The Curse of Pornography

An evil monster is stalking and devouring millions, including Christians and Christian ministers. We must fight a good fight for the survival of the members, ourselves, our families, and our ministries.

by Don Hooser

Pornography is exploding in our society and taking a terrible toll. In the name of "free speech" it is seemingly out of control. Modern technology has taken it from smut shops to X-rated movies to videos to 900 numbers to the Internet.

Our culture is sex-saturated. People are obsessed with being titillated. We are openly bombarded with immodest, immoral, erotic, and provocative images. Entertainment and advertising have become so sensual and sexy that much of it is soft porn. "They declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it" (Isaiah 3:9). As we become inured and desensitized, we tolerate it with little shame, shock, and outrage.

"One sin leads to another" is powerfully true of pornography. Soft porn whets the appetite and curiosity for harder porn. A colossal tragedy is that many are becoming addicted to pornography, and they turn to portrayals of sex that are ever more kinky, aberrant, deviant, perverted, and violent. Porn addiction often leads to other sex addictions where the addicts are acting out what they have seen portrayed.

The Internet

The Internet has amazing power for good and horrific potential for evil. Satan has a master mechanism for reaching and entrapping far more people into sexual addictions. Lately I've been studying Christian articles and tapes on pornography in general and Internet pornography in particular, and I'm amazed and sickened. The damage from pornography is phenomenal and proliferating. That's why I feel motivated to help spread a sense of urgency to our ministers.

Pornography has always been profitable, but now purveyors of pornography are making millions on the Internet. They want to expose everyone, including children, to their web sites, hoping that many will get hooked on pornography. They use every possible deception and strategy to get people to intentionally or unintentionally come to their web sites. Once in some of those sites, one can't get out without shutting down the computer.

Pornography hurts everyone who sees it, but some people are more susceptible to sex addictions. Those with dysfunctional family backgrounds, victims of abuse or trauma, those lacking healthy intimacy, and/or those who were exposed to pornography at an early age are more at risk.

One survey indicates that 74 percent of the consumers of pornography are male, which is no surprise. What is hard to understand is that a whopping 26 percent are female. However, this is misleading in that most of those females don't indulge as repeatedly and don't become addicted.

Many Christians involved in pornography

One of the most shocking revelations of surveys is the heavy involvement of Christians. Many Barna surveys have shown that Christians have almost as many sins and destructive habits as non-Christians. And since many ministers feel too embarrassed or ill-prepared to confront the subject of pornography, people tend to take the problem lightly and fail to get the help and healing they desperately need. Silence implies consent and tolerance, or at least an attitude that the problem is non-existent or relatively minor.

We hope that those whom God has called, who understand that God's laws are still in effect, and have access to God's Spirit have a much better track record. However, any minister in the Church of God is aware of how frequently God's people fall into sins of all kinds.

Why would pornography be an exception? The fact that male church members can view pornography easily and secretly in their own homes makes this one of their most likely sins. With the rapidly increasing popularity of the Internet, there is bound to be rapidly increasing indulgence in cyberporn.

What we can do to help

Surely God wants us to become informed about this deadly virus, to teach and warn God's people of the dangers, and to promise loving help to those who seek help. We understand God's plan for healing even the sickest minds and hearts. Rather than shaming them, we can show them the solution to shame and guilt. We can show them tough love and unconditional love. We need to assume many people, young and old, are being tempted, and teach them the importance of fleeing temptation.

Educating and protecting our children is a big subject by itself. Only time will tell what the deleterious effects will be of young children being exposed to sights of hard porn. When children are insufficiently educated and unsupervised when they surf the Internet, they can even get involved with pedophiles and rapists who seek to abduct them.

Another disheartening revelation from surveys, scandals, and confessions is the widespread involvement of Christian ministers in pornography. We all wonder why and why so many. In the first place, ministers are human and most are men. And while ministers have more reasons than most to not get involved, they usually have some additional stresses and temptations that can increase the attraction of pornography. And the Internet provides a convenient avenue for secret sin.

This is one reason why some ministers don't preach on pornography and sexual sins -- they feel too guilty because of their own addiction. They don't want to preach what they are not practicing. They need to get help and healing for themselves and then they can give help and healing to others.

Get help somewhere

If anyone in United, minister or lay person, has any kind of addiction, I earnestly pray he or she will get help. Perhaps the most spiritually destructive addiction is a sex addiction. If anyone has fallen into that trap, it almost impossible to extricate oneself. It is desperately urgent that he or she gets help. Otherwise one's family, career, reputation -- one's whole life -- can be torn apart.

The addict needs to pray as if it all depends on God and fight the battle as if it all depends on himself and the available resources and support. There is no quick fix. Good intentions to "never do it again" won't work. All denial, excuses, and lying must stop. There needs to be a clear plan of action and self discipline to follow through. Accountability and support are needed. One must "flee sexual immorality."

The spouse of an addict will need counseling, encouragement, and support. Learning of this addiction can be as devastating as learning about an adulterous affair.

It is a great blessing when one who is in trouble feels he can open up to a minister, spouse, loved one, or friend. Whether he can or can't, he probably needs professional guidance and support.

Many sources for counseling and support

Perhaps our church can one day offer specialized counseling when needed, above and beyond the type of counseling our ministerial services team provides us. By "specialized," I mean a man uniquely trained as sort of a "pastor for pastors," equipped to deal confidentially with unusually sensitive and demanding problems, such as addictions can be. So that none would hesitate to seek needed counsel, I envision that such a pastor for pastors would not have line authority over the ministry.

But counseling concerning personal problems need not come from within our church. There are excellent ministries that offer free counseling to laymen and ministers of any faith. Much of the material that I have on pornography and several other subjects has come from Focus on the Family. Most of you probably are familiar with this organization headed by Dr. James Dobson. Besides its own resources, Focus on the Family offers information on innumerable other Christian organizations and services in its "Pastoral Care Directory."

Because Focus on the Family had recorded that I'm a minister, they recently sent me a free gift of two cassette tapes on "Dangers of the Internet." Focus would gladly send any minister this gift if he requested it. The Pastoral Care Department offers other cassette recordings on pornography as well as recordings on many other subjects of interest to ministers. It also offers subscriptions to its "Pastor to Pastor" newsletter and "The Pastor's Weekly Briefing."

The Focus on the Family Web site is www.family.org and the Web site for ministers is www.parsonage.org. The phone number is 800-A-Family and the Pastoral Care toll-free line is 877-233-4455. This is the department that offers advice and counseling, including crisis counseling, to ministers and spouses of ministers. The counselors can also refer any caller to other specialized ministries and services.

My purpose is not to promote Focus on the Family, but to mention this organization as a good starting point for anyone ready to make the lifesaving step to get confidential and professional help.

I think it would be valuable for The Ministerial Quarterly to have more articles dealing with personal problems and moral dangers, and on helping others to deal with them.

"Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall!"

We ministers do well to remember how human and vulnerable we are. Satan would especially like to destroy us. I enjoy listening to Archibald D. Hart who wrote the book The Sexual Man. He said that the ministers who are most likely to get involved with pornography are the ones who feel like failures or feel very successful. The former can turn to something deviant for escape and consolation, and the latter can get arrogant and feel they are impervious to temptation.

Perhaps I have benefited from being technologically challenged and slow to adapt to computers. By the time I finally got around to using the Internet, I was hearing about the dangers of Internet porn. For protection for myself and my teenage son, I signed up with Integrity Online as my Internet Service Provider because they block evil and destructive web sites. There are many other ISP's that offer similar services, and there are many types and brands of filtering software.

Jesus Christ said "whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." The spirit of this law would include "whoever looks at a virtual woman, or any picture of the opposite sex." Immoral fantasies and affairs in the mind are infidelity.

King David's life is a classic example of a sexual sin leading to other sins and to terrible consequences in his life and family. But after his repentance, his attitude is a wonderful example. He said "I will set nothing wicked before my eyes" (Psalm 101:3) He prayed "Turn away my eyes from looking at worthless things, and revive me in Your way" (Psalm 119:37) and "cleanse me from secret faults" (Psalm 19:12).

Following are some helpful books and web sites:

Internet for Christians by Quentin Schultze (Partner's Book Distributing)

Safety Net by Zachary Britton. (Harvest House)

Pure Desire by Ted Roberts (Regal)

The Sexual Man by Archibald D. Hart (Word)

An Affair of the Mind by Laurie Hall (Word)

Holding on to Heaven While Your Husband Goes Through Hell by Connie Neal (Word)

Men's Secret Wars by Patrick A Means (Revell)

www.pureintimacy.org (A Web site by Focus on the Family)

www.internetforchristians.org (A Web site by Quentin Schultze)

www.kidshield.com (A Web site regarding protection of children on the Internet)

www.sa.org (Sexaholics Anonymous)