Billboards Target Christian Porn Addicts

ABC 7 News ^ | Thursday February 12, 2004

[nickcarraway]

DALLAS (AP) - Chocolates are always nice, and a diamond necklace would be delightful. But a Dallas-based ministry thinks it has a better idea for Valentine's Day.

"Her gift for Valentines? Stop looking at porn," proclaim billboards put up by NetAccountability, a nonprofit software company that aims to help Christians confront the "secret sin" of pornography.

If national surveys are any indication, it is a personal battle waged by millions of Christians.

Almost 18 percent of people who called themselves born-again Christians admitted visiting Internet porn sites, according to a 2000 survey of 1,031 adults by the evangelical group Focus on the Family. In a 2002 Pastors.com survey, more than 50 percent of responding pastors reported viewing pornography in the previous year.

"It's definitely the church's dirty little secret," said Mike Foster, co-founder of the anti-porn site XXXChurch.com, which hosts online support groups for Christians trying to kick the habit.

NetAccountability co-founders Brandon Cotter and Scott Covington, both in their early 30s, left jobs in the technology field to start the ministry 2 1/2 years ago.

Since then, NetAccountability has sold more than 5,000 copies of software the pair developed that lets a partner monitor the Web sites visited by the recovering porn user. The software sells for $49 a year.

The billboards have been going up in Dallas over the past few days.

"I've seen pornography impact guys all around me," Cotter said. "I've seen it tear up marriages, guys losing their jobs, all over the board. In a lot of cases, they were Christian guys going to church, with otherwise `normal lives.'"

Bernie Anderson, a pastor at Seventh-Day Adventist churches in the Dallas area, said an addiction to sexually explicit images threatened his marriage and his ministry.

"It was like a double life," said Anderson, 33.

For 20 years, he found himself drawn to pornographic Web sites, movies and magazines, he said. He would get up at night, telling his wife he needed to study, and would surf the Internet for porn. Later, he would spend hours accessing porn sites from the computer in his church office.

"You go take a shower, clean up and say you'll never do it again. Yet the next day, you fall right back into it," he said.

Last summer, the guilt and shame finally became too much for him to bear, he said. The father of three confessed his compulsion to a pastor friend and enrolled in an exhaustive five-day workshop offered by a Christian counselor.

Anderson learned how his habit kept him from true intimacy in his relationship with his wife, he said. Recently, he celebrated "100 days sober" from porn, he said.

He said: "The most powerful thing about it is that it's a secret. Nobody knows but you, so you're just kind of fighting yourself."

---

On the Net:

Pure Restoration: www.purerestoration.com

Christian porn site: www.xxxchurch.com

[zarf]

"Her gift for Valentines? Stop looking at porn," proclaim billboards put up by NetAccountability, a nonprofit software company that aims to help Christians confront the "secret sin" of pornography.

No porn? No masturbation? No sex outside of marriage?

A healthy young man might as well just saw his own head off.

[billorites]

I don't think I want something called XXXChurch showing up in my browser history file.

Thanks anyway.

[adam_az]

For 20 years, he found himself drawn to pornographic Web sites, movies and magazines, he said.

Wow, he was looking at porno websites before the web was even invented. That's dedication! What a putz.

[LibKill]

A healthy young man might as well just saw his own head off.

Which head?

You really walked into that one, chin-first.

[adam_az]

Rather, he was looking at web porn before Algore invented the internet. ;)

[adam_az]

Which chin?

;)

[Always Right]

"Her gift for Valentines? Stop looking at porn,"

Cool, but how do I gift wrap it?

[adam_az]

Cool, but how do I gift wrap it?

[LibKill]

You are soooooooo bad!

Go to bed without supper! NOW!

[Evil Inc]

When women commit to satisfying their men on demand, men will give up porn. When women quit withholding sex and avoiding sex, men will quit porn. When ugly and/or poor men get treated with love, and somehow marry, men will give up porn. When married women see areason to maintain their loooks after marriage, men will give up porn.
Step up to the plate ladies or quit knocking the competition.

[KentTrappedInLiberalSeattle]

Billboards Target Christian Porn Addicts

There's a good joke here, somewhere, about "my rod and my staff," and "comforting"... hmmmmmmmm... :)

[martin_fierro]

(Will NOT joke about the Second Coming. Will NOT!)

[techwench]

i see by your tag line that you've seen a few black adder sketches.

[Guenevere]

Many here are making fun of this....

..but it's not a laughing matter!

Did you know Ted Bundy started on his road of murder, madness and mayhem by looking at & becoming addicted to porn.

I would say most predators are porn addicts....

..and consider Westerfield, of last year, who is on death row for the murder of a small child....
..he downloaded porn.

And I know of a man in my former church.....sang in the choir, taught Sunday School, held a respectable and well paying job.....

..he's now in prison.

It started with porn....

..it ended with him sexually abusing his own young sons.

Now, he's divorced, his wife has the children & will soon move out of town, his parents are heartbroken.....

Does this sound like a laughing matter to you!

The article is right.

Porn is insidious....and hidden.

Hidden, until it gains control.

[ironmaidenPR2717]

I'm not saying your post doesn't bear merit. However, from a Christian perspective, the issue of pornography is something that a man (or a woman) needs to talk to God about, agree with what He has to say about it, and then do what He says. It won't be easy, but again, from a Christian perspective, it takes the strength of the Lord to live the life of a Christian.

I agree that an unresponsive spouse is a frustrating situation, but adultery is adultery, whether its in the mind or the act. A man and wife are one flesh, and when he (or she) defiles himself, he's defiling her (as well as the rest of the Body as well as the recipient of the thought).

I'm not trying to sound "holier than thou" because I've been both a porn viewer (repentant & forgiven) as well as a broken-hearted spouse (who has also been forgiven).

[conservative cat]

When women commit to satisfying their men on demand, men will give up porn. When women quit withholding sex and avoiding sex, men will quit porn. When ugly and/or poor men get treated with love, and somehow marry, men will give up porn. When married women see areason to maintain their loooks after marriage, men will give up porn.

Maybe some men. I NEVER held back on my ex-husband- I was accomodating and adventurous. Even he will admit that. My looks did NOT go. After having two children with him, I maintained my figure and my looks. My ex is/was a porn addict. Nothing I did was enough for him. He still had to have his porn- and sneak and lie about it.

[xm177e2]

My ex is/was a porn addict. Nothing I did was enough for him. He still had to have his porn- and sneak and lie about it.

Why did he have to sneak and lie about it? Because you didn't want to let him have it? Because you made it into an issue that you could fight over?

[LibKill]

I see by your tag line that you've seen a few black adder sketches.

More than a few.

Try my HomePage.

[happygrl]

It's not about what the ladies want.

It's what God wants: a Holy People.