Biblically speaking, there are two and only two legitimate sexual identities: male and female. Scripture identifies sinful desires and sinful behaviors, calls them sin, and calls sinners to repentance, forgiveness, and adoption into God’s family as sons and daughters of God. That is the identity on offer. The gospel doesn’t baptize your disordered desires and hand them back as a stable foundation for personhood. It kills them and gives you something far better.

Editorial note: Since I published this piece yesterday, I realized Sam Allberry’s views are more complicated than I realized at first, so I offer this addendum as a clarification.

The core argument of my essay is this: Side B Christianity is a deceptive tactic to welcome homosexuality into the church by holding to a traditional position on marriage but otherwise claiming homosexual desires aren’t sinful and adopting a gay identity is lawful for Christians. This view has done great harm to the church by robbing people of the tools needed to fight sexual sin.

However, Allberry has rightly gone on record rejecting the “Side B” view, as a whole, signing the Nashville Statement, and rejecting “gay Christian” as a legitimate, Christian identity. This being the case, he still speaks as though “same sex attraction” is not sinful in itself.

Therefore, I have added this editorial note at the beginning and edited the body of my article to represent his views more accurately. I have also clarified below that Crossway, who has published Allberry, has pushed against Side B Christianity.

It happened again. I take no delight in writing this, but another pastor has been removed from ministry. This time it’s different, though, because the sin is the direct result of his theology. Let me explain.

Sam Allberry has been removed from pastoral ministry following what’s been described as an “inappropriate relationship” with a man. Whatever the full details turn out to be, this moment deserves more than just sadness. This was no random, moral failure, but the fruit of a system that refused to acknowledge “same sex attraction” as a dangerous and sinful error, one that particularly aligns with the world’s agenda of normalizing every kind of sexual perversion.

If Allberry were merely an ordinary Christian man who fell into sin, it could be handled with discretion as fits the situation. But Allberry is not an ordinary Christian man. He advocates for the idea that “same sex attraction” is not necessarily sinful in itself.

Allberry was formerly an Anglican pastor, apologist (with Ravi Zacharias ministries, which is a whole other matter), conference speaker, and, until recently, an associate pastor at Immanuel Church in Nashville. Immanuel Church features a who’s who of prominent, left-leaning evangelical leaders, such as Ray Ortlund (founding pastor, pastor Emeritus, and pastor to pastors), Dr. Russell Moore (minister in residence), Dr. Gavin Ortlund (theologian in residence and son of Ray Ortlund), and Barnabas Piper (Assistant Pastor, author, and son of John Piper).

Given his view that “same sex attraction” is not necessarily sinful, Allberry’s actions deserve particular scrutiny, especially since he has authored multiple books seemingly aimed to normalize and promote his unusual way of practicing Christianity. Among his published books include these titles: Is God Anti-Gay?, 7 Myths About Singleness, What God Has to Say About Our Bodies, and Why Does God Care Who I Sleep With?.

This view that homosexual desires aren’t sinful in themselves would always have a friendly audience amongst liberals who want to normalize homosexual desires and practices. But it also gained traction in conservative Christian circles because it was promoted beneath a fig leaf of maintaining the orthodox view of marriage as one man and one woman. In other words, their message was, “trust us on all things related to homosexuality because we reject gay marriage!”

This is the same word game that prominent leaders like Preston Sprinkle use to normalize unbiblical ideas about sexuality. Sprinkle was the general editor of the NIV Upside-Down Kingdom Bible, which promotes “side B” perspective on gay desires and identity. Personally, I find it unfathomable that someone would publish study notes and articles that deny biblical teaching bound together with the pages of scripture itself. They seem to think holding to the traditional view of marriage gives them license to distort biblical anthropology in other areas.

The view that homosexuality isn’t sinful in itself has been gaining prominence over the last 15-30 years or so, particularly in the late 90s. It crystallized under episcopal priest Wesley Hill’s book, Washed and Waiting. This book outlines the contemporary view that “same sex attraction” (SSA) is a persistent, unchosen experience or temptation that does not require repentance in itself. In other words, if a man is sexually attracted to another man, that attraction isn’t a sin to mortify in itself, it only becomes sin when he physically engages in a sexual act with another man. Some advocates of this view use the label “Side B,” which accepts “gay Christian” as a legitimate identity marker. Some big names who hold this view are Greg Johnson, Rachel Gilson, Nate Collins, and Mark Yarhouse. (As stated previously, Allberry does not hold to the full “side B” position regarding gay identity).

Prominent organizations that promote these views include the “Revoice” conference, “Spiritual Friendship” website, “Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender” (founded by Preston Sprinkle), “Living Out” (Sam Allberry’s ministry), and “EQUIP”. This view has also been platformed in popular media outlets such as The Gospel Coalition (TGC) and Christianity Today (CT). CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) has used Preston Sprinkle’s training materials for their staff. In short, this is a large, influential movement promoted by prominent leaders and enjoys solid funding and institutional support.

This is one of the most destructive forces in modern evangelicalism. And the whole godless enterprise needs to be dismantled, brick by brick, and burned to the ground.

To understand the depths of this error, you need to understand three important categories the Bible uses to describe human sexuality: behavior, desire, and identity.

Behavior

The Biblical view of sexual behavior is this: God designed physical intimacy to be enjoyed by a husband and wife within the covenant of marriage. Any sexual act outside that covenant is sin. Paul uses the Greek word “porneia” to describe a very broad category of sexual sin. Basically, porneia can refer to anything that falls outside of God’s prescribed boundary of sexual activity.

Allberry claimed to agree with this, which gave him credibility to speak on these matters to conservative Christian audiences. He affirmed traditional marriage, opposed homosexual sex, and advocated celibacy for Christians who experience “same-sex attraction.”

Behavior was never where he diverged from orthodoxy. The divergence came one level deeper.

Desire

The Bible isn’t merely interested in sexual acts people perform with their body parts. The Bible also addresses the desires that lead to those acts, and humans are morally culpable for those desires. This is where Allberry’s error lives, and where side B does its nastiest damage.

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