After thinking through all of this more carefully and more clearly, I can no longer in good conscience stand by my initial endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book because of its “Side B” underpinnings and faulty anthropology (and therefore faulty theology).
I’ve gotten a lot of emails and messages lately regarding my endorsement of Greg Johnson’s book, Still Time to Care. Many are confused as to why I would endorse a book that embraces so-called “Side B” Christianity.
Greg sent me his book back in March of 2021 and asked if I would consider endorsing it. After reading it, my main take-away was how the church in the past had placed a heavy expectation on new converts who came out of a homosexual lifestyle to engage in “reparative therapy” and become heterosexual. At the time I read Greg’s book, I was not fully aware of the faulty theology behind “Side B.” In fact, I didn’t really understand what it meant at all.
What Does Side B Mean?
Tim Keller defines “Side B” in this way: “People attracted to the same sex, though remaining celibate in obedience to the Bible, still can call themselves ‘gay Christians’ and see their attraction as a part of their identity which should be acknowledged like one’s race or nationality.”
But it’s more than this. “Side B” uses a Freudian (not biblical) framework in terms of the understanding of personhood (anthropology). According to Freud humans are at the core, sexual beings—sexual desires define who we are. Freud’s theory was the progenitor of sinful sexual behavior becoming a full-blown identity—LGBTQ. The “Side B” camp would assert that being “gay” is ontological. The problem with this assertion is that a person’s “gayness” cannot be sanctified. This idea is in violation of the Creation Ordinance (Gen. 1:27) and the biblical understanding of personhood. We are not our desires.
