Here are some startling but not overly surprises facts:
- Number of pornographic web sites: 4.2 Million
- People who regularly visit Internet porn web sites daily: 40 million
- Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%
- Breakdown of male/female visitors to pornography sites: 65% male - 35% female
- 30% of unsolicited e-mails contain pornographic materials
- Women, far more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors 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.
- US porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.
Those statistics come from XXXchurch.com, which is encouraging churches to designate October 9 as Porn Sunday. Obviously if the church is going to be speaking to where people live, then talking about porn is a must. Porn or what is a hare's breath away from porn is unavoidable in America. However, many pastors and churches feel much more comfortable burying their heads in the sand and thinking that the people in their congregation couldn't get catch up in that trap. It's there, the question is will church leaders have the courage to face up to this reality as ugly and destructive as it is and bring a Biblical perspective and help to their people. Having personal counseled several individuals (including a couple of other pastors) who have found themselves addicted to porn or are married to someone who is, I know the importance of breaking the silence.
XXXchurch has a number of resources to assist pastors in addressing pornography. If people can't find truth and deliverance from guilt and shame at church, where can they turn? The answer is nowhere, and so they continue to get sucked in, feeling trapped and in despair.
Many congregations host AA & NA groups, maybe it's time we start acknowledging that there are those who need and want to break free from the addiction to porn.
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