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Get insight, advice, and encouragement from our community of writers on the topics of porn addiction and sexual integrity.
What do you know about porn addiction?
Any Christian who is engaging in sexual immorality of any kind is a person in conflict. They are a person who believes one thing, but whose actions do not match up with those beliefs. Often it starts by viewing pseudo-pornography–things like modeling sites, chat sites, personal homepages, and other sites that often contain seductive images, but may not be classified as pornography.
Very quickly this kind of online behavior can spiral down to a place where these images don’t cut it anymore–and the viewer begins to “need” more intense images to be stimulated. Often you will hear someone who has gotten addicted say, “I have no idea how I got here–it started so innocently.” Pornography is both very alluring and very addictive. The websites that are distributing the material are designed to draw in the viewer, dangling free content and easy sign-ups in an attempt to capture a new user.
There are good addiction tests all over the web that can help you determine if you have unhealthy sexual behavior. In fact you can try ours. We are not going to attempt to reproduce those here, but we will offer this simple definition and challenge:
If your life is being controlled by your sexual desires and activities instead of YOU being in control of them, then you have a sex addiction and should consider getting help.
Questions you can ask:
Every Christian man and woman is in one of these three groups:
TARGETED
Every Christian is “targeted” by Satan. Just like every young person is a target for cigarette ads because every young person is a potential smoker, so too, every Christian is succeptable to sexual sin. Your walk with God, your faith, your ability to lead a church, your ability to be a strong spouse and parent, your ability to be a person of honor… all are under attack by sexual sin. If you are not “Tempted” or in the “Trenches” (see below) beware that you are not moving in that direction.
TEMPTED
People in the “Tempted” group are those who are already seeing sexual sin or sexual temptation impact their life in some way, have recognized that it could be a significant problem if not dealt with, and/or have recognized a propensity to struggle with lust or sexual compulsivity. Most men fit into this group.
We are somewhat regularly hit with sexualized messages (TV, magazine stands, movies, banner ads, etc.) and often are exposed to pornography without their consent (spam emails, etc.). If sexual temptation is dealt with, is out in the open (via accountability relationships, etc.) then often it can remain just that–a temptation. But in many cases, just as our bodies, if left alone, will naturally decay–i.e., our bodies, on their own, don’t get “fit”–so too, your sexual purity will naturally decline without specific work to stay pure and move towards Christ.
TRENCHES
Those in the “Trenches” are those whose lives are in some large part, being controlled by sexual sin. This could be in the form of internet pornography, an extra-marital affair, or other behavior. Maybe at one point, the problem was limited to the occasional viewing of a pornographic email or quickly viewing an inappropriate banner ad–but has now escalated into full-blown porn addiction. Being in the “trenches” is, by our definition, synonymous with addiction. Other common symptoms of sexual addiction and/or porn addiction include behaviors that have caused or could cause legal, employment, or financial damage (seeing a prostitute, looking at pornography on the job, and using your family savings for online pornography are all examples of this).
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