A single man can desire a woman and, if he righteously pursues her for marriage, has done no wrong. But a married man cannot even desire another woman without sinning….Similarly, a man cannot righteously desire another man, for God has outlawed it.

Our increasingly avant-garde modern world loves to play word games. All around the Pittsburgh area where I work, you will see signs on front lawns, the sides of city buses, shop windows, and church buildings with a simple sentence. “Love is Love” is posted proudly, usually in rainbow colors. These words suggest “subtly” that the love found in the LGBTQIA+ community is just as good as the love found in other places, such as a traditional place like the monogamous relationship between a husband and wife.

So, in this spirit, let me play the game. My first move is to say, “SSA is SSA.” Same-sex attraction is same-sex attraction.

Now, remember the game as I take my second turn. What I am saying is not really what I mean. Not all loves are equal, for not all loves are moral. What I mean in saying SSA is SSA is that same-sex attraction is sinful sexual attraction.

Sadly, it appears the church needs to hear this truth repeatedly. As the world continues its relentless catechizing to conform us to its image, even some of the strong fall under the pressure. The sad news reached my ears recently that Biblical counselor Ed Welch, whose books and booklets I refer readily and often, apparently has begun to melt under the heat. In this recent review of the second edition of Welch’s popular book, Blame it on the Brain (note: link is to the first edition), Brandon Adkison at The Everman Theologian notes a dangerous shift in Welch’s teaching regarding SSA.

As Adkison shows, in his first edition, Welch said the following about same-sex attraction.

The deception of homosexual orientation must be exposed and corrected. It is a false teaching that will eventually lead to bad fruit.

Yet, in the second edition, what does he say?

If same-sex orientation were the same as lust, it would be sinful and treated by confession and repentance. Such a life would be complicated, however. You would need to confess constantly and would never be quite right with God, as if you were repenting of a preference for left-handedness or for bearing the name that your parents gave you. 

Adkison goes on to further detail the shift in the two editions.

We cannot separate the idea of desire from action, responsibility, and accountability. If the physical health proverb “we are what we eat” is true, how much more the Biblical proverb “as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is” (Prov. 23:7).

The first garden teaches us this truth. The sin of our first parents did not begin but ended when they took from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then ate from it.

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