April 12, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pornography’s tentacles are deeply wrapped around modern culture and life. Children are exposed to porn, on average, around age 12. It normalizes violence against women, warps viewers’ perceptions of sex, changes the wiring of the brain, and fuels sex trafficking.
It’s also incredibly addicting, and as a result, a number of ministries now exist exclusively to help people free themselves of the habit. Many in the pro-life and pro-family movements are aware of programs like Fortify and accountability software like Covenant Eyes, designed to help people overcome porn addiction.
And there are ministries that help porn performers leave the industry, find healing, and learn that Jesus loves them.
At the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation’s Global Summit last week, LifeSiteNews discovered a number of unique pro-chastity groups that help specific populations hurt by pornography, and brings you information about them and others here.
1. Women United Recovery Coalition
CEO Lacy Bentley runs this eight-week online recovery program through which women work together to free themselves from porn.
“I’ve heard the argument that porn is empowering to women, and I’m wondering how that can be if they’re being raped and watching their counterparts be raped?” asked Bentley. She said many women feel like “they’re betraying their own kind” by watching misogynistic porn and want to quit, but “they can’t stop.”
Women United helps them to quit through private video-chat meetings with others.
“We don’t only talk about ‘mainstream’ porn like…videos,” Bentley told LifeSiteNews. “We’re talking about fan fiction, we’re talking about 50 Shades of Grey, [and] erotica.”
She said all kinds of pornographic material can trick girls into thinking abusive behavior is healthy, so she encourages them to “get the narcissist out of your head and out of your bed.”
2. Pure Desire Ministries
Pure Desire Ministries is a Protestant group that helps people heal from compulsive sexual sin. It offers clinical counseling and support groups.
“We affirm that God created us male and female, and that our gender expression is his assignment to us and not a fluid decision,” its website explains. “We honor God by living out our unique ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’. Further, we believe that God has defined marriage as a lifelong commitment between one man and one woman. Any sexual relationship outside of this covenant is contrary to his plan.”
READ: New documentary finds porn’s newest addicts are kids, and it’s devastating them
Dr. Ted and Diane Roberts founded Pure Desire Ministries because they “recognized the pervasiveness of sexual struggle in the church” and wanted to help end it.
At the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation’s Global Summit last week, LifeSiteNews spoke with two young men overcame pornography addictions through this program.
3. Changing Lanes
This is another Protestant porn and sexual sin recovery ministry. Its website says that 50 percent of pastors view pornography weekly and 61 percent of Christians believe no-strings-attached sex is acceptable, indicative of a major problem. Changing Lanes’ online support groups are “a safe, relational, and authentic community to heal in your journey through porn or sex addiction,” its website says. The website does not have a statement of faith, but its programs include prayer, accountability, and a “Christ-centered curriculum.”
4. Dirty Girls Ministries
This Christian group has its name for two reasons. The first is to actually target people – specifically, women – who are searching for pornography online.
“We get a lot of foot traffic from people looking for pornography,” founder Crystal Renaud told LifeSiteNews.
The second reason for the name is because women who struggle with porn often say it makes them feel dirty.
“Women write to us, they come to us, they say, for so long I felt dirty…you can come clean, it’s okay,” said Renaud. “Through accountability…and going through counseling and really surrendering my heart and soul to Jesus Christ, I was able to find recovery.”
Dirty Girls Ministries provides a daily Scripture-based email devotional called 90 Days to Wholeness, a number of free resources for women, and one-on-one coaching.
READ: Trump signs bill cracking down on websites that help sex traffickers
Renaud has written a book, Dirty Girls Come Clean, about how women can overcome and heal from pornography addictions. Written from an evangelical perspective, it provides practical and spiritual advice and features testimonies of women who have broken free from porn addiction.
The book is particularly interesting because it touches on the problem of Christian women who are addicted to sexual sin.
Renaud told LifeSiteNews that several years after she began her recovery from porn – she was first exposed to it at age 10 and addicted through about age 18 – she was working at a church when the pastor confessed he’d been having an affair with Renaud’s mentor for five years.
“It kind of opened my eyes to sexual sin and [the] sexual brokenness that is impacting so many people that maybe you wouldn’t even expect,” she recalled. “And God really put it on my heart to start this organization, Dirty Girls Ministries, to help other women who were in bondage like I was be set free through recovery and the work that it takes to do that.”
5. Heroic Virtue Warfare Institute
This ministry provides members of the military with Catholic resources on chastity and the dangers of porn. It also provides those in the military with a “Smartpack” of resources for overcoming addiction to pornography.
“The founders of HVWI have seen first-hand the devastation and destruction that pornography use and addiction brings to service members’ lives and careers,” its website says. “The Institute is dedicated to providing viable and relevant resources to help our service members free themselves from the clutches of such a ravenous addiction.”
The HVWI is under the patronage of St. Maria Goretti, a martyr for purity, and St. Augustine of Hippo, who famously overcome lust to be one of the Church’s greatest theologians.
6. Beggar’s Daughter
LifeSiteNews has covered Jessica Harris, the founder of this apostolate, before. Harris was exposed to pornography at age 13 and was addicted to it during her teenage years. Through Beggar’s Daughter, Harris raises awareness about the harms pornography can cause women and the fact that women, like men, can be addicted to it. She’s written a memoir about these experiences, Beggar’s Daughter, and now speaks on college campuses and at churches. She was featured in Catholic apologist Matt Fradd’s book Delivered – True Stories of Men and Women Who Turned from Porn to Purity and has written a devotional for teen and college-aged women, Love Done Right: Reflections.
7. FreedomU
Freedom U helps consumers of commercial sex, especially men who view porn or hire prostitutes, to “live in freedom from compulsive and detrimental sexual behavior.”