A thread on pornography addiction in white evangelical churches, oversimplification of knowledge and growth, and why it's hard for these communities to deal with sexual predators like Ravi Zacharias: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1360618…
@socofthesacred - a thread on how evangelical models of knowledge and growth perpetuate pornography addiction, even in attempts to people who are struggling; and how this leads to an inability to recognize and respond to sexual predators like @RaviZacharias
Postscript: To borrow a metaphor from Jeremy Begbie to think about the Mind of the Spirit vs the Mind of the Flesh in Rom 8 and apply it to well-intententioned but misguided ways that churches try to help people struggling with sex addiction (or just about any other struggle):
It's like the Mind of the Spirit & the Mind of the Flesh are two songs playing in the same room on separate sound systems. Good formation helps you turn up the music from the Mind of the Spirit & turn down the competing music of the Mind of the Flesh.
Malformation trains us to do the opposite. False gospels are dangerous b/c they attempt to appropriate everything good that comes from the Mind of the Spirit and attribute it to the Mind of the Flesh, teaching us to rely on the Mind of the Flesh in the ultimate bait-and-switch.
It's like adding a third sound system that is powered by the same source as the Mind of the Flesh, but it plays music that counterfeits the melody and lyrics of the song of the Mind of the Spirit.
If followed, the music of the false gospel confuses the believer as to which music is coming from the Mind of the Spirit and which is coming from the Mind of the Flesh.
They might try to turn up the volume on the false gospel song, only to find that this turns up power on the Mind of the Flesh song and increases their struggles.
The Mind of the Spirit song either gets drowned out or the volume gets turned down anytime it suggests another way because it's lyrics now sound "unbiblical" according to the false gospel song.
It doesn't mean the struggling person isn't a real Christian. It just means that they have become enslaved again the flesh by submitting to a false gospel in their efforts to know and obey God.
Also, credit for this metaphor goes to Douglas Campbell, who develops Begbie's musical metaphor to discuss Romans 8 in "Pauline Dogmatics."
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