Christian Track: Rebuilding Your Life after an Addiction to Pornography

Guy in garden smiling

Contributor: Ryan Moffat, BS in Bible and Theology from Multnomah University. Pastor of Vast Church.

What’s chemically more addictive to the body and brain than heroin, caffeine, sugar or marijuana? If you guessed “Pornography” than we have a winner.

Porn has rightfully been called, “The Silent man killer” but now with so many women also engaging with the dangers of porn it might be more appropriate to label it “the silent people killer”.

The problem with pornography is that it takes a good, even great thing, in sexual intimacy and perverts all of its intended purposes and hurts everyone involved. You can see below in this simple chart the opposing views of sex from God’s perspective and Porn’s perspective.

Element God’s Perspective Porn’s Perspective
Purpose Soul oneness expressed in physical oneness Soul isolation expressed in physical aloneness
Emotional Disposition Joy, love, service and gratitude Shame, guilt, fear, self-preservation
Motivation To give yourself fully to your spouse in act of covenantal rehearsal To take for yourself fully in act of selfish manipulation
Great Sex is…. Re-affirming and serving my spouse while also enjoying my spouse A shallow act that is done in secret so that nobody knows.
Conclusion Peace and Security Shame and Guilt

The Devastating Results of Porn

What porn fails to tell you is that there are DEVASTATING results for those who engage in Porn. It’s like the Cinnamon roll that looks so compelling, smells so good but fails to tell you before you mow it down, “Hey, if you eat me you’re going to be a diabetic in approximately 3 hours after consumption.” Some of negative effects are;

  1. Decreased sexual intimacy with your partner
  2. A life plagued by shame and guilt
  3. A higher likelihood to engage in forbidden sexual exploits
  4. Relational damage to those you love the most that may be irredeemable

Three Things to Consider

Cute couple in the parkSo, if you’re wrestling with Porn let me warn you that you’re messing with a monster that won’t be beaten. Let me give you three things to consider;

  1. Get real, professional, trained help! There are ministries and groups that help people with these issues (www.xxxchurch.com, https://www.puredesire.org/en/) to name a few.
  2. Don’t go at it alone! See here for more on that.
  3. Write down all the consequences of Porn. When you see the devastating effects it takes all of the fun out of it!

Now, may you fight the good fight of faith!

Community Discussion – Share your thoughts here!

How do you think that pornography has impacted our society? What do you think we can do to help bring awareness to the issue?


About the Author:

Ryan received his BS in Bible and Theology and a minor in counseling from Multnomah University. He has pastored students, families and is passionate about Christ-centered recovery and healing. He’s been married to his beautiful wife Michelle for 13 years and they enjoy raising four crazy, unique and special kids together.

Ryan is the teaching pastor at Vast Church in Sisters, OR and is currently working on his Masters in Theology at Western Seminary in Portland, OR

Addiction Hope is proud to announce the initiation of a special Christian Track of blogs and articles to commemorate the blessing of our sister site, Eating Disorder Hope’s 10th year anniversary. Watch for further content noted as “Christian Track”.

Last Updated & Reviewed By: Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC on June 19th, 2015
Published on AddictionHope.com