The Icing on the Cake

Many of us say that we have an addiction to pornography, but that’s like an alcoholic saying that he has an addiction to Coors Beer.  No, the alcoholic has an addiction to alcohol, and Coors Beer is just one form of that addiction.  In our case, we are not addicted to pornography.  We are addicted to lust, in all its many forms.

In trying to overcome our addiction to lust there are already two strikes against us.

1. The first strike is our brain. Our brain is not our friend.  It's an organ of our body that has become accustomed to receiving a shot of dopamine whenever we give in to any form of lust.
    
2. The second strike is Satan.  He is real and will temp us whenever and wherever he can.

Most of us deal with two of the most common forms of lust, pornography and masturbation. Where either pornography or masturbation exists, the other is not far behind.

I know several guys who say they have given up pornography but still have a problem with masturbation. In my opinion one of the reasons for this is because some bishops and therapists council that masturbation is not as bad as pornography.

Therefore, if we believe that masturbation is the “lesser of two evils,” both our brain and Satan know that our defense against masturbation will be less that our defense against pornography.  As a result both our brain and Satan will happily tempt us to give in to masturbation.  And as we give in, our defenses will eventually be lowered, so that we will once again give in to pornography—along with the added bonus of masturbation.

Satan and our brain are willing to happily sit by, patiently waiting for us to tire of giving in to just one of those weaknesses knowing that we will ultimately give in to both.

I am going to use a metaphor.  It isn't the best, but it should work for my purposes.  It involves cake and frosting.  For most of us when we are served cake it usually comes with frosting. Cake can be viewed as pornography and the frosting is masturbation.  If we decide to resist eating cake but continue to eat frosting, at some point we will probably want the cake back.  After all cake and frosting go together.

Believe me; I have heard more than one guy say “I think I now have control over pornography.  I only have a problem with masturbation, but at least I don’t think dirty thoughts when I give in to it.”—as though that makes it OK.  That’s like, “I only eat frosting and when I do, I make sure there are not cake crumbs attached.”  Believe me, eventually you will want your cake back with your frosting.

Real Solution

If we really want to give up cake, we must be willing to also give up frosting—and we must give them both up at the same time—and completely.  Frosting cannot be viewed the “lesser of two evils!”
And I would hope that bishops and therapists would stop giving the impression that masturbation is not as big a problem as pornography.  If you already have an addiction to lust, masturbation already is a big problem!