According to a survey by Christianity Today 40% of Christian pastors are struggling with an addiction to pornography. On one hand, this will sound like a shocking piece of information to most people. Of all people, those who lead their churches should be the last ones to give in to such a temptation. On the other hand, it makes sad sense.
A website and forum dedicated solely to supporting Pastor Wives with support in their roles as Pastor wives, pastorwives.org, even provides a complete section dedicated to the problem of pornography among Church pastors. It is being called the fastest growing problem facing the Church.
It can start completely unintentionally. Landing accidentally on a porn site today is not only unusual, few of us have not had the experience. The images are strong, powerful and hard to ignore. Before you manage to close the site, the image is already solidly implanted in your head. You feel something not because something is wrong with you or you are immoral, but because you are human, and it is a natural feeling — just not elicited in a natural way.
For some, the temptation to view more pornography is too hard to resist and too easy to access. It’s like a constant reminder to someone to “not think of a pink elephant”. His brain than feels compelled to fight against thinking of a pink elephant and in the end, it’s the only thing he can think of!
Today, many programs exist for helping Church leaders and Church goers who are struggling with porn use. It’s a complicated addiction that is destroying people’s lives. Of course, without serious prevention programs, there will only be a need for more and more porn addiction treatment and support groups. More Pastors will be the young men who grew up watching porn on their computers at home. In general, exposure to pornography at young ages is only increasing and the type of porn content is only getting more extreme and aggressive. Hopefully, the cries for help that are emanating out of even the most sacred institutions, will be a wake up call to those who can have some impact on how digital pornography is permitted to seep into our lives without any sensor.
