CESE Online Global Summit: How porn epidemic has attacked the clergy and how the church should address it
About 40 years ago, pornographic content was harder to find, especially since they would usually be lying in dark corners of movie stores. Strip clubs, on the other hand, would be on the bad side of town. These were physical barriers that prevented people from being exposed to pornography. Then there was the advent of the internet, and that changed everything. The use of pornography continues to increase with ease in accessibility thanks to the internet and allows more immediate, realistic sexual gratification.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is hosting its annual Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation (CESE) global summit virtually this year. In an insightful session, the summit shed some light on a hidden yet rampant problem plaguing the clergy. Karen Potter, MA Ed, CSP, National Director of Sales/Church and Ministry Outreach Program, Covenant Eyes, presented her talk on the role of the church in addressing the porn problem.
Believe it or not, porn is a huge problem in the church. It is a silent epidemic, and evangelical apologist Josh McDowell says, "there has never been anything in the history that is destroying more churches, more pastors, more marriages, more young people than pornography." The porn industry represents $97 billion of worldwide businesses, and 13% in the US. According to a study by the Barna Group, some 68 percent of Christian men and 33 percent of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month. This has become a growing trend among the church-going people. In addition, it notes that at least 56 percent of divorce cases site a spouse's continued use of pornography as a contributing factor.
An estimated 57 percent of pastors and 64 percent of youth pastors have admitted that they struggle with porn either currently, or in the past, the study details. Around 21 percent of youth pastors and five percent of pastors have claimed that they are currently addicted to porn. The clergy is considered the strong guiding shepherd of the church. So, pastors don't have a lot of people in their circles. Sometimes pastors feel bulletproof to these issues, but the pornified culture forces them to live in constant fear of discovery.
"Well, the big reason is that of course they're a natural target of the enemy," Potter explained. Pornography is impacting both, the church and the society, and only seven percent of churches have a program to address pornography. "So when people want to get healing and restoration, we don't even have the programs ready for those folks," Potter added.
Children as young as nine years old are being exposed to pornography, which poses a risk of rewiring their minds. Furthermore, adolescents are prone to watching the sexually explicit material and violent content depicted in the visuals and are six times more likely to be sexually aggressive. A study by Dr Gail Dines found that among the most popular porn videos on the internet, 90 percent of them contained physical violence against women and 49 percent convey verbal aggression. The study also showed that after viewing porn videos, males show a heightened level of aggression and arousal, and an increased likelihood of saying that rape is okay under certain circumstances. "One thing that I find interesting is that our silence on these issues," adds Potter in this regard. "Our silence on the impacts of pornography, the links to violence against women is unbelievable to me, but our silence speaks volumes."
90 percent of children, aged from eight to 16 have viewed internet porn, mostly while doing homework. When it comes to the internet, "there are no barriers to entry, no passwords, and no limits," Potter noted. "No wonder it's a problem." An issue parents are generally troubled by is the accidental exposure of their kids to pornography. Before long, they are addicted to pornography at age 14 or 15. "We just need to be aware that so many times young children are being exposed to pornography on sheer accident, but then their curiosity leads them to come back to it," said Potter. The pornified culture is not only attacking church leaders, but it is working against parents as well.
The commercial sex industry is also taking advantage of the unemployed people and offering them an immoral alternative to pay their bills. Potter addresses some porn businesses' intention to capitalize on the Covid-19 pandemic situation by offering free memberships to people across the globe. During the housing and tenancy crisis induced by the pandemic, we also saw reports of landlords soliciting sex from their tenants financially impacted by Covid-19.
"Our culture has become so sexualized, so pornified, that our congregations are literally desensitized to how vast the blast radius really is," Potter said in her concluding statement. Well, 'sexual sin' is not new. Internet porn is more widely accepted, accessible, and affordable and while it isn't addressed as a top issue, it is treated like a taboo that no one wants to talk about. "We're unaware of the scope and the scale of the problem," she added.