This pattern of thought is especially dominant among the LGBT movement in regards to sexual orientation.
“Sexual orientation is a 19th-century invention—very clearly redefining people from souls who will last forever to people whose sexual identities determine who they are, who they really are, their deepest sense of truth and self.”
She encourages Christians “not to buy it on either front” and not to accept labels of people such as “gay,” “straight,” “lesbian” and “transgendered” because it is demeaning to our image-bearing status. In other words, we are more than our so-called “sexual orientation.” According to Butterfield, the Bible speaks directly to Christians who struggle with homosexuality in Mark 10.28–31″>Mark 10:28–31:
Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
“The gospel calls you to lose family and houses and mothers and fathers and farms—your livelihood. But it promises you a hundredfold in this lifetime along with persecutions, and in the days ahead eternal life. I think that verse is tailor-made for people who struggle with an unasked-for homosexual desire, because on the one hand, no one is called to ‘lifelong celibacy.’ That is just an importation from the Catholic Church. So let us not add that yoke to people. But people are called to chastity in singleness and fidelity in marriage. That is what the Bible calls people to.”
Rosaria believes that the hundredfold promise to struggling Christians is going to come from the church.
Late last year, a YouTube video was released called “Everything We Think We Know About Addiction.” The video was adapted from Johann Hari’s New York Times best-selling book Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, and asserts that we don’t know as much as we think we know about addiction.
Basically, the video says that isolation causes addiction, not the drug itself. It’s important to note that the video isn’t saying that isolation causes people to take drugs, but that isolation is often what causes them to become hooked. If this is true, what are the implications for the church and our approach to dealing with sexual addiction?
Due to shame and guilt, many feel isolated and alone because of their struggle with sexual sin. Many Christians put on a good face when sexual sin is confessed, but follow up is often lacking. If the Christians struggling are single, isolation is even easier and they are more prone to addiction. Rosaria encourages believers to see singles as a part of their family. She means this quite literally.
“If you are not sharing the gospel with a house key, especially with people for whom crushing loneliness is killing them faster—if you are not doing that, why not? Because 1 Corinthians 10:13 is for all of us. ‘No temptation will befall you except for that which is common to man, and God will give you a way of escape.’ What if your house is a way of escape, but you are too busy?”
