Great article from 10 Keys to Breaking Pornography Addiction
Key 08: No Religion Has a Monopoly on Recovery
If your faith is the One True Faith, don?t you think your God still loves me as much as he loves you, and that he wants to help me recover as much as he wants you to recover?
This is not to criticize anyone?s devotion to their faith. I am extremely committed to my own faith traditions. However, I have seen that people of other faiths actually do get sober from this drug. And they do it practicing their own faith traditions. I have seen agnostics and atheists live soberly too.
Which faith traditions they practice doesn?t necessarily seem to make the difference. However, their personal values, whether religious or humanistic, can make a difference in their resolve and commitment to recovery.
I once heard an evangelical minister who for more than twenty years has been a leader in the fight against the pornography industry say that the faith group that had been the most devoted and engaged in warning its people against pornography were the Mormons. Evangelicals and Mormons are not known as the most compatible groups as I understand it.
But he went on and on about what a remarkable job the Mormons were doing in this regard. I would add that I think the evangelical Christians and many other faiths have also been committed in this regard. I have also known Muslim imams who have been equally committed to helping people live free of pornography.
You see, once one commits to engage God in their recovery process (or as the 12 Step groups say, a ?Higher Power,?), something happens. He begins to feel a sense of worth and confidence that transcends his guilt and misery, and raises him out of despair. He becomes humble enough to seek for help outside himself, and he learns to rely on others, and to serve others, and to concentrate every day a little bit more on recovery.
For agnostics and atheists, identifying that Higher Power can be a bit more challenging ? I once had a 12-step sponsor tell me that for a while his chair was his higher power because the chair was being useful, and was therefore better and more powerful than him. But many friends who do not believe in a divine being find their higher power in the potential of man to rise above his own selfishness and look to ethical law and human idealism for guidance.
I would like to share a story that is extremely personal, and reflective of my own faith as a Christian. Forgive me if you are uncomfortable with that, but I hope the story?s point can be instructive to you.
When I was in my early twenties (before the Internet came along), I discovered a new form of pornography that was so exciting to me and such a rush that I immediately tumbled into a pit of acting out. Every other day I would act out in this way. It was a horrible time for me. I was living in a beautiful, northern part of the United States, but all I could sense was the darkness and despair of my behaviour. One day I took a short drive and hiked up a mountain overlooking a waterfall. I sat alone on a rock, trying to sort out my life. I may have been praying, but I don?t remember actually praying. What I do remember, however, is that as I sat there a very clear impression came into my head as if a voice was whispering to me, and it said, ?Just remember, even Christ had help carrying his cross.?
I was stunned by that thought. I remembered the story of Jesus who I considered the Saviour of the World as he was marched to Calvary carrying his heavy cross. Apparently, it looked like he might not make it. So the Roman soldiers compelled a Cyrenian named Simon to carry Christ?s cross for him.
Those words in my head continued to echo. ?Just remember, even Christ had help carrying his cross.? I suddenly realized that I was involved in something so serious and so powerful that I couldn?t do it alone. I couldn?t just will myself into sobriety. This was more than a bad habit, it was an addiction, and for the time being my choices were limited. I needed help, and until I got help I was not going to recover.
So, whatever your faith tradition might be, find your source of strength. My goal is not to convert people to my faith tradition. However, I believe that my God is everybody?s God, and that he wants all of his children to recover and find the happiness that comes from living without pornography, regardless of what their personal religious beliefs might be.
