Unclobber
Rethinking our Misuse of the Bible on Homosexuality
by Colby Martin
Westminster John Knox Press, 2022. 218 pages.
Review written August 6, 2026, from my own copy, purchased via Amazon.com
Starred Review
I’ve owned this book for quite some time, and since I am attending Wild Goose Festival this coming September, and the author will be there – I wanted to make sure I finally got it read.
This book would have been helpful to me several years ago when I was thinking through the Bible’s teachings on homosexuality. As it is, I am so glad this resource exists.
My background is similar to Colby Martin’s – I grew up a conservative evangelical, and my life was about my faith. I did not become a pastor – because I was a woman, so of course not. He was a pastor at a large evangelical church, so when he started questioning his church’s blanket condemnation of gay people, he got fired.
This book tells about his journey. And in alternating chapters, he talks about the six “Clobber” passages in the Bible that are used to condemn homosexual people. And he makes a strong case that modern day readers are taking them out of context and not interpreting them in a legitimate way.
He didn’t come to this because of anybody in his life who was gay. He began researching the topic because it seemed like a discrimination issue to not allow same-sex couples to get married, whether or not you think it’s sinful.
I appreciate his approach, because I, too, felt in my heart that it wasn’t right to condemn same-sex couples, but wasn’t sure how to square that with the Bible. I like the way he looks at each passage and lays out the case that they are being misused.
I am at least twenty years older than Colby Martin, and this wasn’t as big an issue (or rather one I could ignore) in the churches I attended when I was young. As an adult, I gradually changed my way of thinking with the help of books like God Believes in Love, by Gene Robinson, and Paul Among the People, by Sarah Ruden.
I didn’t think it affected me, but when Caitlin Jenner came out as transgender, I thought it through and realized that I didn’t believe for a second that’s contrary to Scripture. I was glad I thought it through, because it wasn’t long after that when my own adult child came out as transgender. And a few years later, my home church decided to make it part of their church constitution that LGBTQ people are sinning. I wrote a whole blog series about why I think churches should welcome LGBTQ people, especially transgender people. I called it Transcending. I used some ideas from Austen Hartke’s, a transgender pastor’s, wonderful book, Transforming. My emphasis is similar to Colby Martin’s here. What does the Bible have to say about transgender people?
All of this ties in with a book I recently reviewed, Better Ways to Read the Bible, by Zack Lambert. If you are interpreting the Bible so it can be used as a weapon to clobber people, rather than to build people up with love, joy, peace, and the other fruit of the Spirit – then something is wrong with your interpretation. Colby Martin shows us how we can rightly divide the word of truth and also be more loving people.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Nonfiction/unclobber.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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