‘Sex addiction’ is not an established psychiatric diagnosis, and there is a debate in the mental health community about the definition and treatment of compulsive sexual behavior.
“There is no evidence-based treatment for sex addiction,” said Joshua Grubbs, an assistant professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University and a clinical psychologist. Evangelical sex addiction tends to emphasize total abstinence from sexual behavior outside of heterosexual marriages. “They do not take into account the fact that humans are creatures with sex drive,” said Dr. Grubbs said.
Mr. Long and his family were active members of the Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Ga., Which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In the church’s youth group for high school students, Mr. Long ‘one of the core young men involved in everything we did,’ said Brett Cottrell, a former youth and missionary pastor at the church.
In November, a fellow pastor at the church, Luke Folsom, preached a sermon on the “fight” against sin. He quoted a verse from the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus tells his followers that it is worth keeping an eye out for if it causes them to sin.
He went on to address the use of pornography directly. “Cut it out by getting rid of your smartphone, getting rid of internet connection, anything and everything that will enable you to do it,” he said. “Your soul is at stake.”
Desire, he added, is “a heart problem, not just an eye problem.”
The church, which declined a request for an interview with its leaders, issued a statement Friday condemning the violence in the spas in the Atlanta area, as well as the suspect’s stated reasons for the execution. of this wicked plan ‘.
The church also stressed that the gunman alone was to blame for his actions. “The women he asked for sexual acts are not responsible for his perverted sexual desires, and also bear no guilt in these murders,” the church said. “These actions are the result of a sinful heart and a corrupt mind.”