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Clergy and Porn
Many clergy through the use of clergy and porn discover and become addicted to porn while young and still living at home where there is easy and anonymous Internet pornography available. As this subject is seldom or never addressed at most churches there is no direction as to acceptance or not as it is considered shameful to even discuss the subject. Many clergy both men and women at some time come to the realization that within the belief of their religion that the use of porn is considered sinful and wrong but by that time the addiction has set in. There is a lot of guilt and shame but porn is like a very powerful drug and is most difficult to give up.
In the early 2000s it was realized that for the organized Christian religions that clergy and porn was a huge problem within the church community as a whole and since then an ever increasing number of faith based communities are finding it difficult to deal with. It is considered a very dark and shameful consideration for Christians because to all outward appearances everything is normal yet the clergy involved are living a lie and are greatly afraid if the secret was to get out their reputations would be ruined.
Parents on the whole do not discuss this subject with their children as their computer savvy children can check online their own parents internet surfing interests which may very well include porn sites. A poll completed just recently by ChristiaNet stated that as many as 50 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women were in fact addicted to pornography. As far back as 1996, Promise Keepers, which minister to Christian men at huge stadium events, did a survey at one of events revealed that 33 percent of clergy queried had admitted to visiting sexually explicit websites regularly with 53 percent stated they had visited these sites at least a few times in the last year. It must be realized that many pastors and priests are isolated from normal heterosexual and homosexual relationships and it is important to the clergy to be secretive about their use of porn because it is important to them positive spiritual examples to their ministries. As recent as 15 years ago if one wanted pornographic material one had to go to a store and purchase it risking exposure. This is not the case now because of the internet. It must be realized that sex is a powerful human drive and all even the clergy are driven by a need for it. After all it can be argued that this sex drive was a “gift” from God and why give it if it is not meant to be used. Contrary to the belief of many sex is not dirty but a normal human function.
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