Michael John Cusick
By Ashley Andrews, 700 Club Interactive
CBN.com –STATISTICS
* 25% of search engine requests are for pornography - 68 million per day.
* 70% of the hits on Internet sex sites occur between 9-5 on business computers.
* Over 50% of evangelical pastors report they viewed pornography last year.
* Over 70% of Christian men report viewing pornography in the last year.
EVERY MAN
G. K. Chesterton once said, "Every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is knocking for God." For Michael John Cusick, this couldn't be truer. Michael used to be that "man" - the young man addicted to pornography, the guy who frequented strip clubs, the man who chased after prostitutes. But now, he has made his life about helping others who are knocking on all the wrong doors.
In his new book Surfing for God, Michael encourages every man battling the pornography to be honest. Pornography is a sin - plain and simple. But Michael knows all too well how complicated the addiction is. It takes more than a decision, more than will-power, more than even guilt to do away with it. Michael learned for himself that overcoming this addiction take God's grace. As he put it, "...following Jesus consists of so much more than trying harder and white-knuckling your way through it. You can be free. God has charted a path to freedom that men before you have walked. You can discover this path leading to authentic transformation in your soul, a path that consists of so much more than sin management. You also need to know that your masculine soul is deeper and truer than your desire for porn."
THE SCIENTIFIC BREAKDOWN
Sex is not just physical - research shows that it is also mental. According to Michael, "If you were to ask a random man on the street to name his most important sex organ, the answer would be predictable. But sexual desire and arousal do not begin in the genitals. A man's most important sex organ is his brain." In the last ten years or so, neuroscience has made leaps and bounds in our understanding of the human brain. Studies now prove that online pornography over stimulates the brain, and there are four reasons why.
Reason 1: Online porn provides constant novelty. As Michael described, "Our brains crave novelty, and the Internet provides an endless variety of novel sexual images. When I was a young man looking at magazine centerfolds, images lost their appeal within a short amount of time. But with online porn, new images are instantly available with the click of a mouse. With each new image, our limbic system releases a burst of dopamine, which tells us we gotta have it. The connection between novelty and sexual arousal is well established by what scientists call the Coolidge effect. After dropping a male rat into a cage with a receptive female, researchers initially observed intense copulation between the rats. Eventually, the male rat exhausted himself; even when the willing female rat wanted more, he was spent. Guess what happened next? When the original female was replaced with a new receptive female, the male rat immediately revived and began to copulate again. This pattern was repeated over and over until the male rat was literally exhausted. With the introduction of a novel sexual mate, this process will be repeated again and again until the male succumbs to exhaustion or death. In the real world, even Hugh Hefner doesn't enjoy an endless supply of women to revive his sexual capacities at any given time. But in the unreal world of online porn, new and ever more stimulating 'mates' provide complete novelty without ever needing to step away from the computer. As long as the novelty continues, the arousal continues-while dopamine fuels the desire engine. One man I recently spoke with averaged six hours a day viewing porn. In his case, every click on a new image released more dopamine, which inflamed his desire. You can see that a vicious cycle is set in place."
Reason 2: Online porn has unlimited supply. "Internet porn," Michael shared, "overstimulates the brain because it provides no limits on the amount we can consume. In food and substance addictions, a person either runs out of the drug or food, or is physically unable to tolerate more. A man can eat only so many pizzas or smoke only so much crack before reaching the obvious limits. With Internet porn an infinite supply is available. And as long as a man has an Internet connection, he can continue to binge. This is why it's not uncommon for addicted men to stay up all night viewing porn, and even lose track of time."
Reason 3: Online porn sidesteps tolerance. "Tolerance occurs when a person needs more of the substance or activity to get the same effect. Over time, we grow increasingly tolerant to certain stimulants. With drugs and food, tolerance typically means eating more frequently or consuming larger amounts. With Internet porn, a man can overcome the tolerance effect two ways. He can increase the amount by spending more time viewing porn. Or he can overcome his tolerance by escalating the intensity of the images he sees. It's for this reason that men often move from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to soft porn to hardcore porn to degradation, bestiality, rape, or other scenes typically deemed repulsive and shocking. They do this not because they are predisposed to it, but because the strong emotions of shock, disgust, or shame provide the sought-after dopamine burst. Gravitating toward aberrant sexual behavior becomes the only way to get a fix."
Reason 4: Online porn is on demand. "Unlike substances that require the user to arrange for a fix," Michael pointed out, "a man carries a forever stash of porn in his mind without even turning on the computer. Every time the images come to mind, he experiences a burst of dopamine in his neuropathways. Combine these four factors and you have a perfect storm brewing in the neurochemical sea of the brain. Over time, as the brain is overstimulated, physical and structural changes occur, and a man becomes addicted to his own brain chemistry."
THE CYCLE
"One of the comments from men that I hear most frequently is, 'We are tired of the never-ending battle over lust.' A battle that so often leads to defeat. Borrowing from the shampoo bottle instructions, I call it the 'lather, rinse, repeat' cycle. First, it begins with getting clean- genuine remorse and sincere repentance. Promising God that we won't go there again. Then, for reasons we don't really understand, we go there again. Eventually, when our shame overwhelms us, or perhaps we've been discovered, we come clean again. But this time we tell somebody and find an accountability partner. Finally, we commit to a new strategy by redoubling our efforts, trying even harder, checking in more often with our accountability partner, and maybe reading our Bibles more. It's lather, rinse, repeat-with the emphasis on repeat. And the saddest part of this cycle is that most men see no alternative. We're seemingly stuck with two choices: either suppress our passions or give in and indulge them. We know in our hearts that porn is not God's best for our lives. But in the heat of the moment, it seems as if there's nothing better than porn. We desperately need another way to live." But how?
As Michael went on to describe, "Most Christians know that lust and porn are not God's best for their lives. So why can't they stop? Common wisdom says if they just had more willpower or more faith, the fight would be over. Is the answer really that simple? Of course not. In a porn saturated world, averting our eyes and getting more accountability won't do it. More prayer, more Bible study, or more discipline won't do it. We need something more than flexing our moral muscles, because in the battle for integrity, more effort and striving only leaves us empty (or proud). We need an approach to struggles with lust, porn, and sexual addiction which honor the brokenness in our lives, yet point us toward wholeness in Christ. We need an approach which reminds us of our heart's deepest desire-something more fulfilling than sexual gratification. What we need is freedom."
With that, Michael urges all men to make a choice. "You can minimize the impact of porn on your soul and life. You can blame others to justify your sexual sin. You can stay hidden, ruled by brokenness...Or you can choose life. Choosing life, which is easier Saud than done, is the path you must walk in order for your soul to be free...Choosing life means acknowledging that the road you have been traveling leads to death...And most important, choosing life means believing that your heavenly Father has a better way of doing your life than you."