If you’ve been following the news cycle the last couple of days, you’re probably aware of the extremely gross, vile, and filthy article published by Joshua Butler at The Gospel Coalition that depicted Jesus ejaculating his “seed” into His bride (the Church) in the same way that a man ejaculates into his wife. Thankfully, after much pushback from conservatives and exposure from publications like The Dissenter, TGC decided to pull the article from the website.

However, it seems the damage has already been done and that The Gospel Coalition may be facing an uphill battle to restore its reputation as both conservatives and progressives found the article to be distasteful—and conservatives found it to be blasphemous.

In the wake of the uproar over the article, several major endorsers of Butler’s book, Beautiful Union, which was the basis for the article, have retracted their endorsements publicly in writing. Two of those retractions come from Rich Villodas, and Dennae Pierre, who also happens to be a TGC contributor.

Villodas writes in his book retraction that he unfortunately only read about 25-30 percent of the book he was invited to read and endorse, and regrettably, he did not read the section of the book that was posted on The Gospel Coalition’s website. “While I appreciate the helpful reflections from the segments I reviewed,” Villodas wrote, “I clearly see how the excerpt from the article creates conditions for sexual harm that contradicts my commitment to the healing and honoring of women that I’ve worked so hard to embody over the years as a local church pastor and follower of Jesus.”

“Josh’s exegesis and commentary of Ephesians 5 is not just problematic, it’s dangerous.”

Echoing Villodas’s sentiments, Pierre similarly writes that she endorsed the book based on assumptions rather than fully reading it, and regrettably, she wished she hadn’t endorsed something that was on a subject important to her without fully reading it.

“I’m sorry to anyone who is harmed or disoriented by reading the excerpt of the book and feel a breach of trust in my capacity to advocate for the church to dignify women,” Pierre wrote. “I’m especially grieved and sorry for sexual and spiritual abuse survivors. And I am sorry to my friend, Josh, whom I’ve sinned against by not allowing my yes to be yes.”

While these endorsement retractions spell hard times for the future of TGC as TGC has been an attractive spot for neo-feminists like Pierre and Villodas over the years, both seem to miss the even bigger issue with Joshua’s article. The issue isn’t that it degrades women and by extension, men, by reducing love to a sex act—the bigger issue is that it blasphemes a holy and righteous God by comparing His love (ἀγάπη / agape) for us to sexual, romantic (ἔρως / eros) love.

This is exactly what Ann Voskamp did in the last chapter of her book, The Joy of Intimacy, where she writes “I fly to Paris and discover how to make love to God.” There is not one place in Scripture that speaks of God’s love for us that way. Yet, Butler’s depiction of Jesus is the logical conclusion of thinking about God this way and having a poor theology.