Joshua Broome, a former porn star who left the adult entertainment industry to serve Christ, sounded the alarm on pornography’s Satanic mission and how it impacts marriages.
“What is Satan’s objective?” Broome said. “Satan’s objective is to kill, steal and destroy. So if he can get the man out of the picture, because of divorce, then all of a sudden you have fatherless homes, and…there’s just a catastrophe, a collateral damage across the board.”
Broome attributes broken fathers to the devastating effects of pornography on the individual and world at large.
“You’re teaching your brain that I need something greater than reality,” he said. “You’re impacting your brain in a way that is supernatural, so you begin to desire something that … you can’t replicate it naturally. All of a sudden you have an appetite that is insatiable because you can’t actually obtain what you have a desire for, and you just go on this hamster wheel where you feel bad about what you did…then you do it again and you feel bad about it, and over, and over, and over again.”
The data backs Broome. Cambridge University research found that people with compulsive sexual addictions mirrors the same brain activity researches see in drug addicts, with enhanced reactivity in the amygdala and ventral striatum — regions tied to craving and cue response.
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Neuroscience of Internet Pornography Addiction: A Review and Update, NIH/PMC reported that a 2015 neuroimaging study found pornography use correlated with reduced gray matter volume in the striatum, an area involved in motivation and decision-making.
In an eCare Behavioral Institute survey, 45% say porn has damaged real-life relationships; 35% report guilt.
Sadly, this isn’t just in grown men.
“The data would say the average age of exposure is 12, but I think that is somewhat skewed because I’m seeing a trend lower and lower,” Broome said. “You look at the implementation of how schools are using tech. There’s so many people who are homeschooling that they have utilized tech.”
He’s right.
Nearly all boys and most girls are exposed before adulthood. Survey data indicates 93% of boys and 63% of girls report being exposed to internet pornography before turning 18.
The addiction doesn’t go away with marriage, though.
One study found married people who began watching pornography were about twice as likely to be divorced in later years as those who didn’t; women who started were three times as likely to divorce. Among couples who did not attend religious services weekly, beginning pornography use raised divorce probability from 6% to 12%. Furthermore, a 2024 study found online pornography use, even at low frequency, is associated with reduced relationship satisfaction and stability among couples.
That’s why Broome and his wife, Hope, launched a four-session video course called “Made Whole: Healing, Wholeness, and Holiness in a Sex-Saturated World.”
“We don’t understand what sex, intimacy, and relationships actually are, because we’ve got all these preconceived notions that were developed outside of God’s design,” Broome said. “So, ultimately, it’s like, ‘Hey, for us to be made whole, let’s get back to doing it God’s way,’ and the same Christ that forgives our sin, He actually has a plan to restore our marriage, to redeem our lives and to not only reconcile us to Himself, but to reconcile us to our partner.”
Other resources for people battling pornography addiction include Pure Desire Ministries and Covenant Eyes, among others. For more resources, check out Fight The New Drug.
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