Posts Tagged ‘Nightline’

Born to Cheat?

Posted: October 5, 2009 in Culture, Faith, Life, Ministry, People, Spirituality, The Bible, TV, Uncategorized
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“You shall not commit adultery.” – Exodus 20:14 (NIV)

Sometimes God’s Word is ambiguous and open for interpretation. This part of the Bible is not one of those times. God makes it pretty clear in the Ten Commandments that you should not commit adultery.

The other night I was watching ABC’s Nightline that dealt with this topic. The debate centered around this question: ARE PEOPLE BORN TO CHEAT?

You can see the entire 90 minute debate by CLICKING HERE. I strongly encourage you to take the time to watch this extremely interesting debate.

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The panel consisted of Ed Young, senior pastor of the Fellowship Church in Dallas, Texas, and Jonathan Daugherty, founder of “Be Broken Ministries” and recovering sex addict, facing off against author Jenny Block who claims to be happily married to a man while having a girlfriend and Noel Biderman, founder and CEO of ashleymadison.com.

Some of you may remember ashleymadison.com from THIS OCTOBER 2008 BLOG POST. In that post, I talked about seeing this commercial one night on ESPN…

The ashleymadison.com mission statement is “Life is short. Have an affair.” Another commercial for this website (which is way too provocative for me to put on my blog) has a man and a woman being extremely physical and passionate with each other followed by the words, “This couple is married. But not to each other.” Their website has the “100% Guaranteed Ashley Madison Affair Guarantee” that says, “Have an affair to remember or we’ll give you your money back!”

I’m not sure what kind of emotions that stirs up inside of you – possible anger, sadness, or indifference.

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Adultery is real. Adultery is serious. Adultery is all too common in today’s society. If you google “adultery statistics”, you will find statistics that suggest that anywhere between 25-55% of married men and 15-45% of married women have committed adultery.

In this debate, the author and the CEO suggest that the Biblical concept of marriage is setup for failure, arguing that we are not wired to be with just one person in a marriage relationship.

__________________

So…

Here’s the question…

ARE WE BORN TO CHEAT?

Thoughts?

X3 Watch

Posted: August 5, 2009 in Culture, Faith, Inspirational, Life, Ministry, People, Spirituality, Technology, TV
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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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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.