Published by Baker Academic on August 26, 2025
Genres: Academic, LGBTQ+, Non-Fiction
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Has your faith community been torn apart over sexuality and gender?
While affirming and traditionalist Christians wage culture wars, many believers have left the church entirely because of disputes over how best to respond to LGBTQ people.
Ronald Pierce and Karen Keen show us a different way to approach the controversy. In Christlike Acceptance across Deep Difference, they bring together a broad range of contributors--scholarly and pastoral; affirming and traditionalist; evangelical, mainline, and Catholic--who demonstrate a more constructive response to LGBTQ concerns.
Christlike Acceptance Across Deep Difference is a diverse and challenging anthology that seeks to re-orient the church’s conversation about sexuality, gender, and LGBTQ ministry through a posture of Christlike acceptance—of both stances—using a methodology that prioritizes both clarity of conviction and charity in relationship. Unlike many books on this topic, or other controversial topics, that focus on debate, the goal of this volume is to express informed convictions with substance while focusing on areas of agreement. This invites readers to consider how Christians might engage deep disagreements without abandoning biblical faithfulness or neighborly love.
Edited by Ronald Pierce—a longtime theologian and professor—and Karen Keen—a biblical scholar and spiritual care provider—this book brings together 20+ contributors from a wide spectrum of theological positions (affirming, non-affirming, evangelical, mainline, Catholic) in order to model respectful, scripturally grounded dialogue around matters of sexuality and gender. It is an irenic, moderate, compassionate conversation that understands that this isn’t just an academic or theological issues, but deals with the lives and loves of real people.
In fact, I would say that the biggest takeaway from Christlike Acceptance Across Deep Difference is that Christians can have these conversations and hold these diverse convictions while both upholding a high view of Scripture and the dignity of gender diverse and same-sex attracted individuals. Nobody in this book is following the culture war path of making a condemnation of homosexuality a matter of salvation. There’s no discussion of bathroom bills or unfounded fears of harm to children. Rather, there is Christlike acceptance that gender diverse and same-sex attracted individuals can be and are believers in Jesus who are faithfully living out their convictions.
The book is divided into three sections:
- Biblical Wisdom Beyond the Debate—This section takes a measured look at Scripture beyond the “clobber verse” rhetoric.
- Successfully Navigating Divides—This section offers practical, relational guidance for disagreements, including communication, friendship, and community life across theological lines.
- Ministry with LGBTQ People and Their Communities—This section gives first-person reflections and ministry insights demonstrating how faith communities can love and serve neighbors with integrity and compassion. (Notice the with and not to here, that’s very important.)
What sets the anthology apart is its pluralistic yet unified aim: contributors do not abandon their deeply held convictions, but they commit to listening, learning, and practicing Christlike acceptance—defined not as agreement, but as loving presence in difference. The diversity of voices—both affirming and non-affirming—underscores the central theme that love and acceptance do not require uniformity of belief. Contributors show that Christians can hold deep convictions and yet maintain deep care for one another and for those who may feel wounded by the church.
Christlike Acceptance Across Deep Difference is a thoughtful, courageous, and much-needed resource for today’s church—especially for pastors, leaders, and lay Christians yearning for a healthier way of engaging difficult conversations. It refuses simplistic solutions while offering a pathway toward mutual respect, deeper listening, and Christ-centered compassion.