Thanks everyone for joining us on this site and the teens section. As you may know we get new bloggers from time to time and this is my chance to introduce you to a new member of that team. Mat Slagle is the drummer for a band called “The Letter Black” They are a band that has some very powerful songs that I fell really speak into the hearts of a lot of our readers here on this site. So please welcome Mat and I lok forward to seeing how God work through him for you.
Brian Mac
“The Letter Black Drummer”
My name is Mat Slagle. I am the drummer for the new Christian hard rock band The Letter Black. I’ve been playing since August of 2005.
I was a porn addict from age 12 to age 21. It poisoned my entire teenage life and destroyed alot of who I was and who my family wanted me to be.
The first time I was exposed to porn was at a new years eve party, it was the year of Y2K. I was spending the night at a friend’s house and they had digital cable. I slept alone in the living room where they had a big screen t.v. and no parental blocks. I found the channels with porn on them and was instantly drawn in. From then on I was not only drawn, but curious. I’ve learned that the most difficult thing about the continuous addiction of porn is that what you watch is endless. There are so many different things to watch and search for that it seems to never get old.
I was born into a Christian family and went to church since before I can remember. I never had a “defining moment”with God and somehow always felt stale with my Christian walk. So I turned to porn as my outlet.
It alienated me from my family and only caused me to fall into the wrong crowds and the wrong influences. I found myself cheating on my girlfriend, mistreating her just to have sex. I was a person I always saw on t.v. And always disliked. I’ve been caught five times, I have lied and skipped out on church, school, family events, pretty much everything I could get of I did. Just to sit at my computer. It wasn’t until 2007 that things changed dramatically, I attended a Christian treat called Aquire the Fire. I saw Pillar and Red perform.
Something happened that weekend that broke me down completely. I experienced God for the first time and it was amazing. I rededicated my life that night and went home super charged. Unfortunately I relapsed and fell back into porn addiction, it continued until early 2010 when I made a huge mistake. I cheated on the girl I love because I was in a dark place and fell way off the path. I made a decision to finally truly live for God in every aspect of my life, especially when the doors are closed and no one is at home. Since then I have turned my life completely around, I love life and love God with all my heart. I want to portray an attitude of Christ with my position in The Letter Black. He truly saved me from a deathly addiction and turned me around. He gave me my life back.