This book is a study of eight biblical texts to which many of us refer when conversing about homosexuality. They are the only texts in the Bible generally thought to speak in an explicit way to this subject. And yet, the texts are frequently relied on for support of ideas and opinions that do not occur in the texts themselves. Popular discussions easily overlay these texts with the current understanding and opinions to which we hold, perhaps by which we are enthralled, in our own time and place. The lives, questions, convictions, and experiences of the ancient peoples represented by the texts do not always get a fair hearing. This book seeks to join the conversation about the Bible and homosexuality, and serve as a resource for partners in that conversation. Given how we Christians love to make the Bible say what we feel, this lucid book is much-needed tonic. Gilthvedt invites people of biblical faith to remove the lens of their culture, look again at the same-sex passages, and reconsider what they actually mean--in their time and for ours. --David G. Myers, coauthor of What God Has Joined Together: The Christian Case for Gay Marriage Gary Gilthvedt (PhD, St. Andrews University) entered the Lutheran pastoral ministry in 1967 and has served parishes in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Idaho, and Montana. He has been on the staff of three Lutheran colleges, teaching religion as an academic discipline among the liberal arts.