Could Mormons Be Right about Porn Addiction?
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Could Mormons Be Right about Porn Addiction?

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Could Mormons Be Right about Porn Addiction

This post was originally published on September 15, 2014.

Apparently, Mormons are becoming addicted to porn and it’s really bothering other Mormons. This has become such an issue that The Church of Latter-Day Saints, aka the Mormon Church, has designed a specialized recovery program (based on the 12 steps) and released a five-minute video about overcoming pornography addiction with the help of Jesus Christ.

Anyone who isn’t familiar with spiritual-based recovery probably thinks that putting the words “porn addiction” and “Jesus Christ” in the same sentence is pretty ridiculous—and it is. But as someone who is in a 12-step program, I actually understand where they are coming from. The good people of the LDS church are simply saying that if you want to overcome addiction, you need to surrender to God—and for Mormons, Jesus Christ is God. This is not a new concept; in fact, it’s a well-tested method of recovery whether you agree with it or not.

The Mormon Scale of Porn Addiction?

I am pretty curious to know, however, what the LDS community considers to be a porn addiction. Almost every man I have ever dated has been into pornography on some level and while I have never been thrilled about that, it’s something I have learned to accept as a fact of life in the non-Mormon world. (I know plenty of women who are into porn, too.) But Mormons—who are not supposed to drink alcohol or coffee or even show their shoulders—are forbidden to engage in lust at all so I would imagine that porn in any capacity (not to mention provocatively glancing at your neighbor’s exposed ankles) might be considered a problem. Also, does anyone else think it’s creepy that the church knows what their members are wacking off to?

But the LDS community are not the only ones struggling with the consequences of compulsive porn watching. So, in typical Latter Day Saint fashion, the Mormon Church has opened up their program to anyone in Utah Country, Utah who wishes to seek help in recovering from Satan’s attacks of “unprecedented fury.” And when they refer to porn as Satan, they mean it. According to Adam Moore, the clinical director of Utah Valley Counseling in Provo, the majority of his clients suffer from some kind of sex addiction and no amount of pornography should be considered healthy or normal. While my gut reaction is to judge this statement as uptight and extreme, it mostly makes me reflect on how misunderstood sex addiction really is.

Steady Habit Versus Addiction

Watching porn has become so mainstream that few I know are ashamed of the activity. But identifying as a sex addict is a whole other tube of lube. As someone who considers herself a recovering sex addict, I know first hand how poorly that label is received. I have found myself on podcasts and in social conversations explaining and defending the realities of sex addiction and it never fails to shock me how reactive people are. While some suggest that the people who challenge the existence or severity of sex addiction are probably the ones who struggle with it—”the one who denied it supplied it” kind of thing—I think the real problem is the wide net that sex addiction casts and how it ends up being an umbrella term for all compulsions relating to sex.

This confuses people. When they hear the term “alcoholic,” they know you are talking about someone who is addicted to alcohol—someone whose life falls apart as a result of their drinking. But when they hear the term “sex addict,” there are a number of images that may come to mind: Hugh Grant and transsexual hookers; Tiger Woods and his marital indiscretions; David Duchovny and the popularity of Californication. Whether any of these men are sex addicts or not is irrelevant; the point is that people either don’t really know what sex addiction is or they think it’s a joke. And while I am no Mormon, I have sat in the rooms of sex addiction self-help groups and heard the stories of lives and families torn apart by porn addiction. So Mormons, you may or may not have actual sex addicts in your church but at least you’re helping people to understand that sex addiction is no joke. I may not agree with all your principles (or your definition of addiction) but on this point, I think you’re onto something.

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About Author

Danielle Stewart is a Los Angeles-based writer and recovering comedian. She has written for Showtime, E!, and MTV, as well as print publications such as Us Weekly and Life & Style Magazine. She returned to school and is currently working her way towards a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. She loves coffee, Law & Order SVU, and her emotional support dog, Benson.