Posted on 11/23/2012 3:42:45 AM PST by IbJensen
November 21, 2012 (Breakpoint.org) - Pornography is out there, and it’s not going away any time soon. So to help your kids guard against it, you have to prepare them. According to Josh McDowell, author of books including “Evidence which Demands a Verdict” and “More Than a Carpenter,” who has turned his attention of late to the devastation of pornography on our culture and the Church, this may rank among the greatest threats to Christianity we’ve ever seen.
Explaining why he decided to tackle the issue of pornography, Josh said in an interview with John Stonestreet of Breakpoint how he sensed a barrier to his apologetic work which had nothing to do with the Faith itself.
“I am an apologist,” says Josh. “I set forth positive reasons why to believe, in order to see young people come to Christ. But about five or six years ago, I kept sensing that there’s a problem out there. When I would interact with young people, something had become a barrier. I realized it was intrusive and pervasive sexual immorality and pornography on the internet. As an apologist, the one thing that can undermine everything that I teach is not in the area of apologetics, it’s in the area of morals. If you don’t deal with this issue, you won’t fulfill your role as a biblical apologist.”
Josh’s son, Sean McDowell, who is the head of the Bible Department at Capistrano Valley Christian College, as well as an author, speaker and apologist in his own right, works with youth full time. In that process, Sean has gathered a litany of sad stories of apparently model Christian young men and women who have fallen into the trap set for them by a culture saturated with sex and lust.
And that’s just the problem. The first points Josh and Sean McDowell hope to communicate to parents, pastors and teachers is that in today’s world, most children and students aren’t looking for pornography. “Pornography is looking for them,” says Josh. “Of those teenagers who have seen pornography, between seventy-eight and ninety-one percent were never looking for it. Researchers show that thirty-eight percent of those will become addicted.”
“How big of a deal is this for the body of Christ right now?” asks John Stonestreet.
“Well, the stats which I have documented,” explains Josh, “show that upwards of fifty percent of pastors struggle with pornography. Sixty-two percent of men who attend evangelical churches regularly struggle with pornography, and upwards of sixty-five to sixty-eight percent of teenagers. This is probably the greatest threat to the cause of Christ in two thousand years of church history, because it so undermines your life, your walk with Christ and your beliefs. My fear is that many pastors are not addressing it because they’re involved in it. Somehow, we’ve got to get the leadership in the body of Christ addressing this.”
“Give us some specifics,” says John. “How does it undermine Christians? How does it undermine Christian growth, how does it undermine marriages?”
“Apart from shame and loneliness,” explains Josh, “[pornography] produces a question about the authority of the Scriptures, of Christ, of the Resurrection, of the Church and of parents. It starts to darken the door of the brain to consider truths of the Christian faith. One you become involved in pornography, it takes over all your thinking, your morals, and your life. You have to understand: pornography just takes over your life. It takes over your relationships—your view of people, of women of children. And as a result, it doesn’t leave room for your walk with Christ. You can’t become involved with pornography and have a healthy walk with Christ.”
That, says Josh, is why he’s launched “Just 1 Click Away,” a website devoted to networking the old and young with resources and help. Sean McDowell gives a lecture at Summit Ministries which echoes the message of “Just 1 Click Away.” In it, he draws from the work of Drs. Joe McIlhaney Jr. and Freeda McKissic Bush in their groundbreaking book, “Hooked,” in which they describe how pornography and sexual promiscuity actually change the physical structure and chemistry of our brains, making it more difficult to love, bond and have sexual relationships with our spouses.
Another critical issue which the McDowells seek to address with this new campaign against pornography is the dreaded task parents have of educating and preparing their children. Both Josh and Sean discourage any hope that our children will be among the lucky few who never encounter pornography. Statistically speaking, say the McDowells, that’s a non-existent group.
“Your kids will encounter pornography,” says Josh. “It’s so sad, but it’s true.” We can take away internet, television and smart phones from our children and students, but these measures will barely stem the tide of pornographic images and themes which bombard them from other sources we cannot control, such a friends and classmates. Even if we isolate our kids and teens from the outside world, they will still become adults and have to confront all at once the sexual culture we tried to stifle. Our job as parents and mentors, believes Josh, must now be to focus on preparing our children to respond in a godly way when faced with pornography.
That’s why at “Just 1 Click Away” the McDowells have sought not only to expose the problem, but also to provide resources and training for parents and adults on how to open the channels of conversation with their children early, how to forearm them to face the battle ahead, and how to ultimately and consistently say “no” to the dehumanizing, degrading influence of our culture’s worst addiction.
Check out #18
Politicians get away with the many of the things they do precisely because too many people fail to watch them. The people have their porn, their American Idol, their NFL channel, their bread and circuses. If citizens of this nation invested half as much time and interest in keeping an eye on their politicians as they did their shiny little distractions, this nation would be in far better shape.
Yes. Porn addiction makes men abusive. It makes them hit and hurt women. The writer of this article forgot to add that. And it’s a serious problem.
Hello Ed,
You posted, “And, if I remember my history, Christianity not too very long ago dictated. . .”
You have been misled. Satan has twisted Scripture into what you posted but that is not God’s Word. I will pray for you that your eyes will see the Truth.
tl
Oops. You’re on the wrong thread.
Athiests and porno sycophants belong on the DU website.
I did, Ron and suggested that he’s on the wrong thread, let alone the wrong website.
The last time I checked FR is a Conservative, Christian-Judeo website that caters to real men who don’t have to watch other people fluking. (last word coined in honor of Sandra Fluck.)
Pr0n? Addicting? Feh.
Now Free Republic, that's *really* addicting.
Cheers!
I’m amazed at some of the posts I’ve been seeing here lately with no word or action from the mods.
Check this one out from a couple of days ago:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2961669/posts?page=56#56
Glad to hear Josh is tackling this......he is dead-on target.....
I remember a story about David Wilkerson, when a man next to him on a flight saw him reading the Bible said, “I don’t believe that garbage...”
David said in response, “That means there is a moral sin in your life that you will not give up no matter what. Your rejection of scripture tells me that. Because if you dared to accept the authority of scripture, that means you’d have to accept its judgment of your sin and turn from it. And you are not willing to do that.” (or something close to that).
The man told David, “You are right.”
Porn is more addictive than any drug known, and more destructive. Destroys almost all normal human relationships as well as marriage. Men addicted to porn cannot love a woman with a self-less, sacrificial love as commanded in Ephesians.
Josh is 100% right in seeing it as the #1 enemy of both the gospel and Christians.....let’s pray his ministry in this area has impact and is effectual....
Precisely. This hangup about porn and sex is part of what is costing us elections so real evil can persist.
Not directly connected with porn, but similar idea of prissy fuddy duddys were exposed by Senator Aiken of VT before, VT was overrun by leftists.
He was a Republican.
The VT legislature was debating a law to outlaw skinny dipping.
Sen. Aiken came back from Washington just to testify on this bill.
He simply asked the legislators who had never skinny dipped to raise their hands.
No hands were raised, the bill failed.
Seeing how many "Christian" "leaders" have been caught with their you-know-what in the honey pot and knowing how most folks tend to behave, I'll bet many of those who thump the most against porn are taking a good gander themselves.
If we ever want to win another nationwide election, this is one topic we will drop.
I don't know how you constitutionally do this, but somehow pressure other than governmental should be applied to get it out of everyday life.
You cannot rely on politicians to do anything about this....government is not the answer, it is up to the people themselves to do something about it, looking to Washington to solve it isn’t the answer.
SNIFF.
Sounds like *your* sex life is inspired by Star Wars.
"Han Solo".
And, if I remember my history, Christianity not too very long ago dictated that a ‘married couple only’, of the same race, and the same religion, could partake of sex ONLY to procreate...NOT for fun...and then ONLY in a ‘permissible’ coital postion, and those who violated these dictates were doomed to HELL...after they had been branded and ran out of town.
Ever hear of Lawrence v. Texas? Nice lefty fear-mongering on your part.
And even at that -- it beats incest as practiced by that Columbia University Professor (read the Huffington-Puffington Post readers' comments); or sex with animals as advocated by Princeton's Peter Singer; or drugging and raping 13-year-old girls not being "rape-rape" as in Whoopi Goldberg on Roman Polanski.
Any guy who does this was sick to begin with. He might be blaming porn for his behavior, but that's just his way of holding himself blameless.
He needs severe punishment so he never even thinks of abusing a woman again.
Second offense, firing squad or sword.
It would be far better to address the underlying reason that people are attracted to pornography: that as children and even as adults, they are disconnected from their peers of the opposite gender.
If you raise a dog apart from other dogs, it will still want to mate, but it will not know how to relate to other dogs, and see them as outsiders or enemies. Why should people be any different?
America has no effective way to socialize children of opposite genders in a chaperoned situation. Most people assume that such socialization happens either in school or in church, but it does not, because in both those places, adults ensure that children are kept busy doing other things. By the time of high school, or even junior high school, it is too late.
The way things are today, children are segregated until they are adults, then it is expected of them to “get a job, find a spouse, have children and live happily ever after.”
Of these, even getting a job is a huge obstacle, unless you are mentored, apprenticed or interned, etc. And yet you are expected to meet a stranger, develop a relationship, understand and relate to them enough to form a bond that lasts a lifetime, without experience or help? Oh, you should be able to do that in a few months.
Psychologically it is even worse than that. If a child is raised in a two parent family, as a bare minimum they at least have some exposure to their parents relationship as an example, though it is a third part exposure. But for a child raised by a single parent, they have nothing.
It is no surprise that people accept a dehumanized caricature of the other gender? What is pornography but that? No relationship, just lust and sex and go your separate ways. Certainly nothing approaching love or commitment, a lasting relationship or with reproduction in mind.
And it all goes back to young children having no idea about how the opposite gender thinks and feels, how they do things, what are their likes and dislikes, etc.
Such socialization must be forced, because if left to their own devices, children will self segregate by gender. But it must also be carefully chaperoned so that boys and girls do not bully each other, either.
But it is a cultural prerogative to bring this about, because otherwise you see what we have today: pornography, divorce, single parenthood, great ignorance and unhappiness with the other gender, abuse and mistreatment.
The Ed show..is that you?
Here is a little of the lefts anti-Christian agenda hidden behind the Libertarian Party curtain.
Libertarian Party Platform:
Homosexuals; total freedom in the military, gay marriage, adoption, child custody and everything else.
Abortion; zero restrictions or impediments.
Pornography; no restraint, no restrictions.
Drugs; Meth, Heroin, Crack, and anything new that modern science can come up with, zero restrictions.
Advertising those drugs, prostitution, and pornography, openly, to the public at large, zero restrictions.
“...doing what God, Nature, or The Great Pumpkinhead designed them for”
You will ultimately realize that the One you despise and insult is Holy and will recompense you according to your ways and deeds—unless you repent and turn to His only provision for the forgiveness of your sins and receive His Son (and His righteousness) through faith.
Christians who read your words will be praying for you.
“It would be far better to address the underlying reason that people are attracted to pornography”...
The underlying reason or reasons that you give are foolish words.
God, our Creator, says in His Word, the Bible, that man has a sin problem. He tells about how the first man (Adam & Eve) came to be dead (spiritually) in his trespasses and sins when he, as our federal head, sinned in the garden of Eden. Since that terrible day “all who are born in Adam” die physically and come into this world spiritually dead.
God has give the remedy for both the sinner and the sins he commits—it is His only begotten Son Jesus Christ, and whoever believes in Him (porno-lover, adulterer, homosexual, i.e., sinner) shall have eternal life. And eternal life is Jesus Himself. If He is in you, you are a new creation and have a new way of living in the power of His Holy Spirit, because Jesus is righteous. You only need to study His Word, believe His truth, and act on it in the power of His indwelling Holy Spirit, and you will not stay a homosexual, an adulterer, a porno-lover, etc.
From 1 Corinthians 6:9-10:
Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall interit the kingdom of God.
And the next verse, to true believers (true Christians, not just professing Christians):
V. 11 And such WERE some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God.
Sorry, disconnected Biblical invectives fail when, as it were, the rain falls on the just and unjust alike.
That is, children raised without socialization have similar problems, be they Christian, Jews, or whatever. The Bible itself speaks of the importance of properly raising children, and by this does not mean on just the Bible, but in all ways.
If children are raised as lone wolves, they will act as lone wolves. They may be good, Christian lone wolves, but they will never be part of a pack. Their spiritual lives may be good, but their physical lives will be poor. They will not know the joys of a happy marriage, and their children, if they have any, will also likely be socially crippled.
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