What surprised me was its attribution: Men’s Health, a magazine hardly known for its high sexual ethics. Indeed, the unique enticements of Internet porn are felt all over the culture.
Porn’s pervasiveness on the Internet has, for example, normalized it for many. Playboy and Penthouse now seem downright wholesome in comparison. Cable companies like AT&T offer premium porn channels as if they were just another ESPN. (See our editorial, “Ma Bell, Madam,” p. 39.)
Internet porn, of course, is more than a cultural problem. It’s a personal problem for many men, and as recent research suggests, for a growing number of women. It’s also a problem for Christians. The ability to instantly and privately call up images that exploit women and incite lust and adultery has proven just too much of a temptation for even Christian leaders.
But how bad is it, particularly for Christian leaders? CT, as well as Leadership, decided to find out; we each commissioned similar surveys of our readers. The studies, which focus on pastors’ responses, make no claim to be comprehensive, but they do give a snapshot of the problem.
In addition, at CT we put reporter Christine J. Gardner on the story to see what she could find out by talking with pastors and counselors. Christine, a former CT assistant news editor, went one better: she found a pastor who was willing to talk about his struggle with pornography. That story begins on page 42.
We’re not suggesting every wired pastor is leering at Internet porn regularly, let alone addicted to the stuff (two-thirds of respondents have never visited a sexually explicit Web site, and of those who had, only 6 percent do so a couple of times a month). But the temptation is there for anyone who spends time online.
The size of the problem for Christians is not the issue. The fact that it infects even a small part of the body makes the whole body less healthy.
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Check out our new column, Bearing the Cross. Conceived and written by associate editor Jeff Sellers, the column will detail the persecution endured by specific churches and individuals—and give readers concrete ways to respond. See page 90.
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Next issue: Tim Stafford on evangelical historians’ seeking God’s mysterious ways; Wendy Murray Zoba on religion in schools post-Columbine; Stephen Carter on school vouchers; Philip Yancey on lunacy and the supernatural.
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