Highland Deac
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For those (like me) who were raised in an Evangelical church (say, Southern Baptist), or who have Evangelical relatives or friends, this article doesn't provide much that's new, but it's still a revealing insight into the Evangelical obsession with sexual purity at the expense of other, far more important aspects of Christ's teachings. The article refers to the shooter in the attacks in Atlanta, who attended a Baptist Church there.
"Perry described a phenomenon in some parts of evangelical culture that he called “sexual exceptionalism,” in which sexual sins are implied to be more serious than other categories.
“So many men boil down how they’re doing spiritually to how often they have looked at porn recently...Not whether they’d grown in their love toward others, given generously of their time or spent time connecting with God, but if they masturbated.”
For some with experience in evangelical youth culture, Long’s fixation on sexual temptation was a reminder of a damaging approach to teaching young people how to address sexuality.
“It presents a very demeaning view of manhood,” said Rachael Denhollander, an evangelical advocate for sexual abuse victims. “Every time you teach a woman in the presence of a young man that it’s her responsibility to keep a man from lusting and that she has the power to keep him from sexual perversion by what she wears and what she does, what he hears is that it’s her fault.”
The article also notes that the failure of many Evangelical leaders to follow their own teachings in maintaining sexual purity has become a cliche, and mentions some recent scandals.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/evangelical-sex-addiction-atlanta-suspect.html
"Perry described a phenomenon in some parts of evangelical culture that he called “sexual exceptionalism,” in which sexual sins are implied to be more serious than other categories.
“So many men boil down how they’re doing spiritually to how often they have looked at porn recently...Not whether they’d grown in their love toward others, given generously of their time or spent time connecting with God, but if they masturbated.”
For some with experience in evangelical youth culture, Long’s fixation on sexual temptation was a reminder of a damaging approach to teaching young people how to address sexuality.
“It presents a very demeaning view of manhood,” said Rachael Denhollander, an evangelical advocate for sexual abuse victims. “Every time you teach a woman in the presence of a young man that it’s her responsibility to keep a man from lusting and that she has the power to keep him from sexual perversion by what she wears and what she does, what he hears is that it’s her fault.”
The article also notes that the failure of many Evangelical leaders to follow their own teachings in maintaining sexual purity has become a cliche, and mentions some recent scandals.
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/evangelical-sex-addiction-atlanta-suspect.html