The following is excerpted from the Church News. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
Sam Black’s teenage daughter once excitedly insisted on driving the two of them home after an event. She’d recently received her driver’s learner permit and was anxious to use it, but when she tried to bypass a long line of cars by cutting through a grassy area, the car sank up to its axles in mud.
Black said it would have been easy in that moment to tell his daughter, “Hey, if you drive through the grass, we’ll get stuck in the mud.” They were already stuck, and his daughter was well aware of why. Pointing out her obvious mistake wouldn’t help her.
“But isn’t that what we often do in our congregations today?” Black said. “[We tell people], ‘Pornography’s wrong. Don’t do that. God hates that. Quit that, stop that, don’t do that.’ And [they respond], ‘I’m already stuck. Can you help me find the way [out]?’”
Black is the director of life change education at Covenant Eyes, a software company with an app that helps people hold themselves accountable for their internet use. He’s also authored multiple books about the impact of pornography.
He talked about his daughter’s driving mishap during the 2025 Utah Coalition Against Pornography Conference held Saturday, March 1, at the Salt Lake Community College campus in Sandy, Utah, and he connected the story to ways churches can better support congregation members who struggle with pornography usage.
Elder Patrick Kearon of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles was the event’s opening keynote speaker via a prerecorded video address. He focused his remarks on what he described as the “beautifully optimistic trio” of hope, help and healing for anyone harmed by pornography.
The Savior’s atoning gift provides a way back from any loss, wound, pain, heartache or addiction, no matter how low someone has sunk, Elder Kearon said. “Our God of hope offers miraculous healing, peace and assurance that we are never alone, and when we are in the depths of misery and cannot feel His love and grace in our hearts, we must cling to the knowledge of this eternal truth in our heads until we can feel once again.”
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
