Thinking Deeply about Christian Love: Same-Sex Attraction, Sin, and Spiritual Friendship

In a recent response to my Public Discourse article defending Spiritual Friendship and Revoice, Denny Burk and Rosaria Butterfield argued that our disagreements stem from the difference between the Protestant and Catholic views of sin. While acknowledging that Roman Catholics do not regard involuntary desire for sin (concupiscence) to be sinful, they claimed that Reformed Protestants do. 

Thus, they asserted that I only denied that same-sex temptation is itself sinful because I am Catholic. This is a puzzling assertion, because Butterfield herself has denied that all temptations associated with same-sex attraction are sinful. In Openness Unhindered: Further Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert on Sexual Identity and Union with Christ, she wrote: “Although temptation is not sin itself, it is also not good.” She also wrote of needing to repent “when feelings cross from temptation to sin.” 

Many other Protestants have made similar distinctions. Few pastors in America today have more claim to be standard-bearers of Reformed theology than John Piper. Piper also co-founded the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which Burk currently serves as president. In a sermon on same-sex marriage, Piper’s approach in many ways echoed that of the Catechism of the Catholic Church: 

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