The God Box - Alex Sanchez

[bookgazing]

Hmm. I feel conflicted about ‘The God Box’, which makes it awkward to review. I think this book is important, really important and if I was’ Evil Queen of the World’ this would be on my ‘force people to read’ list, because this book could be of immeasurable value to many. However although the central relationship in the book is strong, it’s not a great piece of fiction, the most urgent passages are those where dialogues are constructed to pass on views about biblical interpretations and it works best as an informational source, rather than a fictional narrative. Yet in a third contradictory twist, I think one of the most important things about this book is that it is a novel. Many people (including me) will find it more accessible than a book on biblical criticism, pick it up and get a rough outline of the important information found in complex non-fiction books. So prepare for some inconclusive rambling about the problems and the wonders of Alex Sanchez’s novel about growing up gay and Christian.

Paul (formerly Pablo) has been going out with Angie since they were little. She’s his best friend, but early in the book we learn he’s been having sex dreams about men. As a committed Christian Paul believes homosexuality is a sin and he asks God to change his feelings. Living in a conservative community, Paul sees nothing to contradict his ideas about homosexuality, in fact his pastor actively preaches against gay people.

Then an attractive Mexican guy called Manuel transfers to Paul’s school. Manuel says he’s openly gay, but he doesn’t see a conflict between his sexuality and his Christian faith. After meeting Manuel Paul begins to examine his religion’s beliefs about homosexuality with the help of Manuel’s highly informed opinions and at the same time he tries to work out how he feels about Manuel. Not everyone in his community wants to analyse the Bible and when Manuel and his friends try to set up a gay straight alliance Manuel becomes the focus for the anger of the conservative Christians.

Manuel is the mouth piece for the research Sanchez’s has gathered on textual interpretations of biblical passages about homosexuality and ‘The God Box’ is essentially a book of dialogues between him and other characters. Someone, often Paul pulls out one of those totally lame, but entrenched ideas you’ll have heard about why being gay is B.A.D and Manuel shoots it down with logic, close reading and further sources. Think of a rhetorical dialogue like Galileo’s ‘Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems’ transposed into smart young adult literature about homosexuality (ok that comparison is a bit odd, but it’s the only dialogue style text I can think of right now):

‘ “What about St. Paul’s letter to the Romans? Doesn’t it clearly state that homosexuality is wrong?”

…

“First of all, neither he nor anyone else in the Bible uses the word ‘homosexuality’, at least not in any accurate translation. The fact that some people are naturally orientated toward the same sex wasn’t even understood till the nineteenth century.”

…

“Yeah, but in Romans One, St Paul talks about guys having sex with guys and women having sex with women. It’s the same thing.”

“No,” Manuel argued back “because the viewpoint is different. St. Paul wrote as a man living in the first century, who also thought that slaves should obey their masters, that women should wear veils to pray, and that the authority of governments was instituted by God. If you think St. Paul was infallible, that means he was right about all those things. Is that what you believe?” '

Discussions like these are what make ‘The God Box’ so valuable. ‘The God Box’ shows Christian guys, concerned about being gay, that there’s no real basis in the Bible for certain Christian’s textual arguments against homosexuality. Hopefully this should help some guys to accept that there is no conflict between their sexuality and faith, allowing them to dismiss the idea that coming out means meeting oncoming hellfire, or a break with their faith. The book will also furnish them with powerful, textual arguments against any Christians that think being gay is sinful. As a non-believer I’ve always taken the view that just because the Bible says something doesn’t make it true, but it’s encouraging to see that just a little in depth reading can help believers reconcile their conviction that the Bible tells the truth with a belief that homosexuality isn’t a sin. The novel also contains ways of applying critical thinking to examine more general reasons people give for avoiding the gay lifestyle, for example that gay relationships are unfulfilling:

‘ “But what if it’s just a phase?” I insisted. “Eric said a lot of teens have same-sex attraction but they grow out of it.”

“If they’ll grow out of it,” Manuel said matter of factly, “then why do they need ex-gay conversion?”

….

“But gay relationships don’t last,” I argued.

“Oh, really?” Manuel said. “Did you know the first San Francisco gay marriage was between two women who’d been together for fifty-one years? Hel-lo! Half of all straight marriages end in divorce. Like that’s a stellar track record? But are churches outraged at promiscuity and adultery in heteros?” '

The Bible discussions that Manuel and Paul have are not the only element that makes this book so important for young Christians, who are attracted to the same sex. Paul’s personal journey as he struggles to reject and then accept his feelings provide almost a step by step guide to how realising you’re a gay Christian might affect you. Sanchez walks the reader through some things that could happen to a Christian teenager, but would not feature in other coming out stories, for example Paul allows his pastor to advise him on homosexuality and is directed to a service run by Christians who are ‘no longer’ gay. Paul’s experiences sometimes feel generic rather than personalised to his character, as it explores all the stages a gay Christian teenager might go through as they try to change, or accept, themselves, but in being so typical they provide a useful template for other Christians on what they can expect and how to interrogate the situations they might be placed in.

‘The God Box’ is not just a useful source of information for gay teens, others can read it and clearly see the damage repressing gay sexuality causes. Paul keeps his girlfriend from finding a real, romantic partner while he uses her to prove to himself that he’s straight (although this is not malicious it’s still a harmful side effect of Paul feeling pressured to hide his true feelings), he feels alienated from his father and eventually he considers suicide because he can’t make his feelings go away. If anyone doesn’t fully understand why gay Christians can’t just work on not being gay then ‘The God Box’ should encourage them to see why that’s not a realistic idea, even if they can’t agree with its interpretation of the Bible.

However, while I think ‘The God Box’ is an important source of information about a number of subjects, I don’t think it’s a great piece of fiction. While Manuel and Paul are well developed characters, almost none of the other characters are. Paul’s girlfriend Angie, while lovely, is almost too patient and accepting to be true, her best friend Dakota barely has any character traits, except for her activist nature. I could feel the depth of Manuel and Paul’s relationship, probably because it is as much shown by the writing, as it is related by Paul’s direct thoughts. Their growing love is the best rendered fictional plot point, which is good considering they’re the focus of the book. Readers are very much told about Paul and Angie’s relationship, they are told he loves her, told they are great friends and this leaves even their friendship feeling rather lifeless. The whole book tells a bit too much, when it would be more subtle to show what the characters’ relationships are based on, building their personalities and feelings rather than dumping them into the readers lap. At the beginning and end of the book there’s some heavy plot info dumping, which explains many of the relationships and this made it hard for me to connect independently with the characters as I was constantly told how the author wanted me to feel about them. I always think this is a risk writers have to balance with their desire for a clear style that shows their own views about the story and I think Sanchez overbalanced in this book. He’s so eager to explain why being gay and Christian is not only possible, but right (and hurrah for that) that he sacrifices the chance to develop his entire fictional world and secondary aspects of the story, like Paul’s rejection of his Mexican heritage.

If this wasn’t a novel though, would I have read it? It’s not terribly likely as criticism of the Bible is just one of the many areas of non-fiction reading that is constantly pushed to the back of my reading queue. I’m an adult and I can’t get around to reading books like that, despite knowing they’re important so how likely is it that an average non Christian teenager would make that their first reading priority? So if this novel didn’t exist me and the average teenagers (the kind I used to be) would have missed out on all the excellent information and maybe some of those teenagers would have been gay, or homophobic, or unable to combat the arguments of their homophobic contemporaries because they haven’t studied the Bible. While I wish this was a better novel, I’m glad Sanchez wrote a gay Christian voice into fiction as it makes all the information he presents more accessible than it would be in a non-fiction book.

On the back cover of ‘The God Box’ there’s a promotional quote that says ‘The God Box may well be a book that not only changes lives but a book that saves them.’ and I totally agree. There are some emails from readers in the after word that reinforce how relevant a novel about the church and homosexuality is, because of certain groups of Christians who pressure everyone to embrace their version of the Bible and the Christian faith. So hurray for Alex Sanchez and his intelligent, brave challenge to the sanctioned interpretation of the Bible, showing that questioning the Bible creates a stronger faith not a weaker one.

Other Reviews

Reading in Color
GuysLitWire
Helens Book Blog
Necromancy Never Pays