This thread will be used to posting books that have helped you in both your daily Christian walk and in your acceptance and struggle of being GLBT.
One of the books that has helped me with my daily struggles is A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis. It helped me see my homosexuality, and the trials that come with it, as just another trial of life that God uses to get my eyes off from my perception of "reality" and onto what is "real" to Him...that life doesn't revolve around me and my life, but that God has a plan for everything and everyone that He has created.
I started reading Joel Osteen's book "Your Best Life Now" and being the avid reader that I am, NOT, I didn't finish it, but I must say that he makes a lot of sense in what I've read so far. If you have the opportunity to read it, I would highly reccomend it.
Try www.ccel.org and download William Gurnall's classic "The Christian in Complete Armour". It is a TWO VOLUME work and covers just about EVERYTHING within spiritual warfare. It is in .pdf format.
Like Papabear I don't read much - even less since my accident in 2003 - so this collection, Christian and secular, comes from 25 years of being out of the closet:
"Now That You Know: What Every Parent Should Know About Homosexuality" by Betty Fairchild and Nancy Hayward
"Loving Someone Gay" by Don Clark
"The Frontrunner" (thirty years old but soon to be a motion picture!) by Patricia Nell Warren
"Consenting Adult" (forget author's name but also an 80s made-for-TV movie starring Mary Tyler Moore) - a suicidal son's coming out story
"Is The Homosexual My Neighbor? Another Christian View" by Letha Scanzoni & Virginia Ramey Mollenkott
"Coming Out To God (Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, Their Families and Friends)" by Chris Glaser
"Coming Out As Sacrament" by Chris Glaser
"The Word Is Out (The Bible Reclaimed for Lesbians & Gay Men) 365 Daily Meditations by Chris Glaser
"Wrestling With The Angel - Faith & Religion in the Lives of Gay Men" Brian Bouldrey, Editor
"Called Out With - Stories of Solidarity In Support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Persons" Sylvia Thorson-Smiith, Johanna W.H. van Wijk-Bos, Norm Pott, William P. Thompson, Editors
"Things They Never Told You In Sunday School - A Primer For The Christian Homosexual" by David Day
That oughta keep you going until Christmas
Hugs,
Kenn
P.S. I forgot a couple others, which I only recalled when taking more than a look at a dusty bookshelf :
"Christianity, Social Tolerance and Homosexuality" by John Boswell
"AIDS: The Spiritual Dilemma" by John E. Fortunato
P.P.S.I went shopping today and, as if I don't have enough still-unread books in my collection, I bought one that my Mom has been studying with her congregation:
A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian D. McLaren, published by Zondervan.
Get a load of the small print following the title: Why I am a misisonal + evangelical +post/protestant + liberal/conservative + mystical/poetic + biblical + charismatic/contemplative + fundamentalist/calvinist + anabaptist/anglican + methodist + catolic + green + incarnationa + depressed-yet-hopeful + emergent + unfinished CHRISTIAN
Brian McLaren is founding pastor of Cedar Ridge Community Church in the Baltimore-Washington area.
"For those who have accused me of being excessively original, this book should affirm my basic unoriginality (footnote: to read what some of my critics have said about my work to date, do a search of my name at www.christianitytoday.com .) I'm saying little or nothing new, but rather I'm listening to a wider variety of older and newer voices than most people do. I'm trying to take them all seriously, which itself is, perhaps, my chief novelty."