responsive approach to same-sex orientation, and notably the shift in her thinking, comes from her having served since 2002 as executive director of New Direction Ministries, a Canadian entity formerly affiliated with the now defunct Exodus International. The latter had gained notoriety in lgbtq circles for its role in the ex-gay movement, its promotion of reparative therapy for persons of same-sex orientation, and its membership in a coalition of likeminded groups called,path, or Positive Alternatives to Homosexuality. As widely reported at the time, the shuttering of Exodus International's operations in 2013 was accompanied by a dramatic public apology for the decades of emotional harm that it had perpetrated against same-sex oriented persons and their families. VanderWal-Gritter's denominational and professional background, and New Direction's transition from its previous affiliations to its current affirmative focus under her leadership, underscores the unexpectedness of a conservative evangelical's openness to the testimony of Christian men, women, and children who experience their same-sex orientation as a positive spiritual force in their lives.

The ''generous spaciousness'' envisioned by VanderWal-Gritter entails the creation of a welcoming ecclesial space—coterminous with the church itself, not relegated to a corner or closet—where two things can occur: first, an open dialogue at all levels of church polity on the question of same-sex attraction and love, unimpeded by ''voices clamoring for this position or that perspective'' (26); and second, an uncoerced interior process by which same-sex oriented adults, youths, and children can work through the meaning of their orientation for a life of faithfulness to the Gospel of Christ: to ''wrestle with God'' (89), if necessary. She urges church members to adopt a stance of humble acknowledgement that ''the right answer or solution for the church on the theological topic of homosexuality'' (26) will not be quickly or easily found.

Perhaps most important of all to a more nuanced theological understanding of the complexities of sexual orientation, VanderWal-Gritter correctly situates the initial awakening of self-awareness in very early childhood for most individuals, sometimes as young as three to five years of age. This is an age long before a child knows that ''sexual acts'' even exist, let alone possesses the capacity to imagine the variety of ways in which people might ''have sex.'' At the heart of it, the statement ''I was born gay'' represents not so much a biological fact or political declaration as a testimony to a person's self-knowledge since his or her earliest childhood memories: This is the only way I have ever known myself.

At some point in the evolution of her thinking, VanderWal-Gritter came to discover the inseparability of sexual orientation from ''healthy and normal longings for intimacy, belonging, companionship, and family'' (69). Perhaps her greatest epiphany comes in the first quarter of her book: the irreducibility of ''the complex experience of same-sex attraction to a sex act'' and the recognition of all ''sexual attraction [as] a multifaceted combination of the spiritual, emotional, romantic, and physical'' (72).

VanderWal-Gritter's book offers a vital testimonial to the real lives of real Christians. In this endeavour she has made...