By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read The Sex List Sometime last year, my husband and I sat down at our kitchen table and wrote out our “sex list.” We have open talks about sex often, but writing this list gave us an opportunity to clearly express our expectations, hopes, and goals for our…
Jesus
Sexual Integrity After “I Do”
Sexual Integrity After “I Do”: Continuing the Fight By: Allie Joy Hudson 4 min. read What About After Marriage? “Lord, why won’t my struggle with lust just go away? Please take it from me!” This prayer is not just the prayer of a single man. Sexual struggles can be long-lasting and stubborn for both…
Discipleship, Sexual Integrity, and Sanctification
By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read Emmanuel “O come, O come, Emmanuel / and ransom captive Israel.” This is such a striking line from my favorite Christmas carol. (I really like this version by MercyMe.) I love singing and reflecting on these beautiful, poignant words that capture so well our need for a…
Discipleship, Sexual Integrity, and Awareness
By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read Growing Together Earlier this year, I was thinking about ways I want to grow. Something I often came back to was the word confidence. Over the past months, a friend of mine helped me to see how vital it is for me to know who God made…
Sex Week and Advent
By: Shane James O’Neill 4 min read (reader discretion advised) Sex Week Sex Week is an event that first began at Yale and it takes place on campuses all over the country. It’s advertised as a time of education for students as “adult” porn stars and porn vendors are brought in to educate and…
Discipleship, Sexual Integrity, and Community
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Community Grounds Us Last month, my husband and I went to four weddings. And though these weddings involved masks and social distancing, it was beautiful to see friends and family surrounding each of the couples on their special day. Community looks pretty darn different this year than…
Discipleship, Sexual Integrity, and Exhortation
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Exhortation – a High Call I love the challenge that the author of Hebrews gives to his readers (and to us today). Hebrews 10:24 tells us, “and let’s consider how to encourage one another in love and good deeds.” The word that this short verse brings to my mind…
Jesus, Discipleship, and Sexual Integrity
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Jesus and Sex Jesus and His twelve disciples spent a whole lot of time walking together. As they moved across Israel preaching, teaching, and healing from city to city, I’m sure they all wore through some sandals. I love the image of Jesus walking, something so normal,…
The Relationship Between Pornography and Pedophilia
By: Andrew Scoles 5 min. read Sex Culture As our world continues to go down a path of subjective moral relativism and an era of sexual activity and deviance that has been escalating for decades, we’re going to continue to see the normalization of sexual immorality in our culture. I don’t need to tell…
Simple Truths from Hugh Grant
By: Allie Joy Hudson 3 min. read Unexpected Insight Hugh Grant is a British actor known for his romantic comedies as well as his charming and sarcastic personality. And Grant just turned sixty yesterday actually. So happy belated birthday, Hugh! He’s now the father of five, and he only began the fatherhood journey about…
David Duchovny: Wrestling with Porn Addiction
By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read David Duchovny’s Reputation David Duchovny is a Golden Globe-awarded actor known for playing FBI agent Fox Mulder on The X-Files and writer Hank Moody on Californication. He also earned English degrees from two different Ivy League schools, authored three books, and is a singer, musician, songwriter, producer,…
Jason Castro: The Weight of Shame and the Hope of Freedom
By: Allie Joy Hudson 4 min. read Who is Jason Castro? Jason Castro is a singer, songwriter, and American Idol finalist. He is passionate about his love for Jesus and his family. He’s married and is now a father of four. But he also has a difficult past. Castro struggled with a porn addiction…
Kirk Franklin: From Hypocrisy to Hope
By: Allie Joy Hudson 6 min. read Struggling in Silence For many of us, especially those of us who grew up in the Church, it can be easy to live a double life. We can act one way on Sunday mornings and then be a completely different person during the week. We can be outwardly…
Candace Cameron Bure: Jesus, Marriage, and Sex
By: Allie Joy Hudson 4 min. read Who is Candace Cameron Bure? Candace Cameron Bure is an actress, producer, talk show panelist, author, wife, and mom of three. She is best known for her role as D.J. Tanner on Full House (and as D.J. Tanner-Fuller on Fuller House), for being a talk show host on…
Resurrection in the Midst of COVID-19
COVID-19… By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min. read A Time of Grief and Praise Social media has looked pretty interesting this past week. I’ve seen countless posts about people struggling with COVID-19 – struggling with sickness, grief, anxiety, loneliness, depression, confusion, and financial insecurity. People are hurting. However, especially with the celebration of Easter…
Suicide and Pornography
By: Shane James O’Neill Suicide: Exposed but Alone Amanda Todd. When she was in 7th grade, she moved in with her dad. In the midst of the move, she was lonely and didn’t have many friends. Amanda was a 12-year-old who loved to sing, and she found affirmation through online chat rooms. A guy,…
COVID 19 and Porn
By: Shane James O’Neill 3 min. read COVID and Porn COVID-19, a global health crisis, meets pornography, a public health crisis. The coronavirus has been devastating, to say the least. It has touched our lives in every conceivable way — our health, our finances, our travel, our relationships. And now, it is impacting our…
Loneliness and Pornography
Lonely By: Cale Baker 4 min read Lonely: A Public Health Crisis Some have declared loneliness a public health crisis, and not only does it trigger engagement with pornography, but it’s also not good for our physical health. An article in The Guardian highlights that chronic loneliness is worse than being obese and as…
Mental Health, Loneliness, and Porn
Loneliness By: Shane O’Neill 4 min read Mental Health, Porn Stars, and Teenagers Sex is assumed in most relationships these days. And when it comes to porn, it’s nearly as difficult to avoid porn, as it is easy to find it. And that shapes our relationships, as well as our intimacy. But before it…
Sex in Marriage Won’t Fix You
By: Shane James O’Neill 4 min read Once I Get Married… An article titled A Laptop Never Say No begins by stating the fear of competition a woman feels in relationships. In the opening paragraph the author says: “Once upon a time, a woman’s greatest fear was a good-looking … blonde. These days, her…
Does Porn Affect Our Real Lives?
By: Allie Joy Hudson 5 min read Porn Is Fantasy Porn is fantasy. It’s scripted. It’s staged. And it’s not real. However, once we open our eyes up to the fact that porn is fantasy, this creates a whole new set of difficulties for us. When we realize that pornography is not real, this…
Is Porn Only a Religious Issue?
By: Shane James O’Neill Porn Is a Religious Issue Due to our sexualized culture, it’s easy to think that arguments for healthy intimacy and arguments against pornography are only made by religious organizations. For instance, when talking about the sex addiction movement, psychologist Dr. David Ley says: “Most of the leaders of the sex…
Christianity and Lust: What’s the Point of Prayer?
4 minute read By: Shane James O’Neill “I Don’t Know How to Pray” I was leading a Proven Men Group at a church this summer and one of the guys in the group made a confession I didn’t expect. He said, he didn’t know how to pray. Of course, he knew the mechanics of…
How Secret Sin Will Devastate Marriage
4 min read By: Shane James O’Neill A Marriage Trapped in Lust Recently, a family in their late 30’s with several children had me and some friends over for lunch. People were eating all over the house, so I went to the living room, finding myself seated beside the mother of that family. She…