Atlanta Suspect's Fixation on Sex Is Familiar Thorn for Evangelicals

[George II]

The man accused of killing eight people, including six women of Asian descent, blamed “sexual addiction,” a disputed term used in parts of evangelical culture.

By Ruth Graham
March 20, 2021

When Brad Onishi heard that the man accused of a rampage at three Atlanta-area spas told detectives that he had carried out the attacks as a way to eliminate his own temptations, the claim sounded painfully familiar.

Dr. Onishi, who grew up in a strict evangelical community in Southern California that emphasized sexual purity, had spent his teenage years tearing out any advertisements in surfing magazines that featured women in bikinis. He had traded his online passwords with friends to hold himself accountable. “We had a militant vigilance: Don’t let anything in the house that will tempt you sexually,” Dr. Onishi, now an associate professor of religious studies at Skidmore College, recalled.

The evangelical culture he was raised in, he said, “teaches women to hate their bodies, as the source of temptation, and it teaches men to hate their minds, which lead them into lust and sexual immorality.”

Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the massacres that left eight people dead, told the police this week that he had a “sexual addiction,” and he had been a customer at two of the spas that he targeted. He was so intent on avoiding pornography that he blocked several websites on his computer and had sought help at a Christian rehab clinic. A former roommate said that Mr. Long agonized over the possibility of “falling out of God’s grace.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/20/us/evangelical-sex-addiction-atlanta-suspect.html

[Iliyah]

1. It rarely works regarding the suppression of a human's . . .

natural inherent instinct. But alas, overly controllable so called religious groups attempt to suppress constantly.

[Bettie]

2. It doesn't teach men to "hate their minds"

it teaches them to hate women as the "source of temptation".

They'd all be pure if it weren't for the existence of women.

Religion is the most corrosive element of human society.

[hlthe2b]

9. Exactly...They don't teach control of their own desires, but blame/hatred of women for tempting them

[Wounded Bear]

15. Actually, self-loathing is a key ingredient in Puritanical thinking, if you can call it that...nt

[ProudMNDemocrat]

3. That which is REPRESSED is often OBSESSED....

Especially when it comes to the understanding of Human Sexuality and ultra Conservative evangelical Christianity.

[MineralMan]

4. Some fundamentalist Christian churches

attempt to deny even the existence of human sexuality altogether. Many even teach that masturbation is fornication. When such teachings are taken to heart by adolescents, the teachings conflict sharply with biological imperatives and cause inner turmoil. For some adolescents, who have other underlying psychological problems, it can flip them into becoming sexual predators, filled with self-loathing, and with no outlet for their feelings.

I suspect that something like that was at work with the Georgia shooter. He was not able to process the conflict, so he shot the very people who he blamed for his sexual activities.

I blame his religious upbringing for his murder spree, frankly

[DTRV]

5. Atlanta Suspect Is A Volcel

Your sentiment confirms he was a volcel, not an incel. A youtuber who does social commentary incorrectly mentioned he was a full incel but had accurate takes on the implicit racist assumptions that lead to this tragedy. Eventhough I disagree with volcel religious excused sexual purity, I will say this is the first volcel I know to carry out this type of insanity.

[gopiscrap]

12. welcome to DU

[lark]

6. Who would think that murdering someone would put them in God's grace?

Someone who totally bought that men have rights and responsibilities but women are just to be used or eliminated if inconvenient - someone with a totally toxic non-understanding of the Bible. He Only sees it with men centric woman hating bias.

[Hortensis]

13. Guessing a very emotionally and likely cognitively screwed up person?

Advanced societies need to make at least some mental healthcare available. Talk about an opportunity for jobs creation!

[DTRV]

14. Doesn't save anyone within his faux theology

I thought he was supposed to save all these corrupted women of Satan by exposing them to Jesus!!

[lark]

16. Hmm. hadn't heard that.

What I have heard repeatedly is that he was purposefully eliminating the source of his sex addiction which obviously leaned Asian.

[hunter]

7. Sex worse than suicide, suicide worse than murder. What kind of god do these freaks worship?

Damn their religions.

[malaise]

8. Well there's another religion that insists that their priests

and nuns practice chastity. That is the same denial of human sexuality.
Seeing our neighborhood priest at the drive in cinema with someone else's wife (after he preached about adultery and fornication the same day) was the source of so much laughter that they sent him back to the US.
Lots of religions have some seriously fucked up views on human sexuality and provide fodder for women haters.

[hunter]

10. I have stories... most not for DU.

My first serious girlfriend came from a strictly religious family.

She'd "rescue" these heroin waifs and sometimes have sex with them but she was still a virgin in her own mind because they were girls.

I broke up with her by jumping out of her moving car in Berkeley, California, leaving quite a lot of my skin and blood on the streets.

After her father died she began to rethink her religion and later married a woman who had tried to kill herself in my bathtub.

Yeah, I blame all that unnecessary trauma on religion.

My mom's dream as a teenager was to be a nun, pure and virtuous. She abandoned that dream after meeting a leering, hard-drinking, chain-smoking priest. Then she met my dad and discovered sex was fun.

Unfortunately, my mom's experience with Catholic hypocrisy led her to becoming a Jehovah's Witness... Fortunately the Witnesses kicked her out of their Kingdom when I was in the fourth grade, mostly because she couldn't stay out of politics and frightened many of their men.

After that we were Quakers. They'd listen respectfully to whatever my mom had to say about her conversations with God and then move on.

My grandparents didn't have any religion in common except that they were not Mormon. I didn't feel any inhibitions as a kid accepting whatever aspects of religion I thought were positive and rejecting whatever I thought was negative or stupid. In my mind all the religious crap the adults in my life were fighting about was stupid.

Whatever their religion my parents were open and honest about sex when we were kids -- so much so that some neighborhood kids were banned from our house. My mom's the sort who would drive a teenager to Planned Parenthood and run over the sandwich boards of protesters in the street on the way out. She is not an atheist. When she reaches the Pearly Gates I suspect she'll start a riot in the waiting room which will be followed by a hard rain of Christian souls in hell.

[malaise]

11. i believe you

The damage done by these people is incalculable