I am sure lust is a difficult subject matter for religion teachers to discuss with their teenage students. Once our young people reach puberty, and the secular world encroaches on their sense of morals, it is harder to convince them that lust is no friend to the soul. A teenager may not bother to make a distinction between lust and libido; or secularism may convince them that money, sex, power, and social media fame are what will fulfill their emotional void. But any adult who has learned from their years of errors knows very well that vices bring us to the road of ruin. All the promises of happiness from the kingdom of darkness are just counterfeit fulfillment. Lust is no different. It leads you to long for counterfeit beauty (porn) or counterfeit joy (meaningless flings) or substitute intimacy (masturbation). Lust may be a slick conman, but it carelessly leaves behind such immense rot that it is not hard to notice that we have been duped.
The sexual revolution mentality of the 1960s has been an insidious stronghold that has eroded our spiritual and family values through the decades. In our current digital age, we see plenty of individuals on social media and podcasts bragging about their “high body count” as if this behavior puts them on top of some made-up social hierarchy. And apparently, promiscuity is not enough of a moral injury. Digital technology has proliferated access to porn, which further degenerates a nation struggling with mental health problems, including addictions.
At the collective consciousness level, porn and hookup culture has cheapened our view of sex and marriage. It makes us forget that sex is primarily a procreative and unitive process, and that marriage is a covenant with God. If persons disregard their devout commitment to God, they will go into relationships for more selfish reasons. Lack of commitment leads to failed marriages, which lead to traumatized children who will grow up to project their unhealed traumas onto their children and significant other. With a long string of emotionally traumatized generations, you will have a society of overwhelmed single mothers and children with no positive father figure to look up to. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, nearly 1 in 4 children in the U.S. have no father figure in the home. While research by the National Fatherhood Initiative has found that without a dependable man in the home, children are more likely to end up in poverty, have behavioral problems, or be involved with crime. So perhaps the sexual revolution should be known as the “lust revolution.” Like all the vices, lust makes our motivations and behaviors self-centered as opposed to Christ-centered or family-centered.
Along with the crisis of fatherlessness, the lust revolution has brought upon our nation the widespread tragedy of abortion. If our collective morality honored the marriage covenant and rejected hookup culture, a huge majority of abortions would cease. According to CDC data from 2021, 87% of the women who had abortions were unmarried. Furthermore, if the culture embraced temperance and chastity over lust, there would hardly be any unplanned pregnancies, and therefore, abortion would not be a major statistic.
Admittedly, it will take more than a moral attitude to prevail over lust. It is a mistake to look at it solely as a flaw in human behavior. One must also see that there is an adversary who plans for our demise.
Growing up in Catholic school, the concept of spiritual warfare was treated as an afterthought. Yet, many saints and the church fathers discussed it, and it was certainly an important part of our Savior’s ministry. But because of the oversight, I had the naïve idea that as long as you were not possessed, you did not have to worry about the demonic realm.
I did not see lust as an adversary until my late 40s when I got serious about having a prayer life. When I would try to reflect on biblical passages, I would get the most terrible intrusive thoughts; most of them were thoughts of lust or perversion. After being introduced to St. Ignatius of Loyola’s lessons on the discernment of spirits, I realized that not all intrusive thoughts are purely psychological. Some are actually a sign of a spiritual attack. I was struck with the reality that like witchcraft, sin opens dark portals. Portals that will release evil entities that will taint your imagination and memories. So don’t dismiss unclean spirits as superstition. If you don’t realize you are in a war, the enemy will have the upper hand in all your inner battles.
It will be helpful here to point out what exorcist Father Chad Ripperger mentioned in a spiritual warfare lecture in 2022. He has found that 95% of men who struggle to remain chaste despite their best efforts, also struggle with fear, depression, or despair. Doing a minor exorcism related to these torments was a crucial step in their liberation from lust. This confirms what is mentioned in Scripture—demons work in groups. So take note of what kind of intrusive thoughts and moods assail you. They can be a clue to what harasses you in a spiritual dimension. Father Ripperger’s insights also indicate the importance of psychological healing. Sin is not the only thing that opens doors to the demonic realm, emotional trauma will attract evil as well. With the family trauma issues noted earlier and the pervading culture of lust and death, our nation more than ever needs both the healing of emotional wounds and deliverance from spiritual attacks.
With an attitude of lust, one may think: “If I don’t indulge my appetites, it will be a loss for me.” But in actuality, if you choose virtue over vice, what you gain is more valuable than transient thrills. If I were a religion teacher, I would tell my students the following:
Virtue stabilizes us all the way up to the societal level. Its sphere of influence is not limited to the individual. If you put aside self-centeredness and commit to God’s covenant, your marriage and children will be blessed. With healthy family ties, your children will be spared of the emotional traumas that lead to societal decay. From generation to generation, communities of blessed families cultivate the flourishing of life.
In Chapter 3 of the Letter to the Galatians, St. Paul states that the Gentiles have received the blessings of Abraham. And in Chapter 24 of Genesis, God blesses Abraham in all things. One could conclude that the smartest thing the Western world has ever done was forsake paganism and turn to God. This led to an outpouring of blessings. And what exactly are these blessings? The Pentecostal preacher, the late Derek Prince (1915-2003), categorized the blessings mentioned in Deuteronomy 28 as exaltation, health, reproductive fruitfulness, prosperity, victory, and God’s favor. Curses would be the opposite—humiliation, illness, barrenness, poverty, defeat, and God’s disfavor. Judging by the widespread occurrence of family dysfunction and the ills that come with it, the lust revolution of the 1960s has oriented America towards generational curses rather than generational blessings. If we want to be blessed again in all things, we must forsake the vices that paganized and secularized our culture.
Finally, I would give my students this outline so they can be up to speed in expelling lust or any spirit of evil. These have helped me tremendously in neutralizing intrusive thoughts:
Check out the YouTube videos and books by exorcists Father Chad Ripperger and Father Vincent Lampert.Watch Derek Prince’s YouTube videos about spiritual warfare.If you can, do a bread-and-water fast once a week.Go to confession regularly; it is extremely powerful.Pray the Rosary. It is a powerful weapon against demonic harassment.
If every disciple of Christ knew the basics of deliverance ministry, we would be more swift in identifying and expelling the enemies in our midst.
Photo by Slav Romanov on Unsplash
