Originally posted at:http://www.pornfreedomnow.com/2012/05/21-things-pastors-need-to-know-about.html
Here some thoughts on what Pastors (and you, too) need to know about pornography.
- It’s sin. It’s lust. Lust is sin. It’s mental adultery.
- It’s everywhere. Half the men in your church are likely exposed to it every week, and some of the women too.
- It’s a ruthless slave driver and traps people in shame and secrecy.
- NOT talking about it with your people does NOT help them.
- The porn industry is a dark and twisted place, filled with people with souls whom God deeply loves.
- People who act in pornographic films are people whom God loves.
- People who produce pornography are people whom God loves.
- It does NOT encourage more intimacy in marriage – on the contrary, it destroys it.
- It is NOT victimless. Broken marriages and shattered lives are all around us as evidence.
- The internet has exploded the number of porn addicts, offering the three deadly “A’s,” making porn accessible, affordable, and anonymous.
- Pornography is a drug. It triggers chemicals in the brain that create addictions. It offers a temporary high, followed by a crash into guilt and shame. And one kind of pornography is almost always a gateway into something worse.
- The younger you are when first exposed, the more susceptible you are to addiction as an adult.
- Pornography WILL cause you to treat people (especially women) like objects and not living souls.
- Pornography WILL harden your heart.
- There is hope.
- Consumers and producers of pornography can find forgiveness of sin in the blood of Jesus and be made righteous and pure by the saving power of God.
- Those trapped in pornography addictions can be forgiven of what they’ve entertained themselves with.
- Breaking the cycle is possible, but extremely difficult, as with any addiction.
- The cover-up is always worse than the crime.
- The cost of recovery is high, but the cost of not recovering is much higher.
- You need help. You need help and accountability, without question.
