A common metaphor was that men’s brains are “wired” in a way that makes them biologically preconditioned to become sexually aroused by visual stimuli. Christopher, a 28-year-old white evangelical, says that pornography addiction was a “physical manifestation in my brain.”
The wife of a pornography addict, Deborah, a 52-year-old white evangelical, describes it as a “sexual high” from “all the chemicals — all the endorphins going to your brain.” This language emphasizes natural biological processes, rather than language of sin or poor choices, to explain how men become addicted to pornography.
In effect, ready appeals to “addiction” create rhetorical distance between the man and his behavior. Heather, a participant of a Christian women’s group for dealing with men’s porn addiction, said she once thought pornography was only a “moral issue,” but now she doesn’t see it that way.
“When I started to realize what pornography really did to the brain — I mean, it really caused changes in the brain — that’s when I started to get it, and why it is so hard to quit,” she said. “Once I learned that, grace was much easier to show.”
After all, guys struggle with lust. It’s “ every man’s battle, ” to quote the popular Christian recovery text. And the temptation of porn or immodestly dressed women or exotic massage parlors are like sirens luring entranced sailors to their deaths. How can they resist?
But evoking the idea of powerlessness turns out to be more rhetoric than reality. As we showed above, evangelical men are relatively unlikely to view pornography with any regularity that would suggest a clinical problem. Even fewer would qualify as out-of-control sex addicts. Still, the growth in popularity of sex and porn addiction rhetoric among evangelicals means that men can maintain their status as church leaders and members, husbands and fathers, all while admitting to the “struggle” of sex and porn.
Thus, white, cisgender Christian men in pornography addiction recovery programs can admit to being “powerless” over their pornography addiction without actually losing their positions of power.
Given Long’s exposure to Christian porn addiction recovery rhetoric, it likely contributed to his claim that his out-of-control sex addiction fueled his atrocious violence. But we should make no mistake that it was the toxic combination of racism and misogyny that exists both within evangelicalism and broader American culture that compelled him.
Ahead of the Trend is a collaborative effort between Religion News Service and the Association of Religion Data Archives made possible through the support of the John Templeton Foundation. See other Ahead of the Trend articles here.
(Samuel L. Perry is an associate professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of Oklahoma and the author of “ Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Protestants” and a co-author of “ Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States.” Kelsy Burke is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Nebraska Lincoln and the author of ” Christians under Covers: Evangelicals and Sexual Pleasure on the Internet.” The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)
This article originally appeared here.
