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Creating a Safe Space for Grace
In this series, where we’re tackling how to address porn in church, I would be remiss if I didn’t address this fundamental reality: our churches need to be safe spaces for grace. In the coming weeks, we’ll talk about how to change the conversation and help women find healing, but the fact is that if the culture of your church chokes out grace, you can talk until you’re blue in the face and it isn’t going to matter. There’s a parable in the Bible (Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20, Luke 8:4–15) that is commonly referred to as the parable of the sower. The short version is this: a sower went out…
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Porn in Church: The Five Most Unhelpful Things Pastors Said About Pornography
As a Christian teenage girl struggling with pornography, I heard a lot of messages about getting help and breaking free from sin. Many of them were unhelpful. In the years since, I have heard several more, either in church or at Christian conferences, or even from magazine editors and other authors. For the next post in the Porn in Church series, I want to address some of them, explain why they aren’t helpful and how we can change them. Let me preface this by saying, this is not an attack on pastors. If you or someone you know has said one of these things, I’m not coming for you with…
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What Every Pastor Needs to Know About Women and Porn
We’re kicking off our Porn in Church series with a guest post from my friend, Sam Black. He’s sharing a bit of his heart on what pastors need to know about women and pornography. In the weeks to come, posts will address more practical nuts and bolts of how to address this issue in churches and help women find healing. Please, share this series with your pastors! Editor’s note: Sam Black, a vice president at Covenant Eyes, is writing a book to pastors on how some churches are successfully addressing pornography among Christians. The following is a condensed chapter excerpt. Want to be the first to hear about the book’s…
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Resource Review: The Great Sex Rescue by Sheila Wray Gregoire
I’ve been looking forward to reading The Great Sex Rescue: The Lies You’ve Been Taught and How to Uncover What God Intended since the moment I knew it was going to exist. As a writer tackling issues of sex and sexuality in the church, I’m a fan of Sheila’s work. The conversation on sex in the church needs to change. That’s just a fact. So, when Sheila and her daughter, Rebecca, started down this path of addressing lies women believe/are taught about sex, I jumped in support. I gladly donated a stack of old Brio magazines for their research. A couple months ago, I reviewed Talking Back to Purity Culture…
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How Do I Support My Wife Who’s Using Porn?
In the last post, I addressed wives who struggle with pornography and how they can tell their husbands. This week, I want to address those husbands whose wives struggle with porn. How can you support your wife in her struggle? You are one of the most underserved demographics in this entire field. It’s not surprising, because when we don’t really talk about women struggling with porn, we’re not really going to talk about their husbands being affected by their porn use. When I spoke for the S.H.E. Virtual Summit an old college classmate reached out and said, “It would be really nice for a conference like this to have a…
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How Do I Tell My Husband I Struggle With Porn?
Today let’s answer the question, “How do I tell my husband I struggle with porn?” As Millennials and Generation Z females (who are more likely to use pornography than older generations) get married, they are running into this issue. It’s especially a struggle for Christian women. Why? Because for years, we’ve talked about porn like it’s only a guy’s issue. It’s how guys are wired. Perhaps you saw the recent viral video of a Missouri pastor telling women that their husbands are going to look because that’s just the way God made men. It’s just how things are. Boys will be boys. All of which is extremely unhelpful and misleading.…
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Resource Review: Unwanted by Jay Stringer
Today, I’m reviewing Unwanted: How Sexual Brokenness Reveals Our Way to Healing by Jay Stringer. As a friendly reminder, as is the case for all of my reviews, I buy these books personally and read them cover-to-cover before I share them with you. No paid endorsements here and no quick skims and half-hearted summaries. The only commission I make is through sharing affiliate links like the one below. If it’s not worth my time and money, it’s not worth yours. I want to say I’ve met Jay before but honestly, I don’t know. Maybe? I think we follow each other on social media… maybe? At any rate, his is a…
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Should We Just Watch Porn Together?
This conversation recently went down in the “community” section of an app I use. “I really wish my husband would stop watching porn. He keeps telling me he’s going to stop but our accounts are linked so I can see that he’s looking at porn at work.” “Girl, give it up and just ask to watch it with him! Watch it together!” And this is an email I got in response to a recent blog post: “I think a woman should tell her husband what type of porn she watches so they can watch it together. That’s what a strong woman would do.” So, clearly, we need to talk about…
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Thirty Things You Can Do to Break Free in the New Year
I’m not one for New Year’s resolutions, but this time of year, they’re a thing. In the past couple years, for whatever reason, I’ve grown fond of the practice of choosing a word for the year. This year’s word was “trust.” Throughout the year, I’ll meditate on that word and what it means and how it’s supposed to impact my life. That’s not to say that New Year’s resolutions are a bad thing. They aren’t. Setting goals? Starting with a clean slate? Never bad things. For many of you, you desperately want next year to be the year. If that’s you, I wanted to throw together a list of things…