Robert Gagnon: A Critical Review Essay on Stacy Johnson’s A Time to Embrace

A Book Not To Be Embraced
Robert A. J. Gagnon, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of New Testament
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Completed March 2008; posted on the web on Sept. 30, 2008

I wish that I could commend William Stacy Johnson’s book, A Time to Embrace, [1] as a rigorous and fair assessment of Christianity and homosexuality from a homosexualist perspective.[2] Unfortunately, Johnson so regularly violates scholarly standards for honesty and accuracy in representing secondary literature, conceals from readers the most important counterarguments to his position, and shows gaps in logic, that I cannot embrace A Time to Embrace. Given space constraints, it is impossible to give a systematic presentation of the book’s errors in fact or argumentation. I refer readers to my website for material that could not fit here [see links at the end of the article just before endnotes]; and for a rejoinder to Johnson’s response that will appear shortly after Johnson’s response is published.

pdf version here