National Porn Sunday October 9

LOS ANGELES, October 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Hundreds of churches across the US plan to participate in National Porn Sunday, a one-day event designed to start the conversation about the issues surrounding pornography, “America’s ‘dirty little secret,’” according to Porn Sunday creators, xxxchurch.com.

The focus of Porn Sunday is to get churches and pastors talking about the issue of pornography and sexual addictions, according to its founders, California pastors Mike Foster and Craig Gross. The two founded xxxchurch.com in 2002, which they dub “the No. 1 Christian porn site.”

“Churches in the past have been accepting of drug abuse, alcohol abuse and these types of addictions ... but porn in the church is like ... the scarlet letter on you,” said Foster. “We hope it allows people to discuss it in a graceful, non-threatening way.”

Statistics reveal that 40 million people regularly visit internet porn web sites daily, while 47% of Christians said pornography is a major problem in the home; 10% of adults admit to internet sexual addiction – 65% are male, while 35% are female. Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises, and exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC at $6.2 billion.

Bill Hybel, a pastor who has sponsored a Porn Sunday, said, “The reason why churches don’t talk about porn is because they are not equipped to do so.”

Bill Day documented Mike and Craig’s story, which culminated in the documentary, “Missionary Positions.” Day’s movie is part of Porn Sunday events organized by participating churches. The film is set for release in theatres on October 14, 2005, the weekend following Porn Sunday. “The film has been screened at seven national film festivals and took runner up at the Nashville Film Festival for Best Feature Documentary,” the web site explained.

Marlene Elwell, founder of FreedomISP, a company that provides internet filtering software, said “We believe that Porn Sunday is a valuable effort to help people who are addicted to pornography to get the help they need.”

Elwell also founded the FreedomISP Foundation, an advocacy group for children’s Internet safety. She warned, “Pornography is everywhere in our society. It is on television, in movies, and all over the internet. There are thousands of Internet pornography sites, and one only has to accidentally open a spam email or mistype an address to find one. Pornography poses a real threat to children, both to those involved in pornography and the countless children inadvertently exposed to pornography on the Internet each year.”

“The XXXchurch.com topic brings a great deal of attention to a message so desperately needed,” the pornsunday.com web site stated. “The church is the perfect place for an honest and deliberate look at sin. Being deliberate leads to salvation and repentance. Churches all over the country are making the calls, writing the e-mails, and showing interest in Porn Sunday. The need is big and the time is now.”