{"id":107901,"date":"2013-07-08T17:47:31","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T21:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=107901"},"modified":"2013-07-08T17:56:05","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T21:56:05","slug":"porn-crack-cocaine-for-christian-men","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/07\/porn-crack-cocaine-for-christian-men\/","title":{"rendered":"Porn: crack cocaine for Christian men?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

No, this post isn\u2019t a totally blatant attempt to drive up pageviews by including \u201cporn\u201d in the title.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s only partially<\/em> about that.<\/p>\n

Seriously, The Daily Beast\u00a0<\/em>ran a news-feature<\/a> last week on a Baptist pastor who has launched an Internet campaign to recruit 1 million men to say goodbye to smut.<\/p>\n

The lede:<\/p>\n

Pornography will destroy your life. It is as addictive as crack cocaine. And your child\u2019s cellphone can be a tool of Satan.<\/p>\n

These are among the boldest of claims from a Florida pastor who has\u00a0launched a campaign to find 1 million men willing to do what many may\u00a0find unnecessary, if not unthinkable: quit porn. Cold turkey. Forever.<\/p>\n

Baptist Pastor Jay Dennis of the Church of the Mall in Lakeland,\u00a0Florida, never thought he\u2019d find himself taking sexual addiction\u00a0classes, he told The Daily Beast. But staff members were approaching\u00a0him with concerns about pornography in the church: wives who\u2019d caught\u00a0their husbands, moms worried about their sons. He knew it would be an\u00a0awkward conversation, taking on pornography as a mission, and he knew\u00a0he\u2019d face critics who would tell him the church is no place to deal\u00a0with sexual issues, he said. \u201cBut my heart believed this is the very\u00a0place to deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Dennis launched a glossy website, Join 1 Million Men, where he asks\u00a0men around the world to add their first names to a wall, pledging to\u00a0say goodbye to smut. There\u2019s an iPhone app with related scripture,\u00a0tips, and tools. Videos about how to \u201cdestroy your porn stashes.\u201d\u00a0Testimonials from men who\u2019ve found themselves in the clutches of\u00a0Satan\u2019s ubiquitous tools. And some pretty jarring claims, like this\u00a0one:<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe as many as 80 percent of men in the church are struggling with viewing pornography,\u201d Dennis says in one video, adding that drastic action may be necessary to truly rid yourself of it. \u201cYou may even need to destroy your present computer. I realize that can be an expensive move, but it may be necessary if you are serious about living porn-free.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, the idea that Christian men struggle with the temptation of pornography isn\u2019t exactly<\/a> breaking news. I remember reporting in 2004<\/a> about a Dallas-area ministry targeting the \u201csecret sin\u201d of porn with billboards. A few years after that, I wrote an in-depth feature on \u201cA minister\u2019s escape from sexual addiction.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

But when the mainstream media cover Christians and porn, they tend to focus on the \u201cnovelty\u201d factor,<\/a> as opposed to giving serious treatment to the issue.<\/p>\n

How\u2019d The Daily Beast<\/em> fare on that front?<\/p>\n

Certainly, there\u2019s a bit of a \u201cgee whiz\u201d element to the story by Winston Ross (no relation to this media critic). But overall, this report impressed me, mixing a small amount of R-rated humor with important context (you\u2019ll have to click the link<\/a> to read the paragraph that precedes this one):<\/p>\n

Yuk, yuk. But sex therapists say the pastor has a point, and along with feminists who object to pornography\u2019s objectification of women, Dennis could become the third in an otherwise unlikely trio of interest groups fighting the same scourge.<\/p>\n

\n

The pastor\u2019s rationale for excising porn from your life is rooted in Romans 13:14: \u201cPut on the lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lust.\u201d Porn, Dennis says, \u201cis a place your flesh in a moment of weakness will run to for relief or medication from pain or stress.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

If I have a criticism of the piece, it\u2019s that it relies entirely on this one Baptist pastor to assess how other Christian leaders view the anti-porn movement.<\/p>\n

Take this paragraph, for example:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

The most reluctant recipients of his message, he says, are other pastors. They tell Dennis they\u2019re convinced the church just isn\u2019t the right place to talk about sex in general, or they say it\u2019s not necessary\u2014a recent survey found that pastors believe less than 10 percent of Christians view pornography on a regular basis. But Dennis says he thinks there\u2019s another reason he can\u2019t get other churches to get involved with the pledge: some of those pastors are porn junkies, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of pastors struggling with it personally,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

At this point, I\u2019d love to hear from a few other pastors. My perception (which could be wrong) is that pastors increasingly see a need to address porn from the pulpit. I\u2019m not sure I buy this one source\u2019s notion that most pastors are afraid to talk about sex. But from a journalistic perspective, it would be nice to hear from a few additional Christian sources instead of relying on just one.<\/p>\n

Another journalistic quibble: Exactly what recent survey found that pastors believe less than 10 percent of Christians view pornography on a regular basis? I don\u2019t buy that number. And I find it difficult to believe that a credible survey came up with that number from pastors. Again, the story needs to provide some attribution and detail to help assess the information provided.<\/p>\n

But overall, The Daily Beast<\/em> deserves kudos for its treatment of this subject \u2014 and for (perhaps) driving up GetReligion pageviews.<\/p>\n

Image via Shutterstock<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No, this post isn\u2019t a totally blatant attempt to drive up pageviews by including \u201cporn\u201d in the title. It\u2019s only partially about that. Seriously, The Daily Beast\u00a0ran a news-feature last week on a Baptist pastor who has launched an Internet campaign to recruit 1 million men to say goodbye to smut. The lede: Pornography will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":597,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,7,12,49,4],"tags":[1925,1924,1923,1926,1600],"class_list":["post-107901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evangelicals","category-journalism","category-religion","category-sex","category-social-issues","tag-culture","tag-cybersex","tag-porn","tag-society","tag-the-daily-beast"],"yoast_head":"\nPorn: crack cocaine for Christian men?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"No, this post isn't a totally blatant attempt to drive up pageviews by including "porn" in the title. It's only partially about that. 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