Skip to main content

Surfing for God




Michael John Cusick’s book Surfing for God operates on the premise that “every man who knocks on the door of a brothel is looking for God (a quote attributed to G.K. Chesterton).” Cusick’s premise is that every person struggling with lust or pornography addictions are really searching for something else.

Each person, he says, must examine himself and find out where his urges to lust come from. It is only then they can begin dealing with it.

The author is a licensed professional counselor, and he uses a lot of psychological techniques. Personally, I am a nouthetic counselor, meaning that I believe the Bible is a sufficient source of information, and that Jesus is stronger than any addiction. Cusick is not nouthetic, as evidenced by his techniques and his quoting of Carl Jung (p.84).

In chapter 3 the author mocks his pastor for saying, “If we can just align our desires with God’s, then and only then will we win the battle over the sins and struggles that entangle us.” He brushes off that idea, and yet in the next paragraph admits that he knew his sexual sin was “empty,” but he left church, bought a six-pack of beer, drove to a motel, and took a nap (p.25-26). It seems that the pastor is the one who was right; if you know your sin is empty, don’t get drunk and pursue it.

He also quoted and agreed with someone who said that “telling men to pray more in order to overcome porn was tantamount to spiritual abuse.” Ironically, the very next paragraph was a prayer for the reader to pray to help with his struggle (p.189-190).

Cusick’s main objectives seem to be finding out where the struggle comes from (molested as a child, stressed at work, needing to be loved, etc.), confessing them to God, and even saying it out loud during temptation. He says that when a man is tempted he should sit in a chair and recite why he is being tempted. I know I am being tempted because I don’t feel loved. The urgings, he says, will subside.

This is being picky, but I also didn’t like the author’s use of The Message instead of a Bible. 

The author did have some good things to say, but overall I was disappointed with this book. Any person interested in buying it should know that there is strong language in the book, although it is used appropriately.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he

Evangelism

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi is given credit for this famous quote (although that exact phrasing does not appear in any of his writings), and a lot of people would think that this is a great philosophy. His actual quote was that everyone should “preach by their deeds.” Preaching with our deeds is not just a strategy, it is a necessity. We are commanded all through the Scriptures to let our light shine and be a peculiar people. People should be able to look at our lives and see that we are Christians. They should see the love of Christ readily on display, and thus feel compelled to live their lives in the same way. The sermon that we should preach with our lives is a sermon of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, forgiveness, conviction, etc. But this idea that has emerged that says we should ONLY preach with our deeds is a heresy straight from the devil himself. Think about it: who is the one that does not want you t

What is a Curse Word?

I know. Stupid question, right? But lately I have heard Christians begin to debate what actually makes a word a curse word. Since the Bible never says, “Thou shalt not say the ‘s’ word,” how do we know that a word is bad? Because of this I have heard Christians justify cursing. The Bible gives a broad command for Christians to adhere to: let no corrupt word come out of your mouth (Ephesians 4:29). The word corrupt means rotten; therefore, we should never say a rotten word, whether it is on the list of curse words or not. First, we have to realize that there are curse words. On the night of Jesus’ arrest Peter was found guilty of using one himself. Matthew 26:74 tells us that when Peter denied knowing Jesus that he began “to curse and to swear.” This verse shows that there are curse words, and that they are wrong to use. I’m sure whatever words Peter said were not the same curse words that we have in our culture today. Here is the point: a curse word (or rotten word) is any wo