I saw a comment around this topic from a man (with thousands of likes on his post) saying, men obviously have no control over their sexual desires and will obviously sin so it’s up to women to be chaste and restrict access.
It’s so bizarre to me that “Christians” are professing this?
I honestly think we are conflating lust and attraction and now people are creating their own personal Jesus and rules so if you don’t abide by them, you’re now the heathen. It is so sad to see
I left a church where one of the elders made a comment to me along the lines of I would make a great representation of the church as I didn’t have as much baggage. The first thing I thought was “do they not understand what I struggle with internally?” I questioned if I needed to go through some big radical change and testimony for people to understand that I also needed saving.
It can feed the egos and pride of those who think they did things right so they are more righteous but I can tell you I felt so lost and the more people praised my outward actions I felt even worse.
Thank you for this post and I hope many in Christ can read this and understand there is always hope in our saviour.
This was great! I said something similar but much smaller in a comment section on Christian dating and the creator deleted my comment 😂. I was just saying there is wisdom in marriage and people can choose for all kinds of reasons. 👏🏽
Rosario Butterfield is a wonderful example of someone living a deviant lifestyle as a lesbian and who was converted, completely turned her life around and speaks and writes about her life then and now. Her memoir, “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith” tells about her conversion. She is married and has children and grandchildren. Persons with baggage will have the memory of it follow them the rest of their lives, and we don’t need to keep it in the forefront if they have truly repented and turned from their old ways and are now living a Christ-filled life.
Really good article, Chris. I don't comment much, but just wanted to let you know that your Substack articles have been a blessing to me, God bless you, brother.
I think we can recognize that but still hold people accountable to their actions, regardless of past trauma. We give too much leniency to the people with ‘baggage’ that we don’t stop and acknowledge the damage that does to the person on the other end.
That goes back to the issue of wisdom that I bring up in the article. In no way did I argue that our past sins should have no consequences. In fact, I argued that there are lasting effects that must be taken into account.
Perfectly stated. We all have baggage, and while no one is required to be attracted to someone with certain baggage’s, it is also important to remember that baggage does not define the redeemed.
I saw a comment around this topic from a man (with thousands of likes on his post) saying, men obviously have no control over their sexual desires and will obviously sin so it’s up to women to be chaste and restrict access.
It’s so bizarre to me that “Christians” are professing this?
I honestly think we are conflating lust and attraction and now people are creating their own personal Jesus and rules so if you don’t abide by them, you’re now the heathen. It is so sad to see
I left a church where one of the elders made a comment to me along the lines of I would make a great representation of the church as I didn’t have as much baggage. The first thing I thought was “do they not understand what I struggle with internally?” I questioned if I needed to go through some big radical change and testimony for people to understand that I also needed saving.
It can feed the egos and pride of those who think they did things right so they are more righteous but I can tell you I felt so lost and the more people praised my outward actions I felt even worse.
Thank you for this post and I hope many in Christ can read this and understand there is always hope in our saviour.
This was great! I said something similar but much smaller in a comment section on Christian dating and the creator deleted my comment 😂. I was just saying there is wisdom in marriage and people can choose for all kinds of reasons. 👏🏽
Rosario Butterfield is a wonderful example of someone living a deviant lifestyle as a lesbian and who was converted, completely turned her life around and speaks and writes about her life then and now. Her memoir, “The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith” tells about her conversion. She is married and has children and grandchildren. Persons with baggage will have the memory of it follow them the rest of their lives, and we don’t need to keep it in the forefront if they have truly repented and turned from their old ways and are now living a Christ-filled life.
Oh sorry. I'm bad at being clear: I was just adding my two cents. I liked this article.
No worries. Social media sometimes makes it tough to convey our own clarity. I just wanted to make sure no one was misunderstanding what I wrote.
Good article!
Much thanks!
Really good article, Chris. I don't comment much, but just wanted to let you know that your Substack articles have been a blessing to me, God bless you, brother.
Much appreciated, brother! Thank you!
I think we can recognize that but still hold people accountable to their actions, regardless of past trauma. We give too much leniency to the people with ‘baggage’ that we don’t stop and acknowledge the damage that does to the person on the other end.
That goes back to the issue of wisdom that I bring up in the article. In no way did I argue that our past sins should have no consequences. In fact, I argued that there are lasting effects that must be taken into account.
Perfectly stated. We all have baggage, and while no one is required to be attracted to someone with certain baggage’s, it is also important to remember that baggage does not define the redeemed.
Amen. This is something that we most definitely need to remember. And it was sadly forgotten when this topic blew up online during this last week.