Sexual Detox - Review

It seems like I do two different kinds of marriage counseling as a pastor: (1) the kind where the guy is addicted to pornography and deciding whether or not to leave his wife for a woman he thinks will be "better," and (2) the kind where the guy is addicted to pornography and his wife is deciding whether or not she can ever look at him again.

In truth, I do more marriage counseling than that but the statement above isn't much of an over-reach. When a couple comes in to visit about their marriage, I often just assume it has something to do with porn.

We live in a world and a culture that is almost completely saturated by porn. It's free, virtually omnipresent, and so easily accessible many people with a porn problem first stumbled on it by accident. From George Costanza exchanging suggestive pictures with an unknown seductress to Joey and Chandler celebrating free porn, sitcoms and other media have taken the taboo out of pornography to the point that many men and women feel as if it is something akin to politicians: a reality we wish we could live without, but that probably isn't going anywhere.

This is the culture to which Tim Challies has written "Sexual Detox: A Guide for Guys Who Are Sick of Porn"

Challies is a blogger, book reviewer, and ministry leader who doesn't mince words when it comes to the danger of pornography or of the power of the gospel to heal, restore, and reconcile men who have fallen in this area. Guys who struggle with porn won't find Challies' tone judgmental or condescending; their wives and friends won't find it permissive or acquiescent.

Challies deals with the reality of porn, the effect of porn on a marriage, a frank and biblical "theology of masturbation," and a gospel-centered method for "detoxifying" the bedroom and the soul of the effects of porn.

"Sexual Detox" is written with the concise easy style that is consistent with Challies' skill as a blogger. It won't take more than an hour or two to read and deals with hard issues without being inappropriately graphic in a way that would be counterproductive. So, there shouldn't be any excuses not to read it.

In fact, if you're a ministry leader, dad, or young man over 14 years old, or if you plan to be married to one of those people some day, you need to read this book.

I highly recommend this book, not because the topic is comfortable or particularly interesting, but because it's too big an issue to the hearts and minds of the future to address uninformed.