The ministries also are criticized by some secular sex therapists, who oppose injecting religion into what they consider a clinical issue best left to professionals. But anecdotal reports suggest that growing numbers of church members and pastors are being ensnared by addiction to pornography, in large part because they can easily access it anonymously on their computers. A major Pentecostal denomination that operates a telephone hotline for pastors and their families says that 25 percent of the calls involve porn addiction. Focus on the Family, founded by Christian psychologist James Dobson, reports that one out of seven pastors who call its toll-free help line say they are addicted to pornography. Roberts led a seminar last October at the Church on the Way in Los Angeles that drew 400 pastors.
Some men view pornography.
Others go to strip clubs, pick up prostitutes or have anonymous sex. All of them, therapists agree, are caught up in a misdirected attempt to cope with pain, unresolved problems or traumas, anxiety, boredom or a lack of intimacy. Psychologist Bridgman said reliance on sex to dispel emotional pain is not unlike a hospital patient with an IV morphine drip. Allen became that kind of man with pornography, then strip clubs, then with prostitutes. His wife, Susan, was suspicious.