We ALL Have a Porn Problem | Andrew Williams

Updated:

Jun 12, 2026

•

Published:

Jun 16, 2026

We all have a pornography problem, whether we’ve ever watched pornography or not. The issue with pornography goes far beyond sex—it’s an issue of vision. How we view one another.

We have lost our ability to see properly, and when we lose our sense of spiritual vision, we reduce persons made in the image of God to objects for our consumption. Pornography is simply one of the most obvious ways that we objectify one another. The normalization and proliferation of pornography have disastrous consequences for the soul—consequences that extend far beyond pornography itself.

If pornography is demonic iconography, then an understanding of holy iconography can be used to reliably guide us back to reality. To regain our spiritual vision, we must learn to see every face we encounter as an icon of Christ. This includes our enemies. This involves learning to venerate rather than objectify.

Andrew Williams—mental health chaplain, psychotherapist, and author of From Object to Icon: The Struggle for Spiritual Vision in a Pornographic World—joins Dave Hanegraaff on Commitment to Reality to talk about how we lost our vision, and how we get it back.

For more information on From Object to Icon: The Struggle for Spiritual Vision in a Pornographic World please click here.

Thank you for joining Commitment to Reality, hosted by Dave Hanegraaff. Follow Commitment to Reality wherever you get your podcasts.

(Timestamps below.)

0:00 — How does one define oneself?

3:00 — The biggest problem with pornography is a problem of vision

4:45 — What is pornography?

7:00 — We all have a pornography problem

11:20 — Training algorithms before they train us

14:00 — Practicing nepsis—the sober guarding of our soul

15:45 — The problem with thinking of sin as breaking a rule rather than deforming our soul

18:40 — Evil never exists in isolation, but is always the perversion of goodness

24:35 — Why is the act of confession so important?

28:00 — Why are icons important? (and not idolatrous)

36:45 — Why would we need iconography for prayer?

40:30 — What is veneration and why is it necessary in the life of a Christian?

44:45 — Embracing an icon and watching pornography are based on the same desire

49:30 — You can actually rightly venerate pornography

53:00 — The nous—the source of our spiritual vision

55:00 — Idolizing individualism is literally idiotic

57:30 — Imagination can be a dangerous thing

1:00:00 — It’s not enough to kill our desires, we must transform them

1:02:15 — We must accept that we are powerless—could anything be less American?

1:05:00 — How can we experience true freedom?

1:08:45 — What is true repentance?

1:12:00 — Why does the Church care so much about sex?

1:15:20 — Where are we most eager to ignore reality?

1:19:15 — In a world that feels increasingly unreal—what feels most real?

1:25:40 — The answer to the problem of pornography is real relationship and vulnerability

1:28:00 — Stand on the edge of the abyss. And when you feel it’s beyond your strength, break off and have a cup of tea

We are living through one of the most disorienting periods in human history—leaving many to wonder: What is reality? As artificial intelligence accelerates and institutional trust erodes, our shared sense of what is real continues to crumble.

A commitment to reality is a dedication to discerning what is true and developing the discipline to live in alignment with that truth—with reality. This podcast is an apologetic for reality—each episode serving as an intentional act of grounding our existence together as we commit to what is beautiful, good, and true.

Subscribe to A Commitment to Reality on YouTube for the full episodes + clips, and follow wherever you get podcasts.

We are currently available at the following other podcast platforms with more being added daily! You can help spread the word about this new podcast by giving us a rating and review from the other channels we are listed on and telling others!

Equip.org YouTube Apple Podcasts