{"id":23982,"date":"2015-11-06T00:10:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T00:10:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/?p=23982"},"modified":"2025-07-25T13:23:33","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T18:23:33","slug":"whats-your-cheerleader-button","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/whats-your-cheerleader-button\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s Your Cheerleader Button?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Written by Michael Johnson (MJ),<\/strong>\u00a0co-founder and Dean of Dating at Future Marriage University and guest blogger at Covenant Eyes.<\/em>
\nSeveral years back, I got a call from a friend. He had slipped up again that week. He got caught in the porn trap. I could sense the helplessness and hopelessness in his voice.<\/p>\n

I recognized the feelings, because I had felt them myself. Many times. I remember the irresistible pull of porn<\/a>; like I couldn\u2019t look away; couldn\u2019t deny my passions. It seemed like I simply couldn\u2019t help myself.
\nAnd so I\u2019d help myself.
\nTo porn.
\nWhich, frankly, never proved very helpful.<\/p>\n

Tempting the Click<\/h2>\n

So there was no judgment for my friend. Only encouragement to get up and try again; to keep striving for purity and freedom from porn. A goal which, though high, was never-the-less attainable.
\nI knew it was, because when this conversation was taking place I hadn\u2019t sought out or stared at porn in over two years. In fact, the last time I did was in 2001<\/a>.
\nI wanted to encourage my friend to believe that, though the temptation would always come around, he could one day resist. Consistently<\/em>. I wasn\u2019t stronger or holier than him, and we believed in the same God. So if I could do it, he could too!
\nIn fact, just that very week I had experienced the temptation to go where I knew I shouldn\u2019t go, so I shared with him.
\nI was on the Tennessee Titans\u2019 website looking up the game schedule and there it was:\u00a0The Cheerleader Button.
\nEasily the best looking button on the entire page.
\nAnd so the conversation ensued.
\nOn one side, I heard a voice say, \u201cThat\u2019s not porn. No one\u2019s going to be naked<\/em>. Everyone is going to be fully clothed [relatively speaking, of course]. There\u2019s not going to be anything you\u2019ll have to confess later.\u201d
\nThen there was another voice that said, \u201cBut you won\u2019t be satisfied. You\u2019ll want to see more. And chances are, you\u2019ll look for more. And find it. And then you\u2019ll give up your years of freedom, all for the Titans cheerleaders.\u201d
\nAnd so I closed the web page.
\nMy friend was silent at the end of my story.
\n\u201cYou still there?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cDude,\u201d he said, \u201cI didn\u2019t tell you how my mess up began. [pause] I was on the Houston Texan\u2019s site [pause] and I pressed the cheerleader button.\u201d
\nHe pressed the button and I didn\u2019t. And it made all the difference in the world.<\/strong><\/p>\n

What\u2019s Your Button?<\/h2>\n

How about you? What\u2019s the thing that leads you to porn<\/a>\u2014the choice before the choice to indulge?\u00a0What presses your button? Psychologists call them triggers.
\nWhat\u2019s yours?
\nIs it the cheerleader button?
\nThe swimsuit edition?
\nThat one TV show or movie? (Or perhaps several of them?)
\nIs it staring at the magazine rack at the checkout counter?
\nOr that one billboard on the way home from work?
\nOr is it the music that you\u2019re listening to on the way home from work?
\nOr the YouTube videos you watch late at night?
\nWhat presses your button?
\nMaybe it seems harmless, or maybe you know it\u2019s a little edgy, but still miles away from actual porn.
\nHowever, it preps you for porn none the less. It\u2019s like foreplay. Only for porn.
\nWhat presses your button?
\nBe honest with yourself, identify it and don\u2019t go there. Look away, RUN away. Don\u2019t FREE temptation. FLEE temptation<\/a>. Don\u2019t press the button that\u2019s going to press your button.
\nWe\u2019re not talking about legalism here<\/a>. (\u201cDon\u2019t do this. Don\u2019t look at that!\u201d) We\u2019re talking about logic (\u201cWhen you do A, then B naturally follows.\u201d)
\nMore than that, we\u2019re talking about freedom. TRUE freedom<\/a>. And when you\u2019ve had it for a few years you might find you\u2019re like me. It\u2019s so good, it\u2019s worth not ever pressing another cheerleader button again. You\u2019ll even look away from the game when the camera is trained in on the cheerleaders.
\nSo what presses your button? Will you trade it for freedom?<\/p>\n

\"COVENANT-EYES\"<\/a>
\nOriginal\u00a0blog post<\/a>\u00a0can be found at Covenant Eyes, a Josh McDowell Ministry partner. Learn more at SetFreeSummit.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Michael Johnson (MJ),\u00a0co-founder and Dean of Dating at Future Marriage University and guest blogger at Covenant Eyes. Several years back, I got a call from a friend. He had slipped up again that week. He got caught in the porn trap. I could sense the helplessness and hopelessness in his voice. I recognized […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23327,"featured_media":91066,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"What\u2019s the thing that leads you to porn\u2014the choice before the choice to indulge? What presses your button? Psychologists call them triggers.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"translator":[],"blog-author":[78],"class_list":["post-23982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-relationships","blog-author-josh-mcdowell-ministry-team"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/607\/2025\/02\/blog_pornography_pornphenomenon.jpg","meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23327"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23982"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":92503,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23982\/revisions\/92503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23982"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=23982"},{"taxonomy":"blog-author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites-stage.josh.org\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/blog-author?post=23982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}