- Feb 5, 2002
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Journalist Ben Appel is on a remarkable journey, one that has taken him from being a disciple to a doubter to a full-blown heretic, but not in the way you might think.
You see, he is a “heretic” today not because he no longer ascribes to the quasi-Christian doctrines he was taught in his childhood, but because he dares to dissent from the tenets of what he calls the “Church of Social Justice.”
But first, let me pause and rewind a bit, as an interesting history is at work.
In 2021, a conservative Christian friend sent me Appel’s fascinating long-form essay in Quillette, and to date, it is one of the most memorable articles I have ever read. That essay from a truly gifted writer has now taken shape more fully in an upcoming memoir to be released next month (I was honored to read a preview copy).
The memoir is called Cis White Gay: The Making of Gender Heretic, and in case anyone’s wondering why a review of a book like this by a man who writes that his same-sex attraction “made [him] feel whole” and who campaigned for the legalization of same-sex marriage (and is in one) is appearing in a theologically orthodox Evangelical publication which does not hide its moral and spiritual commitments to historic Christian sexual ethics, I’ll gladly explain. First, it’s because I admire gutsy, transparent people, even those with whom I disagree on weighty moral and anthropological issues. Second, I also believe it’s vital for Christians to enter into, learn from, and understand the stories of those whom they might assume function as an ideological monolith. It is here where the author breaks the mold.
Appel poignantly details what it was like being a gender-nonconforming boy in a conservative religious covenant community called Lamb of God, a charismatic Catholic group, in a suburb of Baltimore that was formally investigated by the Archdiocese for “cult-like practices” in the early 1990s. When he was 12, his parents split up, and he moved to a new neighborhood. Although his new community was a relatively short physical distance away, ideologically it was far away from the tight-knit, insular context of his childhood. In the new environment, he would be bullied and tormented at his public school for being effeminate, develop an obsessive-compulsive prayer life, become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and wind up in a psychiatric hospital.
Continued below.
www.christianpost.com
You see, he is a “heretic” today not because he no longer ascribes to the quasi-Christian doctrines he was taught in his childhood, but because he dares to dissent from the tenets of what he calls the “Church of Social Justice.”
But first, let me pause and rewind a bit, as an interesting history is at work.
In 2021, a conservative Christian friend sent me Appel’s fascinating long-form essay in Quillette, and to date, it is one of the most memorable articles I have ever read. That essay from a truly gifted writer has now taken shape more fully in an upcoming memoir to be released next month (I was honored to read a preview copy).
The memoir is called Cis White Gay: The Making of Gender Heretic, and in case anyone’s wondering why a review of a book like this by a man who writes that his same-sex attraction “made [him] feel whole” and who campaigned for the legalization of same-sex marriage (and is in one) is appearing in a theologically orthodox Evangelical publication which does not hide its moral and spiritual commitments to historic Christian sexual ethics, I’ll gladly explain. First, it’s because I admire gutsy, transparent people, even those with whom I disagree on weighty moral and anthropological issues. Second, I also believe it’s vital for Christians to enter into, learn from, and understand the stories of those whom they might assume function as an ideological monolith. It is here where the author breaks the mold.
Appel poignantly details what it was like being a gender-nonconforming boy in a conservative religious covenant community called Lamb of God, a charismatic Catholic group, in a suburb of Baltimore that was formally investigated by the Archdiocese for “cult-like practices” in the early 1990s. When he was 12, his parents split up, and he moved to a new neighborhood. Although his new community was a relatively short physical distance away, ideologically it was far away from the tight-knit, insular context of his childhood. In the new environment, he would be bullied and tormented at his public school for being effeminate, develop an obsessive-compulsive prayer life, become addicted to drugs and alcohol, and wind up in a psychiatric hospital.
Continued below.
How a man survived 2 cults and lived to tell about it (book review)
His words will no doubt provide strength and comfort for those who have seen what he has and think they ve gone crazy they haven t but have been afraid to say so
www.christianpost.com
