United States (MNN) — If you’re a Christian, you have the same kinds of struggles and problems as anyone else on this planet can have. The difference is, you have God’s Spirit and Scripture to help you name, recognize and fight those struggles.
It’s no game, either. Live long enough and you’ll realize some of the problems and temptations we face can derail a person’s life and mission with devastating speed.
One of those things is pornography, and in the U.S., not everyone thinks it is wrong.
Steve Vander Molen with Set Free points back to a compilation of statistics by Covenant Eyes in 2018. One stated that only 55% of U.S. adults age 25 and older believed pornography is wrong.
That left around 45% who indicated that pornography was morally acceptable. Vander Molen comments, “That number goes way up to 90% for those under 25 years old.”
If you or a friend or family member believe this is okay, please take the facts to heart. Porn is no innocent thing to God, who calls for His people to pursue holiness in every area of our lives. Ignoring Him and going our own way has both serious physical and relational consequences.
“Like drugs and alcohol, viewing pornography stimulates a release of dopamine in the brain. That’s an intense feeling of pleasure. [Again] like drugs and alcohol, the more you view pornography, the more you need,” Vander Molen explains. “Impacts occur with relationships — marital, work, etc. — isolation [occurs too]. The more people get into pornography, the more they tend to isolate because of the shame that comes with it. [Other impacts are] violence, and [lack of] healthy intimacy as God created it to be in marriage.”
(Graphic courtesy Set Free Ministries)
If you know someone trapped in this, God’s Word offers hope and help. Would you pause right now and ask God what you might need to do, learn or search Scripture about?
“Pornography is of the evil one. We need to break this addiction. We need to communicate its impact and work together so that going forward, we can see this trend change, especially amongst our young people,” Vander Molen says.
“Ecclesiastes 4:10 says ‘If one falls down, his friend can help him up, but pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.’ It’s so important that people who are caught up in sin have others to come alongside them and help them through this.”
You can learn more about Set Free at their website, setfreemin.org.
“Many of the people who are addicted to porn were caught up in sexual abuse, and most of the time against their will,” Vander Molen adds. “So it’s so important that people get the help they need to get to that root cause, to lay all of that at the feet of the cross and allow Jesus to come in and provide the healing that only He can do. That’s what we do at Set Free.”
Header photo courtesy of Set Free.
