My father and I at times talked about the current status of Christianity and the church. One of his concerns was the proliferation of porn.
When growing up, it was assumed that porn was a product consumed by non-church going types. Sure the convenience stores had some magazines, but for the hardcore material, you had to know where to go or know someone who could get their hands on it.
Pornographic material was kept behind counters and covered in plain brown paper wrapping. If you wanted movies, you had to know where the ‘adult’ theater was. Typically, they were not in nice part of town.
In contemporary society, gaining access to porn is no longer a matter of who you know and familiarity with seedy areas of town. Porn is easily accessed by phone, cable or computer.
There’s no longer any shaming associated with gaining access to it.
This increased accessibility of porn also means that it is no longer confined to a particular community or that other church going types are immune to it. Porn is a problem in many churches, spreading into the pulpits and across sexes.
Porn is now problematic for men and women, for clergy and laity. In the past, it was largely a male problem, but females now consume porn in larger amounts.
This means that porn is wide spread. No areas are free from its effects. It’s no longer a male-only problem, nor is it a non-Christian problem. Yes, the church ladies are now browsing porn.
It’s also invaded the workplace as employers now struggle with the effects of employees visiting porn sites and downloading material at work.
Given the wide-spread reach of porn, it poses problems for cheaters in recovery who seek total change in their lives. Porn has ways of dragging them back into former ways of thinking, feeling and doing things.
It encourages them to act out their fantasies.
When in recovery, there are times you take it day by day. At those times, even a little porn poses threats. Assuming that porn is a step-down from the affair is a disastrous mistake.
A little porn triggers the old self-centered thinking that pointed them in the direction of the affair in the first place. This is why porn is one of the triggers needing your attention as part of your affair relapse prevention plan.
In the video “Preventing Affair Relapse”, you’ll learn more about triggers and high risk situations. Porn is one of those items that increases risks of relapsing. When you join the support community at Restored Lifestyle, you’ll have free access to this video and others as part of your membership.
Keeping It Real,
Jeff
