Timothy Morgan writes this:
Seventy percent of American men ages 18–34 view Internet pornography once a month. This shocking fact is one of many that CT consulting editor John W. Kennedy found during his research for this month’s cover story, “Help for the Sexually Desperate.”Don’t assume that porn isn’t a problem in the church. One evangelical leader was skeptical of survey findings that said 50 percent of Christian men have looked at porn recently. So he surveyed his own congregation. He found that 60 percent had done so within the past year, and 25 percent within the past 30 days. Other surveys reveal that one in three visitors to adult websites are women.
Why is this a big deal? Because so many casual viewers of pornography end up addicted to it. That’s why Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4, “For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.”
Self-control is one of the ways we know that God is working in our lives. If we don’t have it, and instead give in to our passionate lusts, then God has less room to work.
If you’re looking for ways to build self-control in this area, I always recommend the free program X3 Watch, available at xxxchurch.com. It’s not filtering software, it’s meant to increase communication between friends so they can bear one another’s burdens, as Paul recommends in Galatians 6. Here’s how the xxxchurch guys describe the software:
Whenever you browse the Internet and access a site, which may contain questionable material, the program will save the site name on your computer. Approximately every 14 or 7 days (depending on your preference), a person of your choice (an accountability partner) will receive an email containing all possible questionable sites you may have visited within the month. This information is meant to encourage open and honest conversation between friends and help us all be more accountable. This report only goes to your chosen accountability partners and is not stored or used by XXXchurch or any other organization.