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Pornography and the Christian Man Summit draws about 75 men
POLAND
The “Pornography and the Christian Man Summit” drew about 75 men to The Church of the Rock to learn about pornography, how potentially addictive it is and how it can negatively affect men’s relationships with God and their wives.
“God hates sin, and pornography is a sin,” said Pastor Reid Lamport of The Church of the Rock on Luteran Lane at the second meeting Tuesday in his war against pornography.
He began last year with an in-church meeting of male parishioners on the topic and followed that up with Tuesday’s summit, which he described as a “high-level meeting with the Lord.”
The purpose of the meetings, which he hopes to conduct on a regular basis in the future, is to bring Christians together to deal with an issue that has become pervasive in all aspects of technology, Pastor Lamport said.
“It is a major issue in the Christian church because it is a sin that impacts in a negative way a relationship with God,” he said.
The meetings are intended to give all men the tools to battle sexual lusting, he said.
While not all men struggle with temptation of viewing pornography, the concentration is on males, whom Pastor Lambert said are 500 percent more likely to view pornography than women.
“Pornography is an unrealistic, unhealthy view of sex that negatively affects intimacy with our wives, whom we’re called to love as God loves us,” he said.
Pornography is not a comfortable subject for most people to talk about.
“When I talk about it, usually women’s eyebrows go up and men’s heads go down,” Pastor Lamport said.
The reason pornography is not easy to talk about is because it’s a sin and it sickens the Lord, he said.
But, he said to the men in attendance, he was not there to “preach down to men.”
Instead, Pastor Lamport said, “It is about learning practical ways to protect ourselves and our families from pornography and to learn to be set free from lust through the powerful word of Jesus Christ.”
Some of the reasons Internet pornography is so rampant is because it is affordable, often free, easily accessible and anonymous, he said.
“But,” the pastor said, “we can no longer pretend Internet pornography doesn’t exist or that Christian men are somehow immune to it.”
The topic must be addressed in the church because it affects the church. Statistics show that 50 percent of men who say they are Christian have viewed pornography, at least once, in the past seven days, the pastor said.