St. Niketas Stethatos wrote in the Philokalia, Vol. III:
"The unconfused union and conjunction of soul and body constitutes, when maintained in harmony, a single reality, whether on the visible level or in their inner being. When not harmonious, there is civil war in which each side desires victory. But when the intelligence takes control, it at once puts an end to the jealousy and establishes concord, conforming the entire soul-body reality to its inner being and the Spirit."
Earlier in his treatise on spiritual knowledge, he writes:
"So long as you live according to your fallen impulses you are dominated by your fallen mortal self. But once you die to the world, you are set free from this domination (cf. Rom. 7:2). We cannot die to the world unless we die to the mortal aspects of ourselves."
Which illustrates perfectly how we have to die to our fallen impulses in order to be free.
Anyone who is thus subject to their base desires cannot be said to be free, for they wage within themselves a civil war between the nous, which pursues righteousness and unity with Heaven, and their base, bodily desires. Of course, the average monk struggles with these issues, let alone the average Christian, but in recognizing this problem and struggling, there can be an actual direction for improvement.
The issue is really the rejection of God -- it will produce the results that we see in Western society today. The body now dictates morality. If a thing can be said to stem from a natural urge, it can be justified in most circumstances. The mind tends to always bend over backwards to justify base desires.
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