Posted on 10/08/2005 5:31:16 PM PDT by dukeman
LOS ANGELES– Hundreds of churches across the US plan to participate in National Porn Sunday, a one-day event designed to start the conversation about the issues surrounding pornography, “America’s ‘dirty little secret,’” according to Porn Sunday creators, xxxchurch.com.
The focus of Porn Sunday is to get churches and pastors talking about the issue of pornography and sexual addictions, according to its founders, California pastors Mike Foster and Craig Gross. The two founded xxxchurch.com in 2002, which they dub “the No. 1 Christian porn site.”
“Churches in the past have been accepting of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and these types of addictions ... but porn in the church is like ... the scarlet letter on you,” said Foster. “We hope it allows people to discuss it in a graceful, non-threatening way.”
Statistics reveal that 40 million people regularly visit internet porn web sites daily, while 47% of Christians said pornography is a major problem in the home; 10% of adults admit to internet sexual addiction – 65% are male, while 35% are female. Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises, and exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.
Bill Hybel, a pastor who has sponsored a Porn Sunday, said, “The reason why churches don’t talk about porn is because they are not equipped to do so.”
Bill Day documented Mike and Craig’s story, which culminated in the documentary, “Missionary Positions.” Day’s movie is part of Porn Sunday events organized by participating churches. The film is set for release in theatres on October 14, 2005, the weekend following Porn Sunday. “The film has been screened at seven national film festivals and took runner up at the Nashville Film Festival for Best Feature Documentary,” the web site explained.
Marlene Elwell, founder of FreedomISP, a company that provides internet filtering software, said “We believe that Porn Sunday is a valuable effort to help people who are addicted to pornography to get the help they need.”
Elwell also founded the FreedomISP Foundation, an advocacy group for children’s Internet safety. She warned, “Pornography is everywhere in our society. It is on television, in movies, and all over the internet. There are thousands of Internet pornography sites, and one only has to accidentally open a spam email or mistype an address to find one. Pornography poses a real threat to children, both to those involved in pornography and the countless children inadvertently exposed to pornography on the Internet each year.”
“The XXXchurch.com topic brings a great deal of attention to a message so desperately needed,” the pornsunday.com web site stated. “The church is the perfect place for an honest and deliberate look at sin. Being deliberate leads to salvation and repentance. Churches all over the country are making the calls, writing the e-mails, and showing interest in Porn Sunday. The need is big and the time is now.”
Find out more about Porn Sunday, at http://www.pornsunday.com
later read/pingout.
Odd title.
XXXchurch.com freezes Firefox.
Porn is hard to define, but I know it when I see it.
Please post some, and I'll let you know.
I expect the resistance to this by porn purveyors to be tremendous, and they are powerful and rich.
Seriously, shouldn't this be the National ANTI-Porn Day?
I saw the title and thought, "Oh great! Now the porn merchants want a national day!?"
The only reason I clicked on this thread was because I thought there would be pictures. ;)
XXXchurch is a very odd organization. When you use a giant phallus as a mascot at a pron convention, you tend to lose all credibility.
Sebestefleckund uber alles!
This is an appropriate topic for me.
The dad of one of my son's kids was just arrested on child pornography charges.
Kind of scary.
There are a good number of churches that do not know how to deal with sexual sin amongst their members, and there are even those that simply eject such people out of the congregation instead of trying to help them. It is far easier for someone to come out and say they are addicted to crack, and be accepted and helped by the church family, than it is for someone to say they have issues with lust. For some reason sexual sin tends to be a really pipping hot potato. And the problem is if the person doesn't get help nothing will get better, yet the moment someone comes out as an adulterer/etc/etc there is a tendency for him/her to become an instant pariah in the church community.
Whoa, sounds like more than a porn problem to me.
"Son Finding Porn Stash"
Politics and Porn
what else is there?
Dad and Son
I am very impressed by what you wrote. The church community, including the leadership, is often heavily involved in pornography. In the late nineties, I had no problem putting together a support group for alcoholics and addicts, but even among the Christian men who confessed their addiction to internet porn, there was no desire to put together a therapy group or to change their behavior.
Your attitude is the very thing that sinners of this type need.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.