4 Out of 5 Catholic Men Confess This Sin
They confess to looking at pornography and masturbating.
It’s awkward, I know, to say it so candidly, but the only way to defeat pornography in our lives is to admit that we have a widespread problem with it.
Vice, Firmly Entrenched
By the time I was in high school, the habit of lusting after women via pornography was firmly entrenched in my soul. I was an atheist at the time.
I recall listening to a popular late night radio show during these years, where the female host–allegedly a psychologist with a Ph.D.–counseled callers that looking at pornography and masturbating were good, healthy things for a young man to do. I knew I couldn’t resist the desire to look and lust on a frequent basis, so her words confirmed for me that what I was doing wasn’t something wrong.
Years passed, and I was in college, suffering from an anxiety disorder, panic attacks, and depression. I reached out to God for help, and over the course of many months He came into my life.
But I was still addicted to pornography.
While still an atheist, I remember sitting in an apartment with three Evangelical Protestant friends of mine, and they told me that looking at pornography was a sin. My response: I laughed at them. Yes, laughed.
I laughed because the thought of any man being able to overcome the desire for lust and pornography seemed ludicrous to me.
I told them that “every man does this and anyone who denies it is a liar.” While blunt, and not completely true, my words weren’t too far off the mark, even among Christians.
Jesus Pulled No Punches
A year or so later, God drew me out of atheism, and I became an Evangelical Protestant like my friends.
I was a newly minted Christian and didn’t want to believe that looking at pornography was wrong. But then I