Addiction

Message / Question

What do you say to the pastor who is struggling with pornography?

Response

It is a sad reality that the most common addiction among spiritual leaders is pornography, although substance abuse is not as uncommon as you might want to imagine either! In the USA, Christianity Today conducted a survey and found that 40 percent of evangelical Protestant leaders in the U.S. admitted to having a struggle with pornography.

Addiction is a complex issue, it centres around some chemicals that are produced in our brain: serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and norepinephrine. Many things cause the release of these chemicals, and your brain develops tolerance to them and, as tolerance is increased, the brain begins to want a greater volume of these chemicals in order to reproduce initial effect of the drug. This becomes a “dog chasing its tail” scenario – the more and more often the chemicals are produced, the greater the tolerance becomes and the greater the tolerance, the greater the release of these chemicals has to become in order to achieve the “high”. Such addiction is produced by inputting certain chemicals (e.g. alcohol, illicit substances) and by activating their release by the sensory pathways (sight, taste, touch, sound, smell). Pornography uses the sensory pathways to stimulates these chemical releases in the brain, however the addiction itself remains a psychological addiction rather than a physical addiction (in over simplistic terms, psychological addiction occurs where the brain is stimulated to produce these chemicals without the use of additional chemical input into the body – e.g. an illicit drug).

So, if addiction to pornography is psychological, why can’t people just “quit”? It’s called an addiction for a reason, and even though someone may know that it’s wrong and may even begin to despise themself for accessing the material concerned, the brain hungers for the chemical release and propels the person to satisfy the perceived need of the chemicals by accessing those things that will cause the chemical release.

OK, so what to say to a pastor who struggles with this form of addiction. First of all, understand that pastors are just as human as everyone else; they have the same human weaknesses and desires. It is a sad reality that more than 75% of males have a struggle of some sort in this area, so it’s not surprising (nor excusable, I hasten to add) to find pastors included in the 75%. Whilst a lot of people don’t understand it, a pastor's role can create loneliness, frustration, emotional pain etc, and, like most substance addictions, pornography becomes a “mood medicine” that becomes a release from the weight of emotional pressure. The sudden release in the brain of the chemicals noted above, provide a temporary escape and produce feelings of euphoria and relaxation.

With any form of addiction, the first step is to admit that there’s a problem – and that first step is probably the hardest one for pastors and other church leaders. Fear of losing their role in the church, damaging the Christian testimony of their church and endangering family life, tend to drive addictions into secrecy. Hiding the issue, especially one as covert as pornography, only pushes the addiction deeper into dark corners.

When we find that a Christian leader has a problem with addiction, we shouldn’t raise our eyebrows and point our fingers in criticism— rather we should respond with compassion and support and seek to encourage them to get professional help and counsel. Encourage them to seek help first of all from a senior ministry who they may trust enough to discuss the issue and seek help. It is good to establish an accountability system where the addicted leader is linked to a couple of peers who are able to keep him to account. Above all, don’t judge them – help them instead.

A good resource is the “Valiant Man” book/course by Dr Allan Meyer. This 10 session resource is available through Careforce Lifekeys (careforcelifekeys.org) and can be used as a group study or privately on line.

One final thing to say to those who want to sit in judgment on a leader who becomes addicted to pornography. Such an addiction is certainly a sin issue, however if we were to nominate the sin that is most rife and causes much damage to the church, it would have to be gossip. Be careful that you don't engage in one sin in order to be critical of someone who is dealing with a different sin.