Addiction is Addiction

I'm surprised at how some readers responded to pastor Brent McNamara's addiction to pornography.

Well, come to think of it, maybe I'm not.

There's a reason why Philly.com's online editors turned off the comments section of my Tuesday column. Seems boys will be boys, and plenty of them believed that looking at a few girly magazines had nothing to do with addictive behavior. At least they don't act out their fantasties with a real person, they said.

So let the pastor peek. Just good dirty fun, right?

Wrong. As McNamara learned, anything that becomes an obsession is an addiction. Grammy-winning gospel artist Kirk Franklin, who confessed his porn addiction a few years ago, learned that lesson, too.

"People tell me, 'When I watch porn, at least I'm not cheating on my wife'." Franklin says. "I tell them, 'Dude. You are cheating on your wife."