Abuse Awareness 2012: Focus on Internet Pornography

We don’t want to talk about it, but it’s time that we should.

Internet pornography is huge and growing fast. Its impact on individuals, marriages and families, even in Christian communities, must not be minimized. Our churches can become safe places of hope and healing, but only if we break the silence.

Articles
Article – How Many Porn Addicts are in Your Church?
This article from Crosswalk.com, an organization dedicated to building up the church, discusses how extensive the problem of Internet porn might be in Christian communities

Internet porn stats: should parents be concerned?
Do you know what your children are seeing on the internet? How vigilant should a parent be? This article may open your eyes to the risks faced by children on the internet.
 

Video Resources

I Never Knew I Was at Risk
A two-minute video about one man’s descent into pornography addiction

Slow Killers
A 36-minute sermon about pornography addiction by Glenn Robinson, Pastor at North City Church, a non-denominational church in Sacramento, CA

Book & Sample Small Group Discussion Guide

Just One Click: Christians, Porn, and the Lure of Cybersex
This book, published by Faith Alive, is filled with real life stories and examples. The authors, who are Christian psychologists, alert readers to the risks and consequences of cybersex, provide guidance from Scripture, and suggest strategies to overcome the problem. This sample chapter, with discussion questions, is a good place to begin to have a meaningful discussion about internet pornography.

Websites
Covenant Eyes
Accountability and Filtering helps you protect your family online. Learn how the Internet is used in your home and how to protect, yourself, your family and your organization. In addition to their protective software, this website features a blog, and helpful educational materials.

XXXchurch
“Porn addiction is one of the most difficult addictions to overcome. XXXchurch is your resource online to fight porn addiction. We prevail through awareness, prevention and recovery.” This website is filled with resources to help those struggling with addiction to pornography and those who want to support them in the process.

Comments

Melissa's picture

I appreciate the resources you are making available regarding pornography.  We heard a great sermon at church last week about the other side of pornography - focusing on human trafficking and abuse of women and children (a helpful website from Vancouver: http://www.embracedignity.org/ ).  It would be great to delve more into the reality of who actually gets hurt when we view pornography.  Just because we don't "pay" for it, doesn't mean it's not being paid for. Our mouse clicks get advertisers, and we become paying perpetrators of incredible injustice worldwide.  This topic definitely needs to be explicitly talked about in the church!  

Bev Sterk's picture

I'm a bit behind on what's been on the network, but thank you for addressing this, an answer to prayer...

 as I've been researching pornography and the enemy spirit behind it,  and discover the horrific prevalence of the number of those involved in it, with even higher rates in the Church and leadership,  and I shake my head, and say "and we wonder why the Church is irrelevant?"

I will share the LORD is bringing a group together in my community to very specifically target this principality through prayer, intercession, and exposure... 

and the human trafficking and the abuse connection is so true!!   lust is one of the key roots behind all of it, when we come in agreement with pornography, through usage, we come into agreement with lust, the same root that is often behind human trafficking, abortion, and  and sexual abuse  (which I think would horrify all of us)...  and i don't think we understand how that gives power to that principality... I know, this isn't normal reformed thinking... but we have to recognize, that our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual authorities/principalities, and that when we come in agreement with sin, darkness deepens in the spiritual atmosphere, in ways we do not understand, just like when we choose with the help of the Holy Spirit,  to not come in agreement with lust, or whatever, when we choose instead to spend that time in worship, in the Word, in prayer, with our Creator, something shifts in the spiritual atmosphere, in a powerful positive way... 

not saying I understand how it works, but our choices are part of the spiritual battle going on...  and we need to know that our choices, our coming in agreement with sin, or not,  are affecting many others, in ways we might not know..

by the grace of God, He covers those, but there are still consequences...   He calls us to holiness for a reason...

Rachel Boehm's picture

Thanks for your feedback and your prayers. It's great that you are addressing this issue in your faith community, and I hope many lives will be blessed because of your efforts and many broken lives mended.

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