If you are a Christian man who uses pornography habitually or compulsively, you are a sinner, a voluntary slave to sin—but not a porn addict. The longer you view yourself as a victim, and the longer you think of yourself as an addict who needs treatment, recovery and hand-holding, the longer you will take to repent of your sin and conquer pornography.
“Christian porn addict” is an oxymoron. The phrase ranks right up there with exact estimate, working vacation, same difference, civil war, genuine imitation, unbiased opinion and government savings plan. If you watch, read or listen to pornography habitually, God calls you an adulterer, a fornicator, void of understanding, deceived, and wicked—but never an addict.
Here are the top reasons you should stop calling yourself a Christian porn addict.
1. Porn addiction doesn’t exist
According to The American Psychological Association (APA), “Addiction is a chronic disorder with biological, psychological, social and environmental factors influencing its development and maintenance. About half the risk for addiction is genetic.” The APA says pornography addiction doesn’t exist. The APA says you can get physically addicted to drugs and alcohol, but never to pornography.
2. You are not a victim
The problem with calling your sexual sin an addiction is that it puts you in the position of victim. Celebrate Recovery and most other Christian-based recovery programs tell you that you view porn because you suffered a deep emotional or spiritual wound as a child, and that you use porn today as your drug of choice to escape your trauma. But the Bible says no such thing about sexual sin. Jesus says that if you look at a woman to lust after her, you are an adulterer, not a victim. As far as God is concerned, why you commit your sexual sin seems irrelevant. A biblical view of your sexual immorality takes your eyes off yourself and places them on a holy God who demands sexual purity from you, regardless of your past.
3. You don’t need treatment
The American Psychiatric Association says individuals who are addicted to drugs, alcohol and other substances require an assessment by a medical professional, followed by treatment, such as hospitalization for medical withdrawal management (detoxification), followed by medication to control drug cravings, relieve symptoms of withdrawal, and prevent relapse, followed by outpatient medication management and psychotherapy. The Bible suggests no such treatment plan for those who engage in sexual immorality. To those who watch porn compulsively or habitually, the scriptures give clear and direct commands:
- Gouge out your right eye if it causes you to sin, and throw it away (Matthew 5:29)
- Flee sexual immorality (1 Corinthians 6:18)
- Put lust to death (Colossians 3:5-6)
- Make no provision for the flesh (Romans 13:14)
- Use the way of escape from sexual temptation that God always supplies (1 Corinthians 10:13)
- Take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5)
4. You don’t need 12-steps
If you watch porn but want to quit, you don’t need to take 12 steps anywhere. You need to take one step—repentance. Watching porn is a sin. The cure for sexual immorality is not to attend a weekly 12-step recovery meeting. The remedy is to repent of your sin and to turn to Christ for forgiveness. The only path forward that God approves of is one that no longer involves your sexual sin. God does not expect you to wean yourself off porn over the space of weeks or months by attending recovery meetings and working your way through the 12 steps. God demands immediate obedience. He demands that you forsake your sin today—and never go back.
5. You are not powerless
One of the hallmarks of so-called Christian addiction treatment programs is the affirmation they require everyone to recite as Step 1 to recovery: “We admitted we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.” But this is not how God sees it. God views porn as sin. And sin is never something you are powerless over.
God commands your obedience because He knows your obedience is possible. A life of sexual purity is achievable. Getting through today without watching porn or masturbating is attainable. You are not powerless. If you are a Christian man who struggles with porn, your life verse is not Step 1 of Celebrate Recovery. Your life verse is Philippians 4:13: “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”
Conclusion
The irony of “Christian porn addiction” is that religious men are more likely to describe their porn problem as an addiction than non-religious men are. In a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, the researchers made this startling discovery:
People who viewed pornography and believed pornography is morally wrong were more likely to report that they were addicted to porn than those who didn’t find porn use to be morally objectionable. Participants who reported they were religious or who regularly attended religious services were more likely to believe they were addicted to porn, even if their porn use was the same as less religious participants who didn’t believe their porn use was a problem.
The lesson from this research? Christian men who view pornography are conflicted. They know that porn is sinful, but they also know that porn is pleasurable. They overcome their cognitive dissonance by denying their personal responsibility, by refusing to repent of their sin. Instead, they call their habitual sexual sin an addiction. After all, everyone feels sorry for an addict, right?
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