CCT 28-1_LR

There is a strong correlation between trauma, shame, and pornography usage. I spell “s-h-a-m-e” as “Self-Hatred-at-My Expense.” I explore the various shame scripts in the inner world of men and help them work through their life stories to speak healing truth over these toxic messages. Pornography usage is often an attempt to address an internal problem with a faulty external solution. Let’s look at a biblical foundation of the very real struggle with pornography. I regularly share this quote from my mentor and friend, the late Dr. Larry Crabb, from his book, The Silence of Adam (now retitled Men of Courage: God’s Call to Move Beyond the Silence of Adam ). Larry warns, “Unless men honestly face their stubborn delight in forgetting and their commitment to passions stronger than their desire for God, lasting change will never occur.” 1 What does the statement “their stub born delight in forgetting” mean? The fantasy of pornography is always a bypass of God and an attempt to anesthetize the deepest longings of our souls. Sexual temptation and lust seductively call us to forget about the painful realities of living in this fallen world. God told Adam and all men in Genesis chapter 3 that our world would be filled with “thorns and thistles.” No longer would we be walk ing in the lush, peaceful paradise of the Garden of Eden. I believe the seduction of pornogra phy is a futile, dead-end invitation by Satan and our own internal lusts to get us as close as possible to the “Eden Experi ence.” Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV) reveals God’s clear diagnosis of our struggle with sin, compulsivity, and addiction. God states, “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Pornog raphy is such a vivid picture of a “broken cistern.” Psychiatrist and best-selling author, the late M. Scott Peck, reminded us, “Truth or reality is avoided when it is painful.… Conversely, we must always

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christian counseling today VOL. 28 NO. 1