The Porn Industry’s Biggest Customer

concerned man

For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing and denying the Lord, and turning away from our God…
Isaiah 59:12-13

In her book Sex, Lies and the Media, Eva Marie Everson recounts the following story:
“My friend Jack Samad with the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families shocked me with the story of his attendance at a religious convention. The manager of the hotel where he had been staying noticed the posters and other paraphernalia he had carried through the lobby early one morning and then back in again later that afternoon. He stopped Jack and asked him what he was doing with all that information on pornography. Jack told him he was part of the Christian conference being held in the city. The manager chuckled. “Get real,” he said. Porn movies in our hotel are accessed at a higher rate during Christian conventions than at any other time.”

With statistics showing that 60-70% of Christian men and 20% of women are viewing porn (see Porn Statistics) this means that the church, God’s people, are:

1. Funding the multi-billion dollar porn industry. Millions of Christian Americans are tithing to two churches: the church of God and the porn-church of Satan. We’re literally backing the work of demons.

2. Supporting the destruction of men, women and children. The U.S. is the porn producer of the world, and the church is paying pornographers so they can continue to produce more materials that will destroy the lives of the actors and actresses in those movies, and the marriages, families and children in every corner of society.

3. Corrupting ourselves.  Our hearts are stained with lust and our marriages and families are paying the price.

4. Giving mixed messages to the world. On one hand we’re holding God’s standards for sexual purity aloft, while in the next we’re winking at the enemy. The Bible calls such people Hypocrites… Pharisees.

5. Dishonoring the Lord. What does our approval and funding of the porn industry say about God? Does it make the outside world question His power, or even His existence? After all, shouldn’t a powerful God be strong enough to free His people from sin? Or… is the problem that we really want our sin more than God?

6. Fueling the demand for porn. A big market for their product encourages the porn industry to ramp up production; more lives are destroyed.

7. Putting ourselves nearer to God’s judgment and discipline (or scourging, as the writer in Hebrews 12:6 puts it). Not a good place to be.

The above should make us sick to our stomach… angry…. and broken hearted. We’re destroying lives. We’re backing Satan’s work. We’re sending people to hell. A church does this when it refuses to take bold action and confront the truth.

In Revelations 2, Jesus convicted two of seven churches for not dealing with the sexual sin among them (Thyatira and Pergamum).  The consequences of David’s adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband were severe. Paul warned, twice, that “the sexually immoral will not inherit the kingdom of God” (1st Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19-21). This isn’t about teaching a few guys how to quit viewing porn and masturbating, there’s a lot at stake here, including the eternal destiny of many.

My hope is that we will take action. Forward this article to your pastor, youth minister, or friends. If you’re ensnared in sexual sin, now is the time to get serious. You don’t know how many tomorrows you have left, and you surely don’t want to waste another minute of your vapor-life (James 4:14) masturbating to porn. The things we do in this world echo for all of eternity.

See Porn, The Church, and What to Do About It for more information and an effective action plan.