Learning from King David’s Mistakes in Fighting Sexual Sin: Excerpt from “Letters from Fawn Creek”

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Both Psalm 32 and 51 concern David’s repentance after it came to light that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and that he lied to cover it up and arranged for the demise of Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah the Hittite, on the battlefield.

Father Augie Lattimore is a Trappist monk and fictional character in Letters from Fawn Creek, who before he became a priest, struggled with substance abuse and sexual addictions. In the excerpt below, he gives his readers some advice on battling sexual sin that would’ve certainly helped King David in his day of testing. Father Lattimore has much more to say beyond this excerpt on this subject, but you’ll have to buy the book to find out. LOL :

In battling a disordered sexuality, one of the obvious things that is so often overlooked is the importance of avoiding the occasion for sin. Another way of saying this is that you cannot sin if you don’t put yourself in the position to sin. You can’t get eaten by a rampaging bear unless you put yourself in close proximity to it. I’m embarrassed to admit how long this took me to learn.

For example, if you’re in a restaurant and there is a very attractive waitress that is causing your mind to go places it shouldn’t, then sit facing the wall. Preferably a wall without a mirror. If you have problems with soft–core pornography late at night on cable TV, then call the cable company and arrange your programming so it’s 100% clean. Or forget cable and TV altogether. Do the same thing with the internet. Put filters on your computer that make it difficult for pornography to come in to you or for you to go to pornography. If you’re traveling on a business trip, only stay in at a motel or hotel that has clean cable programming at night.

Sometimes you may have to end a relationship or get eaten by the bear. This happened to me about six months after I became a Catholic. I began to date a very attractive woman who I thought was on a similar path as mine. After several years in the fashion industry, she had become disillusioned with “Vanity Fair” and was pursuing a more spiritual direction.

She claimed to be a Christian but later said that she had given up on trying to abstain from premarital sex a long time ago because it was simply too hard when she met someone she loved and trusted. Physically, the relationship went too far. Way too far. She had a lot of wonderful qualities, but it became clear that I either would have to end the relationship or be “bear food” as long as I stayed in it.

Being accountable to other men for your sexuality is invaluable in the battle. Even now as a Trappist monk, especially because of my past, I’m accountable to another priest for my thoughts and actions in this arena. If I travel, I will call him and check in and he makes sure I’m staying on the straight and narrow. Men can get in trouble if they are away from home and have time on their hands. The old saying, “Idleness is the devil’s workshop,” didn’t gain currency for nothing.

The primal sexuality within each of us is powerful and it’s helpful to have to answer to someone else besides God: ‘Two are better than one: they get a good wage for their labor. If one falls, the other will lift up his companion. Woe to the solitary man! For if he should fall, he has no one to lift him up’” (Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10)

If you liked this excerpt from Letters from Fawn Creek, you may also want to purchase the book at this link:

https://www.tatepublishing.com/bookstore/book.php?w=9781628542035

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• We All Should Have a Nathan in Our Lives (menofredemption.wordpress.com)
• “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?!” (egwolfephd.wordpress.com)
• How Can Christian Marriages End in Divorce so Easily? (blackchristiannews.com)