May 10, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — Last week, a friend sent me a Reddit thread on “dark secrets of the porn industry.” I won’t link to it here (there are no pictures or videos in it, but even the descriptions are graphic). Suffice it to say that it was a yards-long summation of our culture’s vile underbelly. Porn performers talked about prolapsed body parts. Rape and sexual assault are common. Industry employees discussed what they see on a daily basis. I’ve been researching this subject for years, but reading the thread I wondered again: Why do we allow this?
A recent study conducted by Professor Neil Thurman of the Department of Media and Communication (IfKW) at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich, in collaboration with statistician Fabian Obster (Universität der Bundeswehr München) was another reminder of how common this material is. According to his study of 1,000 British adolescents, nearly four-fifths of 16- and 17-year-olds have encountered porn on the Internet. Most of them stated that they view porn regularly; many said they’d done so the day they’d filled out the questionnaire. In response, Thurman called on regulators to do something about young people accessing this content.
This brings me to a new initiative from Covenant Eyes, created with well-known speaker and podcaster Matt Fradd. Covenant Eyes is launching a new program called Strive to help people break free of porn, and Karen Potter, the Director of Church and Ministry Outreach at Covenant Eyes, explained why it could be precisely what struggling addicts are waiting for. It launches at the beginning of June.
What is Strive?
It’s a 21-day detox from porn with daily emails that contain videos and challenges.
Who is Strive for?
It’s written for Catholic and Protestant men.
Strive is a 21-day porn detox for men, helping them begin the journey to freedom through daily videos and challenges created by Matt Fradd. To register, they simply need to visit the website Strive21.com and sign up. From there, users will begin receiving emails to their inbox with a link to the video and challenge of the day. Throughout the 21 days, they will encounter truth and beauty in a way that Satan and the sex industry have tried to hide. They will learn important truths like the importance of accountability, how porn use impacts the brain, how pornography correlates with sex trafficking and sexual abuse in the industry, plus many more. Strive users can remain anonymous, and it is free to them for a limited time. In the end, men have nothing to lose and everything to gain through Strive.
What is the goal of this new detox?
Simply put: we want to help men begin the journey to freedom from enslavement to pornography. Pornography is a plague that spreads beyond just individual decisions. It deeply affects everything ranging from marriages and families to, in the end, salvation. By the end of these 21 days, they will need to make an important decision: What will my life look like on Day 22? Our hope is that by providing them with educational insight into topics like what happens to the brain on porn, what the porn industry is like when the cameras aren’t rolling, and why accountability is key to success, they will have every reason to leave the chains of their old life of porn behind and set out into a new life toward freedom.
What research is it based on?
Together, Matt Fradd, best-selling author, podcaster, and frequent expert guest on radio and TV outlets, Bill Donaghy, author, instructor, and international speaker, and Dr. Kevin Kilcawley, licensed psychologist, created this resource founded on academic studies on porn and porn use from the fields of neurology, sociology, and psychology. Other sources include Dr. Kevin Skinner, a licensed marriage and family therapist who specializes in helping people who are struggling with pornography-related problems; St. John Paul II’s Theology of the Body; and personal testimony of women who were in the sex industry.
What are the chances of breaking a porn addiction with this program?
Breaking a porn addiction with any program is never guaranteed, and we know that if men are truly addicted to pornography, there are major steps that need to happen beyond the 21 days. Yet, most men struggling with pornography don’t know where to begin or have received insufficient advice. Strive is an opportunity to step back for 21 days and get a bird’s eye view of what is really happening both in the mind and heart of the person using porn and in the pornography industry as a whole. We try to set men up for success with a combination of proven spiritual, psychological, and technological tools and point them to where they can find ongoing help as they get on the path toward freedom. It is ultimately their decision of what they want to do with the tools and educational insight post-Strive, but we have seen men come to us and say: “This is the first time in 21 days that I haven’t looked at porn.” The results can be life-changing if a man makes the choice to surrender everything and intentionally engage in and use the tools Strive offers.
Why should somebody choose this one?
Strive is an innovative approach that combines proven and powerful tools and a growing community of men from around the world. One of the lies that Satan tries to get us to believe is that we are completely alone in our struggles. Strive helps men overcome this abhorrent lie by helping them understand that they are not alone as we talk about the importance of accountability on this journey and connect them with others who are taking the same path toward freedom. As it says in Proverbs 27: “Iron sharpens iron, and man sharpens man.” With Strive, we provide a look at all aspects of our human condition: emotions, brain science, faith, etc. We recognize that there are men who are not Christians or may be struggling with their faith who may come upon Strive and therefore provide compelling, non-religious reasons for why pornography use must end. In the end, by choosing Strive men will come away with a practical step-by-step plan to break free of pornography and come together as brothers journeying to the same end: a life of freedom.
What can Covenant Eyes do for a serial struggler?
Once a person decides they need to quit porn, Covenant Eyes can help that person walk in loving accountability toward a life of freedom and provide them with the resources they need to more fully understand everything at play and be connected with helpful tools for fighting the battle. This does not mean that the journey will not be arduous and full of many ups and downs. It means the serial struggler will not have to walk the journey alone. This, perhaps, is the golden nugget of our accountability software and resources. We want members to know that we care about them, and we will walk with them toward a porn-free life of integrity and restored relationships with God, family, and friends.
