Porn and the Church

Posted on February 09, 2011
Viewed 1498 timess
(10) comments

According to Craig Gross, the founder of XXXChurch.com:

“If the church stopped consuming [porn], we would put a huge dent in it.”

Read this interesting story over at the CNN Belief Blog about Craig and his relationship with porn star Ron Jeremy.

Give it a read, then pop back over here and let me know what you think…

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Comments

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CS on Wed, February 09, 2011

Fighting against sexual sin? All for it. Labeling it as, “Porn Sunday?” Stupid and offensive.

As Todd Friel said, why not have, “Rape Sunday,” or, “Molestation Sunday,” just to open the dialogue, too?

—
CS
rusty akers on Wed, February 09, 2011

“Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you can not follow me.” Jesus

You think that might have offended some 1st century folks?

I think Craig has guts that most of only wish we had. Porn Sunday at our church was not only good, it was amazing. Thanks xxxchurch.
J. on Wed, February 09, 2011

I’m defintely in favor of encouraging more dialogue on this issue (just like human trafficking and other things that have been listed) and Sunday isn’t a bad time to do that. I appreciate that the church is getting more interested in talking about this but I still feel like we are reluctant to see this issue accurately/fully. It’s not a ‘man’s issue’. We often talk about it like, “husbands are doing it and wives are victims…” and while I’m sure that is the case for some people, women struggle just as much with porn (just like any sin-what a shocker ). But I do understand that sometimes the church is slow to really want to take to task certain issues fully…all we can do is talk about it honestly in our own spheres of influence and eventually we’ll be able to deal with it just like any other sin (lying, pride, gossip, etc…)...
Jan on Wed, February 09, 2011

I agree J.
It really bugs me as a woman… what do you think 99.9% of romance novels are? And the teen novels out now are promoting this to younger and younger audiences. Just pick one up at the grocery store, and you will be shocked.
I read recently that a third of women claim to actively view porn over the internet.
Ronnie Ding on Thu, February 10, 2011

Craig is doing a great work for the Lord! I am blessed also by using his program! XXXchurch rocks! But Jesus Christ alone be praised!
J. on Thu, February 10, 2011

Thank you for your thoughts Jan. I heard from a good source that does these surveys that it’s more like 65% of women struggle in this area. The interesting thing is how much it’s masked with, “I watch it because it’s funny” or “I was just checking it out for my husband” but when asked how much they just ‘check it out for their husbands’ or ‘because it’s funny’ it’s almost every day (in some cases every day-several hours). We’ve even heard the excuse from people that, “I can’t struggle with porn, I’m a girl…” when they have been caught by a boss viewing it at work or at home… As the Bible says, sexual sin so easily entangles.

I know that the church is slow to fully admit the reality of how much something of a sensitive nature like this really impacts the church as a whole-but I think we are gaining ground… Again, soon I pray that the church will be able to talk about it like we talk about any other sin-without all the silly caveats and partial truths…
Jan on Thu, February 10, 2011

I am speaking at some women’s conferences coming up (repeat conferences in four different cities) and have worked it into one of my talks. I think it’s a much needed subject to address.
I caught my pastor husband refer to lust and say “well this may not apply to women but…” He heard it from me later Women do lust, maybe not in the same exact way as guys, but they have the same issue.
Sorry for sidetracking the discussion!
I don’t care for the Porn Sunday thing either, though I think it’s creative and I like what they are doing.
I am just uncomfortable with having to theme our Sunday services continually, for one. Can’t we get together and worship and study the word without all the hype?
I think I would rather see this taken out of the Sunday morning context, like some of the purity based conferences have done.
And I would again, like to see this just not geared towards men.
J. on Thu, February 10, 2011

Jan,

Agreed… I see the point of doing it on a Sunday as many that would need to go probably wouldn’t go unless it was at a Sunday service (humans being creatures of habit and all). I too get tired of the ‘themed’ deal but that�s just me�. I also think we have to be careful even when we say, “women struggle too with the same issue-just differently”. My thought is to say, “Some struggle like this, others like this…”. The second we put a limit on it-some check out and go, “well, that’s not me…”. When people say, “some men struggle with porn, some women struggle with body image issues…” I wonder why they can’t just say, “some of you struggle with porn, some of you struggle with body image issues…”. I remember as a kid growing up in a church where I was made to feel odd because I didn’t struggle with what I was �supposed� to struggle with.

With books like, “every man’s battle/for women only” or “every woman’s battle/for men only” it just further perpetuates the myth and confuses many. It’s not that it doesn’t apply to some-but it’s still a partial truth instead of a complete truth.

We are sinful and we struggle with different things… It’s not always the result of abuse/neglect/____-it’s not always something we can package neatly. We have a Celebrate Recovery ministry at the church I work with and I met with some people who go to our sexual integrity group and it was funny what they have been ‘told’ about their issues. One woman said, “I had a person that couldn’t get it through their head that I didn’t struggle with sex because I needed emotional closeness but because I just really liked sex and had a lot of trouble controlling myself…”. She said that she was told by others that ‘women have sex for emotional closeness� and she said, �that couldn’t have been further than the truth for me…Sure, the intimacy was a factor sometimes but more often than not-it was just sex and I was just using them to get what I wanted…”.

This same person (and others like this person) said that when people would say the old tagline of ‘women have sex for emotional closeness’ she would feel more alone than ever because they were still talking like it was the dark ages…and she would stay quiet because she didn’t think they would understand her struggles.

I pray that we are able to talk more openly about these things and call these half truths out and head in a more honest direction. The truth does set us free… Thanks for conversing about this and being open�
travesti on Sat, March 05, 2011

<a href=“http://www.travestizuhalim.com”>travesti</a
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