Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was, and Who God Has Always Been

Product Information

I was able to want God because the Holy Spirit was after my affections just as much as he was after my obedience. Underneath my gown, white with a train, was a fight none of the guests could see. . . . They thought I was walking on the aisle runner the usher had rolled out before I entered the sanctuary. I knew it was water. I knew it was the impossible” (138). Yet she was haunted. She was haunted by the knowledge that God is. Haunted by the knowledge that he had a claim on her. Haunted by the knowledge that her life was not pleasing to him. Haunted by the knowledge that God was trying to get her attention. “[S]omeone had obviously been talking to God about me and it was the reason why God wouldn’t leave me alone. Obviously, whatever was being asked of Him, regarding me, was making my little sinful world spin. It was dizzying to live on now-a-days. Trying to stand up straight (or should I say, queer), made everything I loved, mainly myself and my girlfriend, blurry. Nothing was clear except God’s loud voice saying, ‘Come.’” She implores Christians to be able to identify immorality. While sin is attractive to sinners, saints are to be repulsed by it. It can be tempting and exciting but should not be surrendered. This book also states that believers should be righteous. However promising temptations are, a Christian should be strong enough to uphold godliness. The author also speaks on the loneliness associated with being a Same-Sex-Attracted Christian. She encourages the Church to be more accommodating of struggling believers. They should not be judged and cast out but comforted.

Put it altogether, and this is a powerful book. Perry is a sound theologian who uses the Bible faithfully. She is also a skilled wordsmith with a rare ability to articulate herself well. At a time when there’s too much bland writing, she brings a fresh voice. I don’t want this to get missed—this book is a joy to read simply because of how good a writer she is. She tells her story, but her story is not the main point. She wants to point far beyond herself, and she succeeds admirably. “This book is a lifted hand, a glad praise, a necessary hymn, a hallelujah overheard and not kept quiet. This work is my worship unto God that, with prayer, I hope will leave you saying, ‘God is so good!’” It will, because even though it’s about her, it’s actually about Him. I just . . . gotta live for God now,” I said with a tear-broken voice. A new identity was to come after I hung up. These days, leaders are often measured not just by their own actions, but by the company they keep—which is becoming easier for followers to spot and scrutinize on social media. In the book’s final section she takes on some of the hard questions related to homosexuality and same-sex attracted Christians. She first makes it clear: “I am not implying that because these men and women are still tempted with SSA, that they bear the identity of what some would call a ‘Gay Christian.’” She takes on matters of identity, matters of endurance, and what she calls “the heterosexual gospel.”

Get a FREE eBook to strengthen your family discipleship!

Homosexuality might have been my loudest sin, but it was not my only sin. God was not about setting me free from one form of slavery only to leave me enslaved to other idols. By calling me to himself, he was after my whole heart. His intention was to turn it toward him and transform it as only he could, enabling me to be holy in how I expressed my sexuality and everything else. When God saves, he saves holistically. So my repentance would not be singular. That night, I knew that it wasn’t just my lesbianism that had me at odds with God—it was my entire heart. Letting the Light in Perhaps Perry’s most helpful theological point is this: “God isn’t calling gay people to be straight” (177). This isn’t the true gospel, but the “heterosexual gospel,” a misleading message that’s hurt many people and kept them from the truth and from knowing Jesus. While being clear that homosexuality behavior is sinful, Perry helpfully points out that God’s ultimate call on gay people is not straightness. Perry clarifies that God is calling all people—whether SSA or not—to a life of faith in and obedience to Christ. Her clarification was helpful for me as a believer who desires to build up the church and minister to those outside of Christ. I want to love people well—all people—by pointing them to the only true gospel of salvation.

Alford said she’s pretty certain that Kayla misses Whitefield Academy, which she had attended since the sixth grade. But a different kind of controversy arose when she participated in a recent conference for Propel Women, a ministry founded by Christine Caine, alongside Pentecostal leaders including those from Bethel Music. The SSA Christian that is called to marriage is no more of an apologetic for the power of God than the SSA Christian that is called to singleness. In both, God is glorified.Last week, Perry, who is listed among the headliners for Propel’s six-city conference tour, was removed from the lineup for an upcoming Answers in Genesis conference, a women’s event scheduled for March 2020, as a result of her recent “associations.” Hill Perry also released her own book, Gay Girl Good God, which was published September 3, 2018. She is also author of a Bible study for women and teen girls "Jude: Contending for the Faith in Today's Culture.". [19] Hill Perry released her second book, "Holier Than Thou: How God's Holiness Helps Us Trust Him" in 2021. I know now what I didn’t know then. God was not calling me to be straight; he was calling me to himself. The choice to lay aside sin and take hold of holiness was not synonymous with heterosexuality. . . . In my becoming holy as he is, I would not be miraculously made into a woman that didn’t like women; I’d be made into a woman that loved God more than anything. (69)