Is America addicted to porn? That is the question ABC’s Nightline asked during a 2008 broadcast. You can go to www.abcnews.go.com/Nightline/FaceOff/ and see a debate over that topic. It is extremely interesting and insightful. Note of caution: this is over a national, secular broadcast so you never know their real agenda.
Pornography is drastically affecting America and the church. It is often the “dirty little secret” that is constantly being ignored and swept under the rug while it kills intimacy, marriages, and purity. The porn business is a $14 billion dollar a year industry. It is supposed to be designed for mature adults, but the reality is that it is killing America’s youth. The average age of a porn viewer is between 12-17 years old. The average age a person is first introduced to pornography is 11 years old. The reason for these startling stats is because it is only a few clicks away now. It’s not like 20 years ago, when you had to look under your dad’s mattress or go into the XXX store with a ballcap pulled down low to cover your face so nobody knew you were there. Anybody with an Internet connection can have porn available in a matter of seconds without anybody knowing.
One of the best resources I have found that is fighting the fight against pornography and calling people back to God and holiness is www.xxxchurch.com. I strongly support these guys (one of the guys, Craig Gross, is on the Nightline debate mentioned above). Check them out.
Whether you have kids or not, we have to be proactive about protecting our purity and intimacy in marriage. Here a couple of practical suggestions that I recommend you put into practice immediately in your home:
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Put your home computer in a public area. This definitely applies if you have kids. Don’t let your kid have a computer in their room at home.
- Put some sort of filter/accountability software on your computer that monitors what websites are being viewed. XXXchurch.com has a FREE software for Mac and PC that is called X3 Watch. That software is an accountability software that sends a weekly email to an accountability partner of what websites you are looking at. The key is that your partner is somebody that will hold you accountable and you don’t want them to know you are looking at porn (I recommend your wife, your pastor, your mom, etc).
I personally have X3 Watch on my personal computer. Heather (my wife) is my accountability partner. Every week she gets an email that reports any questionable websites that I may have viewed that week. On multiple occasions she has told me how proud she is of me and encourages me in my purity.
It’s time we stop sweeping this epidemic that is drastically affecting our churches, our marriages, our teenagers, and our culture under the rug. Pursue holiness. Pursue purity.
12-17 YEARS OLD?!! Oh God.
This is horrendous. The people behind this awful and oppressive industry should be prosecuted for the LIVES their profession is costing. Even if we forget about the thousands of porn stars, there are all those hundreds of thousands of boys (and even girls) who have been swallowed by this monster.
There are way too many cruelties committed in the name of “freedom of speech.”
wow, do you Christians really need Big Brother to stay ethically centered? It’s no wonder you believe we are “born in sin,” when you yourselves are so morally bankrupt that you must resort to “discipleship” and “accountablity partners” to avoid doing what you have already convinced yourself you shouldn’t do.
I have an idea, grow a backbone and get a hobby?