Book Addiction - Conquering Pornography - Overcoming the Addition, by Dennis Frederick

I have read many books on pornography addiction, generally the books are in a "highly recommended" pile or a "not worth your time or money pile". This one would be in the second pile. While I applaud the author for tackling a taboo topic, and from a Christian perspective, I found the book lacked great effectiveness in how it was presented/formatted, as well as the author's generalized comments which did not allow a deeper dig into the topic.

First, the format. I hated how the book was set up like a devotional, with each topic being a page or a page-and-a-half in length, followed by 3 or 4 reflection questions and a Bible verse. Nothing wrong with this in and of itself, but for a book on overcoming pornography, this was a very, very poor way to present the material. One could never dig deeper and get more insight on a topic, since it was pretty much glossed over by the author in general terms. Plus, some of the Bible verses (which were only included in the appendix, which later found out) and not on the page itself, were iffy at best, in terms of its connection to the topic at hand. That is the problem with plucking a verse from here and there - the context is not known, and it makes for sloppy Scripture use.

Second, I really did not learn anything new in this book, aside from a few good points about post-addiction living. Most of what he said can be gleaned pretty easily from common sense; but what I really did not like was how some of his comments seemed trite and not recognizing that pornography addiction has some complexity. When the author makes remarks such as "you must simply stop now!" or "if you are tempted, walk away from your computer", those are not helpful. Most men struggle with pornography and it is not that easy to just quit cold turkey. Also, his recurring comments about wives having a sixth sense, etc., get old and tiring pretty fast. He also tends to take a point (which is debatable) and then proceed to flush it out as if there's no other side.

I had a hard time getting past two two areas of weakness in the book. The book actually did not take that long to read, based on how much white space was left due to its format. I gave this book two stars only because I appreciated a Christian attempt to write a book to address this - I just didn't find it very helpful.

Personally, if you are looking for good, solid Christian books that will help you address the issue of pornography addiction, consider Steven Arterburn's "Every Man's Battle" (there's another co-author I don't recall at this moment) for a practical step-by-step process (and he uses Scripture too, but much more appropriately), and also Harry Schuamberg's "False Intimacy" (this deals with more of what goes on in the spiritual sense - very good book). For a secular step-by-step book which I find very helpful as well, consider "The Porn Trap" by Larry and Wendy Maltz.

NRA Life Membership

A lot of people who are proponents of defending the right to firearms ownership have been hesitant to get a lifetime membership with the NRA due to the high cost ($1000.00). I've been an NRA member for a few years now, and wanted to spring for a full life membership, but my finances have not allowed me to do this. There is a Easy-Pay-Life (EPL) installment plan, where you can pay by credit card over a default period of 10 years ($25.00 per quarter, per year), but that with that plan, that will take me well into my late 40s. I recently did sign up for EPL, but since then, I have found a couple of ways to get a life membership much more cheaply.

The first depends on someone else - once in a while, the NRA will offer to its existing life members the opportunity to sign up a family or friend (both of these are regarded loosely by the membership office, so essentially anyone can sign you up). This is THE best promotion out there, as life membership is reduced down to only $300.00 (but this depends on an existing NRA life member sponsoring you).

The other method, which I have used, is to sign up for EPL, and then call them a few weeks later and tell them that you'd like to take advantage of the offer to convert the EPL to a lifetime membership. This will require a one-time payment of $500.00 U.S. (which is still much better than having to cough up $1000, either one-time or via installment plan). Any EPL payments will be credited against the one-time fee of $500.00. For me, I got a statue with my name on a nameplate, as thanks for the life membership, as well as my usual subscription to American Rifleman (I really liked the America's First Freedom magazine, but it would cost extra and incur some additional postage charges since I am in Canada).

I should mention that this $500.00 offer is contingent on switching from existing EPL. For 1, 3, 5 year single memberships, there is no way (that I know of) to get the $500.00 life membership. Just get your membership switched to EPL and then in a few weeks, call them and get it switched to lifetime via the one-time payment. If you don't have the cash handy, you can always do EPL for however long you want and then call them and pay the difference between what you have paid and the $500.00.

$500.00 is still a lot of money, but much better than $1000.00. I have no idea if this is a limited offer or not, but if you ever wanted to spring for an NRA Life Membership, hopefully this will save you some money.