The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

  • Admissions
  • Academics
  • Students
  • M.Div.
  • Online
  • Give
Search
Close
More

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

  • Admissions
  • Academics
  • Students
  • M.Div.
  • Online
  • Give

Apply Now

Visit Campus

(502) 897-4200

Covid Plans

About

  • Beliefs
  • Choose A Faculty
  • Albert Mohler
  • Campus Map
  • Accreditation

Admissions

  • Apply Now
  • Visit Campus
  • Virtual Tour
  • Tuition & Financial Aid
  • Doctoral Admissions
  • Accepted Students
  • Transfer to Southern
  • FAQ

Academics

  • The Southern M.Div.
  • Master of Arts
  • Doctoral Studies
  • Online Learning
  • Diploma Program
  • Hispanos
  • Faculty
  • Academic Centers
  • Global Campus
  • Boyce College
  • Explore Degrees
  • Academic Calendar

Students

  • MySBTS
  • Canvas
  • Housing
  • Student Life
  • Student Success
  • Library Resources
  • Seminary Wives Inst.
  • Technology Assistance
  • Registrar
  • Campus Police
  • Bookstore
  • Writing Center
  • Graduation
  • Health Clinic
  • Career Development

Support Southern

  • Give
  • Foundation
  • Meet the Team

Alumni

  • Alumni Academy
  • Refer A Student
  • Transcript Request

More

  • Southern Equip
  • News
  • Chapel
  • Events
  • SBTS Press
  • Magazine
  • Academic Journals
  • Human Resources
  • Legacy Hotel
Albert Mohler
Trusted for Truth

Burk: Experience of same-sex attraction ‘occasion for repentance’

S. Craig Sanders — December 5, 2014
Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College
Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College

Christians experiencing same-sex attraction should repent of those desires, but God can transform a person’s sexual identity, said panelists at the Evangelical Theological Society annual meeting, Nov. 19.

“This is what I would say to guys in my church, is 'If you are in the moment feeling an attraction for a person of the same sex, that's an occasion for repentance,'” said Denny Burk, professor of biblical studies at Boyce College, the undergraduate school of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “'Well, I didn't choose that.' That's still an occasion for repentance.”

Burk presented a paper titled “Is Same-Sex Orientation Sinful?” and participated in a panel discussion on the issue with fellow lecturers Preston M. Sprinkle, vice president of Boise extension at Eternity Bible College, and Wesley Hill, assistant professor of New Testament at Trinity School for Ministry and self-described celibate gay Christian.

In his paper, Burk assessed three components of same-sex orientation: sexual attraction, romantic attraction, and identity. Burk acknowledged same-sex attraction as a predisposition, but categorized it with sinful predispositions such as pride, anger, and anxiousness. Emotional attraction to the same sex, Burk argued, is sinful so long as it contains “sexual possibility.” The notion of same-sex orientation as a person’s identity is also sinful because “it invites us to embrace fictional identities that go directly against God’s revealed purposes for his creation,” he said.

The terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual” were “ways to describe an identity based on a person's pattern of sexual passions,” Burk added in the panel discussion. “That is not going to be helpful to us or useful to us at the end of the day if we add our endorsements to those identities.”

Burk, however, noted the necessity of using the terminology of sexual orientation, while “scrutinizing it from a biblical perspective” to focus on God’s purpose in creation for sexual desires.

Hill and Sprinkle likewise emphasized the importance of using the terms, even though they are not found in Scripture, for the purpose of recasting that language in a gospel context.

“To say that Christians will simply avoid altogether the language of sexual orientation — gay, lesbian, homosexuality — that would mean in my own experience forfeiting a lot of conversations with people from my own generation who that's just the language they speak,” said Hill, author of the forthcoming book, Spiritual Friendship: Finding Love in the Church as a Celibate Gay Christian.

Sprinkle’s paper, “Sexual Orientation in Paul’s World: It’s Not What You Think,” focused on the absence of understanding sexual orientation as identity in the first century. In the discussion, he affirmed Hill’s statement in line with Paul, who “infuses” Greco-Roman terms with “new meaning or gutted them where they needed to be gutted and transformed them.”

In the panel discussion, the participants clarified the terminology and found themselves in agreement on the sinfulness of experiencing same-sex attraction. Burk distinguished the act of feeling same-sex attraction from the predisposition to sinful desire.

While same-sex attraction cannot be reduced to sexual desire, Burk said, it is the “defining characteristic.” Burk insisted on clarifying that orientation is not feeling sexually attracted “at every moment” but that a person is inclined to have desires in a certain direction.

Same-sex “orientation is not a natural evil to be swept away with tornadoes and earthquakes” as issues of moral indifference. Rather, Burk argued, “it's a moral concern” with which every disciple of Christ must come to terms.

Hill affirmed Burk’s approach to call for repentance when experiencing same-sex desire and added: “I want to be able to say to someone who experiences no shift at all in their unchosen patterns of same-sex attraction, that a life of faithful, Christian holiness is still open to them, every bit as much as if they experienced a dramatic shift in their sexual attraction or their sexual desire.”

Burk added that repenting of illicit sexual desire, whether heterosexual or homosexual, does not mean it will instantly disappear. “Repentance is a way of life,” Burk said. “We’re talking about wrestlings that are deep and visceral” and could go on indefinitely.

Panelists also noted the principles of temptation and sexual desire apply not just to same-sex attraction but to heterosexual lust outside of marriage, providing an opportunity for repentance and growth in Christian discipleship.

“The moral space between a sinful lust and a benign recognition of beauty,” Burk said, is the “apprehension of beauty in which there is no sexual possibility,” just as brothers and sisters in Christ.

“If you're looking at a woman with the purpose of pursuing this illicit lust that's wrong. But I would also say the experience in any degree of that desire is sinful and it's something we should repent of when we become aware of it.”

Tweet

For the Media

For news media seeking comments from President R. Albert Mohler Jr. or other seminary personalities, please contact:

Caleb Shaw
Executive Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff
(502) 897-4121
cshaw@sbts.edu

SBTS News RSS Feed

Albert Mohler

The Briefing from AlbertMohler.com

Monday, January 30, 2023

News & Resources

Episode 54: Guarding Against Pornography
One Year Later, Mayfield Coming Back after Devastating Tornado

Subscribe to Scene@Southern monthly updates

The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

2825 Lexington Road
Louisville, KY 40280

(800) 626-5525

Contact

Emergency

Confidential Reporting

Quick Links

  • A-Z Index
  • Chapel
  • Library
  • Campus Map
  • Student Email
  • Faculty/Staff Email
  • Events
  • Mission Statement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Graduation
  • Employment Opportunities
  • Career Development
  • Housing
  • Campus Police
  • My SBTS
  • News
  • Legacy Hotel & Conferences
  • Health Clinic
  • Bookstore

ADMISSIONS

admissions@sbts.edu
(502) 897-4200

ACCOUNTING

accounting@sbts.edu
(502) 897-4128

FINANCIAL AID

financialaid@sbts.edu
(502) 897-4206

HOUSING

housing@sbts.edu
(502) 897-4203

The institution admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

 

Copyright © 2023 The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. All rights reserved.