{"id":33026,"date":"2022-09-10T16:32:35","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:32:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pastors-say-porn-impacts-their-churches-many-unsure-to-what-degree\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:32:35","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:32:35","slug":"pastors-say-porn-impacts-their-churches-many-unsure-to-what-degree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pastors-say-porn-impacts-their-churches-many-unsure-to-what-degree\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastors Say Porn Impacts Their Churches, Many Unsure to What Degree"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-230 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'>\n<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>  <\/div>\n<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>  <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014<\/strong>\u00a0Most pastors believe pornography has adversely impacted the lives of their church members, but almost half cannot estimate what percentage of their congregation views porn.<\/p>\n<p>That is the finding of a recent survey by Lifeway Research of 1,000 American Protestant pastors.<\/p>\n<p>When presented with the statement, \u201cPornography has adversely affected the lives of our church members,\u201d 69 percent of pastors surveyed agree. That includes 42 percent who strongly agree and 27 percent who somewhat agree. Nine percent somewhat disagree and 8 percent strongly disagree. Fourteen percent do not know or preferred not to answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost pastors know pornography\u2019s poisonous effects,\u201d Lifeway Research President Ed Stetzer said. \u201cThey\u2019ve seen it destroy marriages, wreck lives and warp America\u2019s moral compass when it comes to sexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked to estimate the percentage of men in their congregations who view pornography on a weekly basis, 43 percent are unable or unwilling to respond. Of those able and willing to estimate, a majority (62 percent) say less than 10 percent, 24 percent say 10-24 percent, 10 percent say 25-49 percent and 4 percent say 50 percent or more.<\/p>\n<p>The results are similar when pastors are asked about the women in their churches. Forty-four percent are unable or unwilling to estimate the percentage of females in their congregations who view pornography on a weekly basis. Of those who are able and willing, 87 percent say less than 10 percent. Ten percent say 10-24 percent, and 3 percent say 25-49 percent. Zero percent say 50 percent or more.<\/p>\n<div class='code-block code-block-1' style='margin: 8px 0;clear: both'> <\/div>\n<p>Statistics from other studies, however, suggest that pastors may underestimate pornography\u2019s effect on their congregants.<\/p>\n<p>According to the Education Database Online, 43 percent of people who use the Internet visit pornographic websites. Some 40 million Americans are regular visitors to porn sites, with pornographic downloads representing 35 percent of all Internet downloads. Of the 40 million regular visitors, 33 percent are women. A full 70 percent of men age 18-24 visit porn sites monthly.<\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;margin-top:0em;margin-bottom:1em\">\n<div class=\"centered-text-area\">\n<div class=\"centered-text\" style=\"float: left\">\n<div class=\"udb0ab60ff24cf4de85d1c121fe407c6a-content\">See also&nbsp; Pastors Concerned with Growing Leaders, Reaching Outsiders<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ctaButton\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u201cThough pastors know generally that pornography is harmful, many may not realize that it is coming into the homes of their members,\u201d Stetzer said. \u201cLarge numbers of church attendees are included in the nearly half of all Internet users who visit porn sites. We were surprised that so many were unable or unwilling to estimate considering how pervasive pornography is inside the church. If a third think that less than 10 percent of the men are looking at porn and almost a half have aren\u2019t sure, we may very well have a lack of awareness of porn\u2019s presence. Studies show that committed Christians engage pornography less, but the issue is still a big one that the church must face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe church has been given all that is needed to address sexuality from a biblical perspective,\u201d Stetzer recently wrote in a blog at EdStetzer.com where he serialized an article he wrote for the Assemblies of God Enrichment Journal.\u00a0 In that series, called \u201cpornification,\u201d Stetzer called for more awareness and clear biblical teaching on the issue. \u201cScripture clearly teaches God\u2019s plan for sex. Yet we stumble awkwardly past the issues. If the church refuses to address the issues not only do we become irrelevant, but we leave the conversation open to others who feel more free to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Download the research (PDF)<\/p>\n<div class='yarpp yarpp-related yarpp-related-website yarpp-template-thumbnails'>\n<h3>Related posts:<\/h3>\n<div class=\"yarpp-thumbnails-horizontal\">  What Do Pastors Believe About the End Times?  What Do Pastors Believe About the Book of Revelation? <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NASHVILLE, Tenn. \u2014\u00a0Most pastors believe pornography has adversely impacted the lives of their church members, but almost half cannot estimate what percentage of their congregation views porn. That is the finding of a recent survey by Lifeway Research of 1,000 American Protestant pastors. When presented with the statement, \u201cPornography has adversely affected the lives of &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/pastors-say-porn-impacts-their-churches-many-unsure-to-what-degree\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Pastors Say Porn Impacts Their Churches, Many Unsure to What Degree&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}