Confessions of a Porn Addict

According to a figure cited in an article on CNN.com, at any given moment there are about 28,258 Internet users looking at porn. Being a guy, this number didn't surprise me at all - if anything it seems kind of low.

What did surprise me were the results of an unscientific poll, conducted by the surreally-named XXXChurch.com, which found that 70 percent of Christians admitted to having an ongoing porn problem. "Problem" was defined as an addiction having reached the point where it had a negative effect on their personal lives, ruining relationships with their significant others and family members.

The founder of XXXChurch.com, Craig Gross, said 76 percent of the pastors he interviewed also confessed to having a porn problem. Gross says he isn't surprised by these figures, since pornography has become mainstreamed to the point where it is a $12 billion-a-year industry with 4.2 million porn sites to surf.



Gross founded the online ministry XXXChurch.com to start a dialogue about what he saw as the growing issue of porn use within the church. Along with his site, he also hosts periodic breakfast meetings that he has dubbed "Porn & Pancakes."

In addition to attending porn conventions and handing out bibles to the attendees, Gross travels to college campuses across the country and engages in debates with porn legend Ron Jeremy on pornography's effects on its users.

But Gross' methods are mild in comparison with that of Pure Life Christian Ministries, which offers a six-month, live-in treatment program for males with sexual addictions. This entire six-month period is devoted to labor and intensive bible study. All contact with the outside world is cut off - TV, cell phones and especially the Internet.

Their approach is like that of a substance abuse rehab clinic, and they treat their clients' addictions with the same seriousness as alcoholism.

Personally, I don't see porn in itself as a bad thing (as long as it's the legal variety). Like alcohol, it can be a good outlet - when used in moderation. It's when the activity becomes your life as opposed to a fleeting escape from it, that it becomes a problem.

Unfortunately, the Internet allows these activities to be conducted effortlessly and hassle-free - you don't have to spend a dime, and you get to forgo those sheepish walks to the cashier where you request a discreet brown paper bag.

If these time-honored rituals were still in place, porn usage would be a fraction of what it is today. I think it's mostly a matter of will power. But these problems do exist, and though I'm not particularly religious, I admire the efforts of men like Gross to address them.

If there are people for whom porn has become an all-consuming obsession, than I am all for whatever methods they deem necessary to get them back on the straight-and-narrow, and onto a happy and productive existence.