Church Life

‘These Guys Are Really Screwed Up’

And the Samson Society is sort of proud of it.

Eight Christian men gather for a barbecue around a fire pit on a crisp November evening in Franklin, Tennessee. While conversation may touch on baseball, country music, or theology, it will certainly hit on a topic most evangelical gatherings avoid: sex addiction.

Some 15 churches in the city of 56,000 support Samson Society meetings, and these men represent a wide spectrum of denominations. Like the biblical character Samson, the men come broken by some failure. “Most of us have been trapped in some kind of compulsive activity, but our addictions do not define us, and we do not segregate our membership by behavior,” says its website. Ultimately these men have come together for healing and mutual discipleship in Christ (see samsonsociety.org for more details).

They say they are not an accountability group, nor a 12-step group, nor a men’s group. (“Okay, so there are no women,” says its website, “but that doesn’t make us a men’s group, does it? Please. Most of us have had it up to here with men’s groups.”) Samson is different from most recovery groups in that it doesn’t have a centralized office, hierarchical structure, dues collecting, or property ownership. Rather, Samson is simply “a fellowship of Christian men who are serious about authenticity, community, humility, and recovery—serious, but not grave.”

But past sexual failure is what binds many of these men together, and their fellowship provides the primary avenue to sexual freedom.

Eric Brown, a 39-year-old accountant, started attending Samson Society meetings because his girlfriend insisted.

“I walked out of that first meeting thinking, These guys are really screwed up,” Brown recalls. “Two weeks later, I understood that my sin was no better than anyone else’s.”

With his Samson brothers, Brown has found for the first time sincere friends, men he accompanies on weekend trips and hangs out with in their homes. He usually talks with three of them every day.

Samson Society meetings incorporate a faith dimension that other programs lack. Richard Roberts had attended Sexaholics Anonymous (SA) meetings in Las Vegas before moving to Franklin. “At SA, all you talk about is your addiction,” says the 46-year-old manager. “But as Christian men, there is so much more to us. [They] remind me who I am in Christ.”

Some participants come from the ranks of Christian leaders. Isaac, a teacher at a Christian school, says Samson Society has revolutionized his 10-year marriage.

“Samson became the missing piece for my family,” says Isaac, 31. “Now I’m best friends with my wife, who knows my triggers.”

Because of his ministry-related career, Isaac had resisted looking for help for his hardcore-porn addiction. He saw a repeated pattern at church of men confessing their sexual sin, then being ostracized. He would periodically confess his porn use to his wife, but he didn’t make changes in his thought life. Weeks later, he’d be back in the old pattern.

Now, he often talks to—or prays with—his “Silas” accountability partner twice a day on the phone. If his wife travels out of the city for the weekend, Isaac makes sure a buddy confiscates his computer. That’s not weakness; it’s a desire for purity. “I’m not a sex addict who will never get better,” Isaac says. “I’m a restored son of the sovereign Lord.”

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere:

This article accompanies “Help for the Sexually Desperate.”

Inside CT: Porn’s Stranglehold tells more about what John Kennedy found about Christians and porn in writing about sexual addiction.

More articles on sexuality and gender are in our full-coverage section.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

Help for the Sexually Desperate

Carbonated Holiness

News

Sacred Harp Resurgence

News

Not Your Father's L'Abri

The Grace Escape

IRS Rules to Remember

California Dreams

Bookmarks

Why Evangelize the Jews?

Fiction from the Headlines

News

Bearing the Silence of God

Starter Books on Ancient-Future Faith

Death and Resurrection

Count Your Surprises

New Atheists Are Not Great

News

Why Culture War May Never End

Our Geopolitical Moment

Review

Haunting Salvation

News

Church in State

Porn's Stranglehold

Review

Pushing Daises

What Makes a Church Missional?

News

News Briefs: March 01, 2008

Editorial

Hating Hillary

The 8 Marks of a Robust Gospel

News

Go Figure

News

What <em>Reveal</em> Reveals

News

Passages

News

Quotation Marks

Q&A: John Dilulio

A Kinder, Gentler Shari'ah?

News

Capital Doubts

$300K Settlement

News

Premeditated Mobs

News

Taliban Targets

News

Foreign Correspondence

News

Post-Mayhem Woes

View issue

Our Latest

Public Theology Project

What Horror Stories Can (and Cannot) Tell Us About the World

We want meaning and resolution—and the kind of monster we can defeat.

The Russell Moore Show

Paul Kingsnorth on the Dark Powers Behind AI

Are we summoning demons through our machines?

Welcome to Youth Ministry! Time to Talk about Anime.

Japanese animation has become a media mainstay among Gen Z. You may not “get” it, but the zoomers at your church sure do.

Review

‘One Battle After Another’ Is No Way to Live

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, the new film from Paul Thomas Anderson plays out the dangers of extremism.

To Black Worship Leaders, Gospel vs. Contemporary Worship Is a False Dichotomy

The discussion around Maverick City Music highlights how commercial success and congregational value are two different things.

Review

Needing Help Is Normal

Leah Libresco Sargeant’s doggedly pro-life feminist manifesto argues that dependence is inevitable.

Review

Don’t Give Dan Brown the Final Word on the Council of Nicaea

Bryan Litfin rescues popular audiences from common myths about the origins of Trinitarian doctrine.

Apple PodcastsDown ArrowDown ArrowDown Arrowarrow_left_altLeft ArrowLeft ArrowRight ArrowRight ArrowRight Arrowarrow_up_altUp ArrowUp ArrowAvailable at Amazoncaret-downCloseCloseEmailEmailExpandExpandExternalExternalFacebookfacebook-squareGiftGiftGooglegoogleGoogle KeephamburgerInstagraminstagram-squareLinkLinklinkedin-squareListenListenListenChristianity TodayCT Creative Studio Logologo_orgMegaphoneMenuMenupausePinterestPlayPlayPocketPodcastRSSRSSSaveSaveSaveSearchSearchsearchSpotifyStitcherTelegramTable of ContentsTable of Contentstwitter-squareWhatsAppXYouTubeYouTube