Andrew Smith's Blog

My name is Andrew. Come and have a look inside my life and watch me share what is on my heart.

Clean: A Proven Plan for Men Committed to Sexual Integrity By Douglas Weiss, PHD Book Review


 

Clean is written to guide readers into becoming clean and living a life with sexual integrity and purity. Douglas Weiss is a nationally known psychologist, speaker, and an author. He is also the president of the American Association for Sex Addiction Therapy. He is also a committed Christian who had written an excellent book on the subject of staying clean from all bad forms of sexual perversity. He was very transparent and open about his own personal struggle with masturbation and pornography while in Bible school. He admitted that he would confess then keep masturbating and he would remain stuck in this deadly cycle. When he went to seminary he was still struggling but it was becoming less frequent. He felt God prompting him to tell his roommate that he masturbated and to be obedient he would confess to him. Luckily he had a trusting roommate that prayed for him and was a true friend throughout his sexual battles. He eventually realized that if he acted out he would have to confess to him. He finally broke the cycle and became free and now he wants to help every man, son, father, brother, pastor, daughter, and wife to be completely free.

 

He begins the book by digging into depth and sharing the statistics of how pornography has dramatically increased and is becoming more widespread. Times have changed and pornography is easily more accessible to users because of new technology, for example, iPads and smart phones. You can pretty much look at pornography anywhere.

Some of the statistics stated:

“Every second 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography.” (Page 6)

“Every second, $3,075.64 is being spend on pornography.” (Page 6)

“In 2006, the United States had 244,661,900 porn Web pages.” (Page 9)

“The Internet Filter Learning Center (2008) states, “Approximately 13% of the US population regularly views Internet pornography 75% of whom are males.” (Page 10).

“Woman accessing adult websites each month 9.4 million.” (Chart on page 11).

All of the statistics presented displays that pornography is mostly viewed by men. But Douglas Weiss even admitted that his office has noticed that they are having to treat more women sex addicts than ever before. One survey found that 37% of pastors are also struggling with viewing pornography. As if the statistics couldn’t get any worst, next Douglas revealed the hidden dangers of our adolescents and their pornography habits. The average age that a child sees pornography is age 11. Between the ages of 8-16 years old 90% of children and teens have observed porn online and most are looking at porn while supposedly doing homework. Sex and pornography as you can perceive is influencing our generations and is negatively affecting many families and future families. I only shared some of the appalling statistics about pornography but the book encompassed tons of more statistics that will impact the reader.  

Douglas Weiss explored the veracity that some of the scripture characters had to endure regarding their sexual temptation. For instance, Joseph master’s wife, Potiphar attempted to seduce him into bed and tried multiple times to get him to give in to the temptation. Joseph said no repeatedly and he wouldn’t give in to her pleas. He stood his ground and wound up arrested for a crime he didn’t commit. But what if he had given in and had sex and had a moment of thrilling pleasure would he had been able to fulfill his destiny. As Douglas pointed out, “sexual purity is what maintained Joseph’s destiny” (Page 23). He also looks at Samson and Delilah and the affect that one decision that lead to the big reveal and the secret of Samson’s power that cost him dearly. Just like the characters in the Bible, we are in a fight with the devil for our great destiny that Christ wants us to accomplish for His glory.  

I was truly shocked when Douglas went into details concerning Revelation 2:20-22 and the woman Jezebel is very much active today. This was the first time that I have learnt about the incredible power that the woman Jezebel has on our world and how she is teaching and spreading the news that it’s okay to have sexual intercourse with whomever you please or masturbate and watch porn if you want and when you want to. All of this is lies from the satan and Jesus has declared that Jezebel will be made to go through suffering and whoever commits adultery with her will also suffer. The good news is that if we have fallen and sinned God is able to forgive us when we repent for our sins and turn from our ways.  

Douglas has opened my eyes to this numerous passages and the importance of staying clean. I also enjoyed that he shared stories about how people have gotten trapped in sexual sin. I liked how he tried to wake people up to the critical issues by relating stories that people could connect to. Some of the stories include workers getting caught at work printing off homosexual pornography and they ultimately get fired, one guy even called a prostitute and he accidently conferenced in his wife while setting up the encounter, others had sexual affairs and some accidently became pregnant or got someone pregnant, a company executive had an affair with an employee and she filed sexual harassment and sued him and the company, some even tried to hire a prostitute and it turned out to be undercover cop instead and they got arrested, and many more heartbreaking stories.  

One of the biggest takeaways was the serious emphasize on staying clean for our sons, daughters, and our wife or future wife. This is one of the paramount books that I have read on sexual temptations and how to become clean from our sexual addictions. I also immensely loved the countless charts featuring how looking at porn, masturbating, or having an affair affects our spouse and our children. This section of the book would make any man want to conquer the sexual battle satan is engaging with us. This taught me that a number of women will unfortunately become depressed because of their husband’s sexual struggles. I also learned that my sexual behaviors can affect my child self-esteem, spirituality, social, and dating life. I commend Douglas for sharing who are sexual organs truthfully belong to and it was very eye opening. I loved how the book contained many scripture passages discussed to teach readers what we might have missed before. The most scandalous Bible stories Douglas went into massive detail was the city of Sodom and Noah’s son Ham (Canaan’s father). This is the first time I have even remotely understood the implicit story about Ham.

I would recommend this life changing book to every man, husband, father, son, brother, pastor, and business man. Basically if you’re a man you without a doubt need to read this book! This book is also for both single men and married men. I must warn you that this isn’t a book for the fainthearted and most of the material and information will disturb you significantly. But how sweet the freedom and revelation will inspire you to change and stay sexual clean for yourself, your wife or future wife, your kids or future kids, and grandchildren or future grandchildren. I have personally struggled with masturbation and pornography and this book was an enormous tool to encourage me and help me to succeed in staying clean for my future wife and children even if I am still currently single. I would also recommend this book to all females who are wanting to understand what their husband or children our facing in regards to their sexual integrity. The book had many principles and plans to overcome and to help men maintain their sexual integrity and to stay clean. I would highly endorse this book to every man who is looking for a resource to assist them in their journey towards their sexual honor and destiny!

 

"I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program."

 

 

If you would like to purchase a copy of Clean check it out on Amazon.com:

 

338 comments:

«Oldest   ‹Older   401 – 338 of 338   Newer›   Newest»
«Oldest ‹Older   401 – 338 of 338   Newer› Newest»

Post a Comment