National Porn Sunday encourages congregations to take a closer look at a serious issue within the Church.

Addiction to pornography has exploded to epidemic proportions, infiltrating churches and holding our pastors, friends and family members prisoner.” So writes Pastor Craig Gross of xxxchurch.com. “But no one,” he continues, “not even the Church-is talking about this dangerous and destructive addiction.” That is, until now.
On Sunday, June 3, South Meadows Community Church displayed an almost 25-foot tall, 400-pound blue elephant outside the community centre where they worship. Why? We were making a statement, proclaiming that on October 7-National Porn Sunday-we would be confronting “the elephant in the pew.”

Originating in the United States as an initiative of xxxchurch.com founder Craig Gross, National Porn Sunday has been embraced by more than 200 American churches over the past two years and is beginning to expand to countries such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

The big blue elephant helps con-gregations communicate that the Church is addressing this significant issue from within its own ranks. Statistics confirm that Christians aren’t immune to the dangers of pornography. Four out of 10 pastors admit that porn is a problem in their life, while 47 percent of Christians admit that porn is a problem in their home. If this is true, almost half of all Christians, including pastors, have a serious issue with pornography.

Though the statistics are staggering, there is hope. Porn Sunday has helped South Meadows begin the conversation on the road to bringing healing and recovery to those struggling with this dirty little secret.

How about you? It’s time to come clean!

Porn Reality
• Number of pornographic websites: 4.2 million
• People who visit Internet porn websites daily: 40 million
• Breakdown of users by gender: 65 percent male, 35 percent female
• Approximately 30 percent of unsolicited e-mail messages contain pornographic materials
• Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their sexual impulses in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex or affairs
• Porn revenue is larger than the combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises
• U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of television networks ABC, CBS and NBC at $6.2 billion
Statistics taken from www.pornsunday.com

Resources
Pornified: How Pornography is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships and Our Families (Pamela Paul, Times Books, New York, 2005)

The Game Plan: The Men’s 30-Day Strategy for Attaining Sexual Integrity (Joe Dallas, W. Publishing Group, 2005).

The Dirty Little Secret: Uncovering the Truth Behind Porn (Craig Gross, Zondervan Publishers, 2006)

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality (Rob Bell, Zondervan Publishers, 2007)

www.xxxchurch.com (for help in bringing the issue to light)
www.pornsunday.com (find out how your congregation can get involved)
www.x3watch.com (free accountability software)
www.safeeyes.com (inexpensive Internet filtering program)
www.pureonline.com (online recovery workshops)

by Captain Stephen Wiseman
Corps Officer, South Meadows Community Church, Calgary

Reprinted from Salvationist, October, 2007