Pastor/author Timothy Keller used the following thought experiment to demonstrate how our sexual feelings and desires can be influenced by social forces:

Imagine an Anglo-Saxon warrior in Britain in AD 800. He has two very strong inner impulses and feelings. One is aggression. He loves to smash and kill people when they show him disrespect. Living in a shame-and-honor culture with its warrior ethic, he will identify with that feeling. He will say to himself, "That's me!" That's who I am! I will express that. The other feeling he senses is same-sex attraction. To that he will say, "That's not me." I will control and suppress that impulse.

Now imagine a young man walking around Manhattan today. He has the same two inward impulses, both equally strong, both difficult to control. What will he say? He will look at the aggression and think, "This is not who I want to be, and will seek deliverance in therapy and anger-management programs." He will look at his sexual desire, however, and conclude, "That is who I am."

Keller concludes, "And where did our Anglo-Saxon warrior and our Manhattan man get their grids? From their cultures, their communities, their heroic stories … they are filtering their feelings, jettisoning some and embracing others. They are choosing to be the selves their cultures tell them they may be."