Pilgrim I am not necessarily saying it was worse back in the first century. Though, some might claim that.
After all, today Christian sexuality is being deemed as “a harmful myth” to quote Bill C-4 in Canada.
However, during the first century they had similar views that were completely against Christian morality.
In fact almost all the NT texts were written to Christians living in a predominantly Roman world.
I have read many articles written on that issue over the years and even back in high school a teacher focused on the Roman Empire for about 3/4 of the year and part of it was on this particular issue.
In case you are interested, here is one article I found mentioning the sexual morals of Roman society.
https://www.challies.com/articles/3-awful-features-of-roman-sexual-morality/Romans did not think in terms of homosexual or heterosexual.
Roman sexuality even accepted pedophilia.
This is just the tip of the iceberg; but it was often violent when it came to sexuality.
What is true; is that even in the past century, Christian sexuality which was generally accepted view in Western society, has fallen out of favour.
When you and I were young, homosexuals were often mocked and that is why many refused to “come out of the closet.”
I maintain however, that many even in Christian homes, go against what their parents and Church’s teach on sexuality. Mainly because it is so accepted in the world today.
I have some really good Christian friend’s who adopted a 2 year old girl over 16 years ago now.
This young girl’s birth mother was a drug addict and because of this she suffers from high functioning autism.
Now that she 18 and despite the fact my friends tried to bring her up in the Lord. She is now rebelling and wants to identify as a male named Adam.
She has become unmanageable and often will punch her dad.
He once grasped her by the wrist to restrain her and this bruised her wrists.
She called the police and the police officer though understanding of why he did this; said under no circumstance is he allowed to do that again.
He went onto to say that if she does it to him again, he needs to walk away and call the police if necessary.
This girl also started smoking pot; but they were able to convince her that she can not bring it on the property.
They have gone for help for her; but she will not accept it.
They are in the process of trying to find out their options. But so far, they have not found anything that helps; though if she goes way too far; Social Services will help. (What does she need to do, kill someone? Sigh…)
This is but one of the sad stories, Christian friends and relatives are going through.
Tom