Just hours away from me in Montreal exists the largest distributor of pornographic content in the world, serving billions of views a year to the world.
Added to that, the demand that Mindgeek/Pornhub creates contributes to the burgeoning trafficking industry that exists in our Canadian cities and is supported at times by Christians.
Nicholas Kristof of NYTimes writes of Pornhub (WARNING GRAPHIC): “Its site is infested with rape videos. It monetizes child rapes, revenge pornography, spy cam videos of women showering, racist and misogynist content, and footage of women being asphyxiated in plastic bags.”
You may have an exclamation point in your mind because I said “churches” above. But read the stats on this. Christians do have lower rates of use of pornographic material and of the sex industry; but they still engage with both.
If you have been in Christian ministry for a while, that should not be a shock. And if you’ve read church history before, that should especially not be a shock!
What seems especially odd to me, given these things, is that I have rarely seen churches discuss these matters openly. It seems like a disservice to the poor and needy to keep these for clandestine men’s groups. Shout out on the hills.
If we are not a city of light that shines a light on the darkness, then what are we?
I’d only add that when the taboo becomes speakable, then the shame of confession becomes much less. For example, once men realize that other men use porn, it becomes really easy to talk about. And it becomes much easier to overcome.
The cross eats up our shame. So the shame of our sin, though felt, does not belong to us in the same way it would apart from the cross. For this reason, when we hide taboos like this, then we make shame meaningful and confession implausible and love unseeable.
“You may have an exclamation point in your mind because I said “churches”.
Right, and Deuteronomy 30 is clear in the direction God set forth for Israel and eventually the full story to manifest in the true Church. What makes it true is the presence of the Spirit of God, ie, the Light of God…1 John 1:5: This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
One example set in Acts 5:1-11, containing the story of Ananias and Sapphira, does not have to be repeated in every church for the past 2000 years — it is God showing His serious discernment of who is following the Light by the Spirit and who is not. This is where the Remnant comes in, a comparatively smaller group of people who managed to be faithful during their visit to earth. A subsequent problem showed itself as men began to dramatically lower the bar on salvation — it is a fact for example that many people appear to believe that it is possible to love neither your brother nor your neighbor and get to heaven by way of the church, and there’s no question about that. Yet, why would the glorious Son of God make so much of it? He says things like Matthew 10:38:
“Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; 38and anyone who does not take up his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it…”
Very strong statements that cannot be misunderstood. Some of the things we have to lose? Certainly the ones in your composition above… It is also true that many people, if not most, know the things that assault God’s precepts but due to spiritual blindness, defiance in disagreeing with God, perhaps just too weak to fight, which is a good time to yield to the Lord. But John 21:15-17 is for everyone — I would say particularly to ministers — it discusses the difference between words that are translated, “Love”. So many of these things will stunt a person’s spiritual growth to the extent that he may not be aware additional evil has been given a pass to enter into his personal temple, Luke 11: …25-26.
The New Life was forecasted from the beginning and throughout, for example, Hosea 6:6: For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”
So, the “church” per se has never been the subject matter at hand as much as it has been the state of human beings constituting the Assembly.