Church Publishes YouTube Series on Overcoming Pornography
Contributed By Alexa Reimschussel, Church News staff writer
President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, speaks about overcoming pornography in a video published to YouTube by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on June 24, 2019.
Article Highlights
- Talking about the problem is one of the first steps in pornography recovery.
- One video focuses on helping a spouse that is addicted to pornography.
- Responding to someone admitting to an addiction with calmness and love can make a difference.
“The ability to help or to correct follows on the relationship established by unconditional love.” —President Dallin H. Oaks
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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has published a series of dozens of YouTube videos addressing concerns about pornography—specifically, three main topics of personal pornography recovery, pornography use by a spouse, and parenting a child using pornography.
“You have to let someone else know. You have to lose the anonymity,” said Bernie Anderson, a pastor, public speaker, and author, in the video “Opening Up about a Pornography Problem.” This three-minute video discusses opening up is the first step in personal pornography recovery.
In the same video, a man named David describes how confiding in trusted people about pornography use can be a good thing. Lies and secrecy keep a person in prison without a way out, said Cody, another video participant. But, he says, “there is a way out. That way out is through speaking the truth.”
Amy, a woman featured in the video, said, “There’s freedom in just being honest.”
Daniel Weiss, a non-profit recovery support ministry president, said if people are struggling to overcome a porn habit or addiction alone, “that misses the joy and the beauty of healing because we’re made to be communal people.”
The videos for the spouses of those using pornography focus on reclaiming personal self-worth and supporting a struggling spouse in healthy ways. The video “Am I to Blame for My Spouse’s Pornography Problem?” features women who have felt they are to blame for their spouse’s habit or addiction.
After feeling like she should’ve been enough for her husband to stop viewing pornography, Kaysha said, “I think the biggest growing part in it is knowing that it isn’t me. I could never fix him.”
Some of the women featured said that they found solace in finding self-worth through the Savior and that there is hope.
“We women spend so much time not knowing that we’re enough,” a woman named Nicole says in the video. “You’re enough. You’re absolutely enough.”
In the video “How Do I Respond When My Child Has Viewed Pornography?” President Dallin H. Oaks, First Counselor in the First Presidency, said that when children are doing things parents don’t approve of “we seem to withdraw or withhold love—and yet love is the first commandment in a family relationship.”
But, he added, “the ability to help or to correct follows on the relationship established by unconditional love.”
Church leaders stressed how the first reaction people have is to hide when they are struggling with pornography. The right reaction—a calm reaction—can truly make all the difference.
Sister Sharon Eubank, First Counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, focused on the power of the Savior, which parents and children can utilize to be able to overcome the grip of pornography.
“We all make mistakes. Jesus knows that. He paid with His blood so that we can recover from our mistakes,” she said. “All we have to do is to turn to Him, and He’ll lend us power so that we can recover and try again.”
