by: Jim Schlottman
3/1/2008

Like many of you, I receive numerous email jokes. A recent email caught my attention because I had just finished reading -Help for the Sexually Desperate- by John W. Kennedy in the March 2008 issue of Christianity Today.

According to the email, that purports to be about a real scientific study, the five-year study found that those who enjoyed a longing look at busty beauties had lowered blood pressure, less heart disease and slower pulse rates compared to those who did not get their daily eyeful.

This study is a lot like the ads we all see on television about prescription drugs that first tell of the benefits of taking the drug and then list twenty to twenty-five side effects that are worse than the illness that you are trying to cure.

If the study were true you might be saving your physical heart, but what are you losing?

Pornography -a longing look at busty beauties- is the entryway into sexual lust. And there is a fine line between sexual lust and sexual addiction.

It seems that many believe this fake study. Seventy percent of American men age 18 - 34 view internet pornography once a month. Even more shocking is the fact that fifty percent of Christian men have looked at porn recently. Although we tend to focus on men, one in three visitors to adult websites are women.

So what is the harm of a longing look at busty beauties? Isnt it just a form of exercise? In my experience the harm is devastating. Ive seen pastors lose their position, their calling and their families. I can assure you it is not harmless.

One pastor was caught by his sixteen year old son who was savvy enough to find the cookies on his fathers computer that told him his father was going to porn websites. Could you face your teenage son and tell him why it was harmless?

I remember well Lornas story about the pastors wife she drove from the airport to our retreat home. Lorna and her husband Keith pick up couples who come for one of our Leadership Counseling Intensives.

This young pastors wife told Lorna that when her husband was caught by his church leaders using the church computer to visit adult websites, everyone quit talking to her. She was at fault in the minds of many of the church members. They forgot about grace.

When they arrived at the airport, Keith rode with the husband in the rental car and Lorna rode in her car with the pastors wife. Alone in the car with Lorna, this young woman began to pour out her heart. Lorna was the first safe person with whom she had come in contact since her husband was found out.

Harmless?

If you are experimenting with pornography, seek help before you are found out by your church leaders or your child. Quiet Waters is one place you can confidentially call for that help.