| Issues of sexual addiction have swept the evangelical movement, and ongoing concerns in the evangelical community are evidenced by its self-help literature, men's movements, and sex manuals. The purpose of this investigation was to examine the lived experiences of evangelical Christian men who self-identify as sexual addicts. This qualitative method was existential-phenomenological and focused on the lived experiences of this population. Individual interviews and follow-up individual interviews of six self-identified evangelical male sexual addicts were analyzed. The results of the study indicated that the male evangelical self-identified sexual addict lives through compartmentalized worlds: the religious or spiritual world, the committed relationship or marital world, and the sexual world. Only through the forced convergence of these spaces due to exposure along with the risk of extreme consequences do self-identified evangelical men surrender to change. After surrendering to change, subjects willingly grasp on to the concept of sexual addiction as they identify with others in the Christian recovering community and with Christian literature. Sexual addiction becomes an identity that gives them a sense of relief, and a growing dependence on a recovery program emerges along with a necessary and renewed reliance, appreciation, and understanding of God. The findings of this investigation illuminate the need for counselors to recognize the inextricable link between evangelicals and their relationship with God as they counsel the evangelical Christian male who struggles with sexual behaviors. |
