Dear Gramps,
I know someone who want to do whats right. He has been endowed and has confessed to the bishop several times about his addiction to porn(Because he really would like to free from the chains of satan). Because he is a repeat offender and he needs confess to the bishop again, he is scared. He doesnt know if the bishop will disfellowship him or worse. He wants to be a good person. He cares for other people and he is really sorry, but cant quit on his own. Will he be disfellowshiped or worse? What can you tell him to
give him courage to talk to his bishop again? He is really ashammed of his weakness and that is another reason he is afaid to talk to the bishop about it.
Please help.
Rene
Dear Rene,
Each day more and more people are becoming addicted to pornography. Satan is using this temptation to get at even the strongest of members of the Church as well as those outside the Church. This addiction is very difficult to overcome, even more difficult than smoking or drinking in some cases. The addiction to pornography, if not overcome, often leads to more serious sexual sins.
Your friend needs help immediately and his greatest source of help would be his Priesthood Leader, the Bishop. His obtaining this help is more important than being concerned with what action might be taken concerning his standing in the Church. This habit, if not overcome, will lead to more serious sins that will affect his membership in the Church as well as his standing with the Lord.
Each of us need to realize that the Lord as well as His Church is willing to forgive us if we truly repent of our sins. There is only one sin that we cannot be forgiven for and that is the sin against the Holy Ghost. We read in Matthew 12: “31 Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men.” In order to receive forgiveness for our sins though we need to confess them and refrain from doing them anymore.
The important thing for your friend is to get help immediately and take care of this problem before it grows and becomes even more serious. I know he will find his Bishop to be of great assistance in helping him through this problem and helping him with his quest for repentance. In a talk to Young Adults, President Kimball gave us the following advice: “The way of the transgressor is hard and tough and long and thorny. But the Lord has promised that for all those sins, and errors outside of the named unpardonable sins, there is forgiveness. But sometimes it takes longer to climb back up the steep hill than it did to skid down it. And it is often much more difficult. When a total self-conviction is stirred to a new life, and prayers have been multiplied, and fasting, through humility, intensified, and weeping has been sanctified, repentance then begins to grow and eventually forgiveness may come. But to those who have broken the law…and who have complied as above, there is the promise of forgiveness; and the Lord charges the leaders of His Church that when they have totally repented, ‘Thou shalt forgive them.”
The Lord stated the following in D&C 58: “42 Behold, he who has repented of his sins, the same is forgiven, and I, the Lord, remember them no more. 43 By this ye may know if a man repenteth of his sins—behold, he will confess them and forsake them.”
