“Sexual addiction” is not an established psychiatric diagnosis and there is debate in the mental health community about how to define and treat compulsive sexual behavior.
“There is no evidence-based treatment for sex addiction,” said Joshua Grubbs, assistant professor of psychology at Bowling Green State University and clinical psychologist. The treatment of evangelical sexual addiction tends to emphasize total abstinence from any sexual behavior outside heterosexual marriage. “They don’t take into account that humans are creatures with sexual desire,” said Grubbs.
Mr. Long and his family were active members of the Crabapple First Baptist Church in Milton, Georgia, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. In the church youth group for high school students, Mr. Long was “one of the leading youth involved in everything we did,” said Brett Cottrell, a former youth and mission pastor for the church.
In November, an associate pastor at the church, Luke Folsom, preached a sermon on the “battle” against sin. He quoted a verse from the Gospel of Matthew, in which Jesus tells his followers that it may be worthwhile to take out an eye if it leads them to sin.
He continued, addressing the use of pornography directly. “Eliminate that by getting rid of your smartphone, getting rid of the internet connection, anything and everything that would allow you to do that,” he said. “Your soul is at stake.”
Lust, 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 on Friday condemning the violence in the Atlanta area spas, as well as “the suspect’s stated reasons for carrying out this perverse plan.”
The church also emphasized that only the sniper was to blame for his actions. “The women he requested for sexual acts are not responsible for his perverse sexual desires nor are they to blame for these murders,” the church said. “These actions are the result of a sinful heart and a depraved mind.”