Rev. Canon Vaughan Roberts spoke at the Fourth Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in Incheon, South Korea and encouraged his audience to push back against the tenets of the sexual revolution and rather focus on a “Christ Revolution.” Roberts, who is from Oxford, reflected on how the once “countercultural” messaging of the sexual revolution has become mainstream. The push for LGBTQ+ acceptance has made most people afraid to speak against it while children are learning to pick their own pronouns. The result, instead of a culture of prosperity as promised by the sexual revolution is one that has led to the “almost complete collapse of family life in our culture and devastating effects on families, especially the most vulnerable: children,” according to Roberts

Roberts himself has been open in the past about his struggle with same-sex attraction. However, he has pushed to adhering to the Bible’s command for sexuality, rather than giving into his own desires. In a 2012 interview, he spoke of his personal battle. “All of us are sinners, and sexual sinners. But, if we have turned to Christ, we are new creations, redeemed from slavery to sin through our union with Christ in his death and raised with him by the Spirit to a new life of holiness, while we wait for a glorious future in his presence when he returns,” he said. “These awesome realities define me and direct me to the kind of life I should live.”

In his Lausanne address, Roberts again stressed adherence to the Scriptures. “We must turn to God’s never-changing Word and not just to a few proof texts, but to its main overarching themes: Creation, fall and redemption,” he said. “You can summarize God’s design for sex and marriage in some very basic statements. God is for sex.” Roberts pointed to Genesis 2:24 to affirm that “sex is for marriage.” “And in God’s design, sexual union is designed to express, seal and strengthen the one-flesh union,” he stated. His own struggles with same-sex attraction he said, did not define him.

He warned against churches that have embraced the world’s definition of sexuality over God’s clear word in the Bible. Instead, he stated churches must openly proclaim the truth of the Scriptures. “We churches desperately need not to be silent. We’ve got good news to share,” said Roberts. He stated that churches should present that “Christ who said come as you are did not say, ‘stay as you are.’” He stressed repentance and encouraged Christians to offer those struggling with same-sex attraction a safe place to express their struggles. “Brothers and sisters … does the tone and manner in which you speak invite them to be honest and open? Or does it force them into a secret, lonely isolation, which will only be an incubator of shame and sin?” he asked. He called on Christians to push for a Christ revolution, which will be the “greatest revolution the world has ever known, far greater than the sexual revolution.” Even more than morality, he stated that Christians must stress the person of Christ. “I was gripped and excited by Christ. I loved Him, and loving Him, I wanted to live for Him.”