Note: This is a rough copy (beta version) of a six class, LDS Program for healing Pornography Addiction. There are typos to be found! However, I'm anxious to get feedback on areas that should be included in future versions. Included, below, is a training powerpoint and handout presented at a meeting of stake leaders and bishops.

Training for Church Leaders in Powerpoint

Handout for Training

The Naaman Project

Introduction

During the time of Elisha the prophet, we read of a Syrian captain by the name of Naaman. Close to the king of Syria, Naaman is described as a “great man.” In addition, he is also seen as “honourable” and “a mighty man of valour.” All great adjectives!

However, this mighty man also has a difficult problem—he is a leper. For this warrior who controls a mighty host, who has chariots and servants at his beck and call, to be afflicted by this horrible illness must have vexed him in every way possible. He had an illness he could not heal nor, even with the King’s influence, could a cure be found. He simply did not know what to do.

Enter a young Hebrew slave girl. Torn from her family, she nevertheless knows what mighty Naaman does not: a cure is available but only by turning to a prophet of Israel’s God, just barely over the border in Israel. While serving in Naaman’s household, this girl is able to relay the information about Elisha. When word finally reaches desperate Naaman, he is willing to give her suggestion a try.

And so, with an impressive show of strength, he appears on Elisha’s doorstep will all “his horses and with his chariot.” Surely the old prophet would have to be impressed with the display and respond with a great healing. To his dismay, however, Elisha doesn’t even appear. Instead, he sends out his own servant complete with puzzling directions: “Go and wash in Jordan seven times…and thou shall be clean!”

This is not the way proud Naaman had pictured his healing would work. After all, he was a great man and had traveled a long way to get there. If Elisha was indeed the prophet he claimed to be, why didn’t he have the courtesy to come out, “strike his hand” on the leprosy and make it go away?

Secondly, if the cure did involve dipping in a river, Naaman preferred to do it in one of HIS rivers, not the silty, Jordan river in Samaria. The rivers of Damascus, he reasoned, were far better “than all the waters of Israel.”

Eventually, as we know, Naaman’s servants finally persuade him to follow Elisha’s odd counsel, reminding him that if the prophet had suggested some great, more spectacular cure he would have done it. Why not, then, try the simple cure and find out what would happen?

Naaman, now more subdued—and still faced with having to live with his leprosy—consents to follow Elisha’s direction. He humbles himself, steps out in the Jordon and washes himself the required seven times. To his surprise, “his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child.” (2 Kings 5) Everything the Israelite prophet said had turned out to be true. He is clean once again.

Today, the church is filled with men of valor. They are mighty and honorable. They have accomplished great things as directed by inspiration. They love their families and serve with distinction in a wide variety of callings. Many also struggle with a form of spiritual leprosy—addiction to pornography. Just like the skin disease, this virulent evil grows and tears at the lives of men it afflicts. It drains self confidence and threatens to divide families.

This desolating scourge sickens otherwise good priesthood holders all around the church. The internet has made for quick access and privacy. As a result, this pernicious evil ensnares many who would have not considered pornography any other way.

It is important to note that this is a serious problem that calls for direct and prolonged attention in order to heal. At the same time, those who struggle with need not to forget that is does not change who they are—good men, mighty men, with a serious problem that can be overcome.  

In the beginning, most men start by trying to heal their way. They’ve successfully solved other problems in their life: they should be able to fix this one as well. However, when the pornography use continues or gets worse, they finally recognize a need for a cure. But, like Naaman, they still prefer to do it THEIR way and on their own terms. Fortunately, the cure is available, but only when they finally begin to listen to that small voice, telling them to listen to God’s prophet and follow his directions with exactness.

The idea behind The NaamanProject is that Lord provided principles by which good men (and women) are able to find the healing they seek. True peace comes as they learn and implement understanding from three main areas. The first area needing attention is key Spiritual Principles. Through the revelations of the Restored Gospel, eternal truths have been revealed again to earth; truths that teach how to find redemption from weaknesses and sin. The principles teach how to be cleansed and empowered by submission to the Savior and not on the ‘arm of flesh’.

The second area of knowledge is Addiction Principles. Extended exposure to pornography results in critical changes in the way the brain perceives pain, pleasure, and stress relief. It is these brain alterations that give this addiction such a potent stranglehold over individual lives and make it so resistant to change. This addiction is aided, and maintained, by the very real way the brain changes chemically after using pornography for any length of time.

The final area of need is Emotional Principles. Painful past experiences can create unhealthy thinking patterns that make healing more difficult. They can cloud reality with negative filters, altering fragile self images and destroying relationships. Developing healthy behavior involves correcting faulty self images and replacing them with more realistic ones. To quote the apostle Paul, these healthy images will then help to “see as we are seen.”

The NaamanProject draws information from all three sets of principles. Each class spends equal time and emphasis on all three. Combined, they help rewire the brain by drawing on the Atonement, the source of real change.

Each class has reading assignments and homework. For instance, the LDS Addiction Recovery Manual, available to download from LDS.org or in hard copy from LDS Social Services, is a critical resource. This inspired book was developed using the framework of the Alcoholics’ Anonymous 12 Step program. To that structure was added revealed principles of the gospel, quoting from the scriptures as well as from the Brethren. Each class is based, in part, on two of the twelve steps as found in the ARP Manual. It is an important foundational aid for any LDS member seeking freedom from spiritual leprosy.

The path to becoming addiction free is not easy, but it can be done. It begins when you admit you are ready to be free and are ready to do it the Lord’s way.