In five minutes, Voddie Baucham exposes the pornographic nature of our culture and provides men and women with a key tool necessary to fight addiction. See the full resource at http://desiringGod.org/articles/how-t…
pornography
Reminder – NEW STEP Group Starting in May
Our founder, Jorge, will be leading his eighth step study group starting in May.
The group lasts for about 12 months and you will go through all the steps including the pre-step and post-step work in the Castimonia book.
They will meet every week on Saturday mornings from 8:00am to 9:55am before the 10am Saturday Castimonia meeting in Katy. There is no cost to join the group but you must purchase a copy of the Castimonia book. Out of town guests will be able to use Zoom to join the group if they cannot attend in person. Houston-area members will need to attend in person.
This group takes a strong, long term commitment and is great for those ready to work the steps and have the Lord change their lives.
Please have any interested individuals contact Jorge at jorge@castimonia.org.
FREE Choose Connection Conference April 10-19 (Online)
This summit brings together more than 40 experts focused on
- Betrayal recovery
- Trust repair
- Relational healing
It’s designed to give practical tools, compassionate guidance, and real hope for couples and individuals navigating the aftermath of betrayal.
Our very own Chris Archinal has a session that focuses on his Transformational Recovery Matrix.
You can attend for free and watch all sessions online.
This is for you and others you support who are walking through betrayal recovery.
Register here: Choose Connection Summit April 10-19
How Porn Affects Church Attendance
Originally posted at: https://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/how-porn-affects-church-attendance/
As time goes on, it seems like more and more Christians are watching porn. The average pew-sitter today is likely to have struggled with pornography at some point. And this struggle is also likely to pull them away from church. A growing body of research suggests that watching porn goes hand-in-hand with lower church attendance.
If true, this poses a serious threat to the Church! Let’s take a close look at the data and exactly what it tells us. We’ll also explore what this means for the Church, Christians, and their relationship with pornography.
Church Attendance Is Down
First, it’s no longer breaking news that religion in America is declining overall. More than any prior time in the nation’s history, Americans are identifying as “non-religious.” We should understand trends with pornography consumption in the context of increasing overall secularization.
Even among professing Christians, statistics suggest that church attendance has sharply declined since the COVID pandemic in 2020. George Barna reports that those who attend church only infrequently or never has risen by up to 56% since the pandemic.
Certainly, there are many factors other than pornography at work in these trends. However, we will see the close relationship between decreased church attendance and increased porn consumption.
Porn Pulls People Away From God
We know that watching porn can make people feel far from God. Statistics bear this out. In The Healing Church, Sam Black writes:
“A study at a Christian university found that among Christian students who use pornography, 43 percent of men and 20 percent of women say their pornography use worsened their relationship with Christ. Further, 20 percent of men and 9 percent of women reported their pornography use caused them to lose interest in spiritual things” (page 8).
This corroborates what we’ve seen at Covenant Eyes. For more than two decades we’ve been helping people break free from pornography. When we survey our members, they tell us the main reason they’re using our service is to help their relationship with God.
Church attendance is one tangible way this bears out in peoples’ spiritual lives. As our society consumes more pornography, fewer people are going to church.
Regular Church Attenders (Generally) View Less Porn
Interestingly, professing Christians view just as much pornography as non-Christians. But the numbers tell a different story when you examine them closely: Christians who regularly attend church view much less pornography than those who don’t attend church.
A study out of the University of Calgary concluded that adolescents who regularly go to church are half as likely to view pornography as those who don’t. Looking at data from the General Social Survey (GSS), Lymon Stone of the Institute for Family Studies has found even more striking differences. Stone calculates that those who regularly attend religious services are five times less likely to view pornography than those who do not. This matches the findings at the Christian university: Watching coincides with feeling far from God and makes people less likely to get involved in spiritual communities.
Regular Church Attenders Are Also Becoming Likelier to View Pornography
Some shocking survey data has suggested that as many as two-thirds of Christian men watch pornography regularly. Some have even speculated that Christians watch more pornography than non-Christians. As we’ve seen, the statistics do not bear this out for the people most involved with the Church. But there’s still plenty of reason to be concerned for the people in the pews.
The Barna Group published research on Christians and pornography in The Porn Phenomenon. Here are the numbers of Christians watching porn at the time (2016):
- 13% of all Christians
- 41% of male Christians 13-24
- 23% of Christians 25 and up
- 13% of Christian females aged 13-24
- 5% of Christian females over 25
- 21% of youth pastors and 14% of pastors
These statistics indicate slightly lower porn consumption among Christians than reported by the GSS. Even so, more than one in ten Christians overall are struggling, with nearly half teenage boys and young adult men. Christian women over the age of 25 are the least likely group to struggle, but those who do often experience deep shame and isolation.
Despite porn being less of an issue inside the church, it’s still a MAJOR problem. And statistics indicate that it’s on the rise even among Christians.
Christians Feel Worse About Viewing Porn Than Non-Christians
In the past ten years, the problems associated with pornography have been widely acknowledge, even outside of Christian and other religious communities. There are negative effects of pornography that reach far beyond the spiritual realm, and secular organizations like NoFAP and Fight the New Drug have recognized this and are tackling the problem head-on. Even people with no religious qualms about pornography may experience shame from it.
However, as sociologist Samuel Perry has noted, Christians tend to be disproportionately affected by pornography. In an interview with The New Yorker, Perry noted that Christians who watch pornography are more likely to experience mental health problems, identity issues, and relationship problems. Perry suggests that this disproportionately negative experience of porn among Christians, rather than motivating them to give up pornography, may be what is pulling them away from the Church.
What Does This Mean for Your Church?
What are the implications for churches in America? More importantly, how should pastors and ministry leaders in 21st-century America respond to the pornography crisis?
Churches That Fail to Address Porn Are More Likely to Struggle
Karen Potter is a national speaker, podcast host, and Director of Marketing, Church, and Affiliate Channels for Covenant Eyes. After years of speaking at churches and meeting hundreds of church and ministry leaders, Karen has noticed a trend. Churches that do not tackle the issue of pornography head-on are more likely to struggle overall with church attendance.
On the other hand, churches that do have teaching, programs, and discipleship in place to confront pornography, are more likely to be thriving and flourishing. Your church can’t afford not to address the problem of pornography. While the statistics are frightening, they also point to a tremendous opportunity. Churches can make a difference.
Tackling Pornography Requires a Culture Shift for Most Churches
In The Healing Church, Sam Black looks at positive examples of churches that are the most successful in helping people overcome pornography. The answer is not having the right program or people in place, he says. It’s about establishing the right culture:
“Those cultures are focused on creating disciples who love God, live in authentic community, love one another, and serve and share their joy with others. It permeates everything these churches do, and their leaders are passionate about it. This brand of discipleship doesn’t fall to charismatic personalities at these churches. The champions, the inciters of change, are ordinary staff members, volunteers, and church members who have walked this journey themselves” (p. 197).
Any church can do this, but it takes a willingness to change.
Healing Churches Can Reverse the Trend
The concept of a “healing church” isn’t abstract or unattainable. Black spells out how to make this happen in his book. You can join the growing number of churches that recognize the problem of pornography and do something about it. Furthermore, you can be part of a counter-cultural movement that is meeting people where they’re at and pointing them to the Gospel of Jesus.
Keith Rose holds a Master of Divinity degree and BA in Sacred Music. Keith worked with the Covenant Eyes Member Care Team for 15 years. He has also served as a Bible teacher, pastoral assistant, music director, and elder at his local church. He’s now the editor of the Covenant Eyes blog and the author of Allied: Fighting Porn With Accountability, Faith, and Friends. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Ruby and their children. Contact Keith with blog inquiries.
How Addicted Are They? Levels of Porn Addiction
originally posted at: https://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/how-addicted-are-they-levels-of-porn-addiction/
Have you ever noticed how many different approaches there are to overcoming porn? Even in closely connected Christian circles, we find completely different—even contradicting—recovery programs and advice.
There are many reasons for the differences, and some have to do with deeply held convictions about how God works to change people. However, I believe one often-overlooked reason for the different approaches to quitting porn is that different people experience different levels of bondage to porn.
Not everyone who watches porn should be considered “addicted.” The occasional temptation to browse porn is very different from a constant, habitual struggle. So it stands to reason that different kinds of temptation require different kinds of accountability.
Jim Cress, a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist, says, “Things that were formed in intensity in my life will be changed through intensity in my recovery.” The road to recovery will look very different depending on the individual’s struggle. As an ally for someone in the fight against porn, understanding what kind of grip porn has on them will greatly enhance your ability to help them.
The Problematic Porn Usage Scale
Over the past few decades, as more psychologists and sociologists have taken interest in the effects of porn, they’ve tried to find ways to categorize the way people use it.
One group of researchers created the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS). It uses six different factors to help determine the point at which porn becomes “problematic.”1
- Salience—How big of a role does porn play in this person’s life?
- Mood Modification—Do they use porn to self-soothe when they’re feeling stress or other emotional difficulties?
- Conflict—Do they keep watching porn despite problems it causes in their life?
- Tolerance—Do they need to keep increasing the amount or extremity of porn they watch to achieve the same effect?
- Relapse—How quickly do they revert to watching porn after resolving to stop?
- Withdrawal—What withdrawal symptoms do they experience when trying to quit porn?
Of course, at Covenant Eyes we believe that any amount of porn is problematic and should be avoided. The problem with the PPCS is that it assumes there’s an OK amount of porn to watch—essentially, how much porn can you get away with?
Related: Why is Porn So Addictive? 4 Reasons It’s Tough to Resist
Still, the concept of a scale for “how bad is it” is very helpful, both for those trying to quit porn and for their allies. Where someone is at in these six areas make a huge difference in their battle against porn.
Dr. Kevin Skinner’s 7 Levels of Pornography Addiction
Dr. Kevin Skinner takes a different, and I believe more helpful, approach. He takes the same sorts of factors into account, but he sees addiction to porn as a spectrum. The higher someone’s level of addiction, the more radical measures they’ll need to take to recover.
In chapter two of his book, Treating Pornography Addiction: The Essential Tools for Recovery, Dr. Skinner describes seven levels of addiction to pornography.
Let’s take a look.
Level 1: Typical Curiosity
Dr. Skinner calls this the “mildest form of involvement with pornography a person can have.” This person has only seen porn a handful of times at most. What they did see was probably by accident, and they didn’t keep watching.
Level 2: Growing Curiosity
“The challenge at this level is that there is a growing curiosity,” says Dr. Skinner. This person still has spent little time watching porn, but what they’ve seen has sparked curiosity. He adds, “The time spent thinking about or viewing pornography is still relatively limited, but the growing interest can escalate quickly.”
Level 3: Borderline Compulsive
At this level, someone begins to show signs of addiction. They feel they can control their behavior but probably give in to urges to watch porn about once a month.
Dr. Skinner adds, “Fantasizing is also a part of the battle at level three. As their mind tries to avoid thinking about pornography, they still find themselves fantasizing about viewing it…it is common for individuals at level three to start spending extra time and energy fighting off thoughts of pornography and the desire to view it.”
Level 4: Increasing Impact on Life
Moving past level three, we see porn beginning to affect other areas of life. “It may be impacting their ability to focus on tasks for work, school, family life, or relationships,” explains Dr. Skinner. This is generally a person who has struggled with porn for many years.
With this level, you also find more fantasizing than at level three. He goes on, “They are viewing pornography a few times each month and are looking at more hard-core types of pornography.”
Another common feature of level four is increased withdrawal symptoms when they resist the urge to look at porn. For more, see 10 Symptoms of Porn Addiction Withdrawal (And How to Manage Them).
(At levels three and four, the ally relationship becomes increasingly important. It’s not enough to have email reports; you need to have regular check-ins and accountability meetings).
Level 5: Pornography in Daily Life
The difference with level five is, “There isn’t a day that goes by when they don’t think about looking at pornography or give in and look at it.” At this point, porn has taken a firm grip on the individual, and it has started to dictate other parts of their life.
Withdrawal symptoms are more intense and difficult to manage. At level five, someone can usually hold back from porn for only a few days before giving in again.
Level 6: Pornography Dominates Life
Pornography has now moved from the periphery of daily life to a central place. Dr. Skinner says, “At level six, compulsive behaviors and actions are common. Individuals at this level are likely to feel out of control.” Additionally, “There is also a good chance this level of involvement with pornography has created many situations where a person has had to lie to cover up [their] activities.”
By the time someone gets to level six, they’ve made some serious sacrifices to porn. At Covenant Eyes, we’ve spoken with people who’ve lost marriages, high-paying jobs, and friendships, and some have even gone to prison.
Level 7: Out of Control
At level seven, porn has become a ticking time bomb in an individual’s life, if it hasn’t already exploded. Even serious consequences may fail to deter this person.
Their life is controlled by porn. The types of pornography they consumed have likely become very extreme or even illegal. In many cases, they move on from pornography to act out in other sexual behaviors.
Related: How Long Does It Take to Recover From Porn Addiction.
Accountability for Different Levels of Addiction
When you agree to be an ally for someone, you should try to understand their level of involvement with porn. Is this someone at level one or two who wants to avoid temptation? Have they moved on to level 3 and 4 and are struggling with compulsive desires to watch porn? Has porn gained a more consuming hold on their life, so that temptation is a daily struggle?
At levels one and two, simply installing accountability software like Covenant Eyes on your devices will likely deter porn-watching. However, the higher the level of addiction, the more frequently they will need accountability check-ins.
For someone who has reached levels six or seven, quitting porn will require consistent, dedicated effort, and the willingness to take extreme measures. Higher levels of addiction will especially benefit from qualified counseling or even an intensive treatment program.
For more, see How to Quit Porn: 6 Essential Steps.
5 Basic Questions to Help Determine if Someone Is Addicted to Porn
Dr. Peter Kleponis is a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist and an expert in the area of porn addiction recovery. He has five simple assessment questions to ask:
- Are you preoccupied with porn and sex? Do you think about it a lot, even when you’re not viewing it?
- Do you use porn to escape negative feelings? I.e., do you turn to porn when you’re sad, lonely, or depressed?
- Have you developed a tolerance for porn? (Has your porn increased, even in the amount of porn you watch, or the kinds of porn you watch—violence, BDSB, etc.)
- Are you dependent on porn? Does it feel like you need porn just to deal with your normal responsibilities?
- Do you take great risks to view porn? I.e., have you viewed porn at work or in a public place? Have you continued looking at porn despite the consequences?
For more, see Help For Porn Addicts: Finding the Right Treatment.
Beáta Bőthe, István Tóth-Király, Ágnes Zsila, Mark Griffiths, Zsolt Demetrovics, Orosz Gábor, “The Development of the Problematic Pornography Consumption Scale (PPCS),” The Journal of Sex Research 55 (2017). 10.1080/00224499.2017.1291798.
Kevin Skinner, Treating Pornography Addiction (GrowthClimate, Inc: Provo, 2017), 24-30.
Keith Rose holds a Master of Divinity degree and BA in Sacred Music. Keith worked with the Covenant Eyes Member Care Team for 15 years. He has also served as a Bible teacher, pastoral assistant, music director, and elder at his local church. He’s now the editor of the Covenant Eyes blog and the author of Allied: Fighting Porn With Accountability, Faith, and Friends. He lives in the mountains of North Carolina with his wife Ruby and their children. Contact Keith with blog inquiries.
