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Apologist and author Josh McDowell launched Just1ClickAway.org, a new website to raise awareness about online pornography which he says is a problem big enough to cause the downfall of the church.
"The downfall of the church will not come from a lack of apologetic teaching; it will come from disintegration of the families in the church," says a video posted on the website, launched in time for summer vacation when students' media consumption significantly increases.
"The greatest threat to the cause of Christ is pervasive sexuality and pornography," said McDowell.
"Today we have, by and large, lost control of the controls because an intrusive immorality is just one click away from our children. With just one keystroke on a smartphone, iPad, or laptop, a child can open up some of the worst pornography and sexually graphic content you can imagine. There's never been such access in history."
McDowell, who has written or co-authored 120 books since 1960, backs his claims with stunning statistics about the destructive impact of pornography on the Christian family.
More than 1 billion pornographic websites are one click away, and the average age of first-time viewers of pornography is 9 years old. About 80 percent of 15- to 17-year-olds have been exposed to hardcore porn, and the adult pornography industry reports that 20-30 percent of their traffic comes from children. More shockingly, half of all Christian families report that pornography is a problem, and 30 per cent of pastors have viewed pornography in the last 30 days.
The newly produced video on the website shows that pornography aggressively preys on and attacks its victims.
It features a boy, who looks below 10 years old and is seated on his bed with a tablet computer in the privacy of his bedroom. "Doing your homework?" asks a young woman, portrayed as a tempter. The boy, seeing her in his imagination, nods to say, "Yes." "Can I ask you something?" the girl says. "What's your favourite part about me? Do you wanna see more? I can show you whatever you want." Just then the mother comes into the room and tells him, "Honey, dinner is almost ready." Seeing her child's surprised reaction, she asks, "What's wrong?" "Nothing," he replies, pressing his laptop against his chest. "Finish up what you're doing and come on downstairs," his mother says.
The video goes on to feature a husband as well as a teenage girl as consumers of pornography and whose family members are also unaware of the dangerous viewing.
The video, which has a warning label for its mature content, later portrays each consumer being tortured by their addiction to pornography.
Offering hope and help, McDowell has made available resources to both spread awareness about the pervasiveness of pornography viewing and offer solutions. The Bare Facts, McDowell's "biblically based, medically sound and culturally relevant campaign" provides youth and those who influence them with an understanding of love, sexuality and relationships.
As part of a 45-city speaking tour in 15 countries throughout 2012, McDowell is touring Latin America with his Bare Facts campaign. With over 50 years in ministry, he has addressed more than 10 million young people, giving over 24,000 talks in 118 countries.
I was seated next to a boy of about twelve years old on the train a few days ago. He appeared totally caught up with whatever he was playing on his electronic device.
At first I thought it was just another gaming device, so I did not bother to find out what he was playing, but being always curious to find out the latest gadgets in the market, I took a glimpse at the gadget he was using. What I saw was a device with a relatively larger screen than most gaming gadgets, apparently, a PVP or Portable Video Player as I found out later. On the screen of the device, an animated video movie was being played.
The video played by the boy appears to be just another of those Japanese animated movies telling of teenage girls in classrooms and about their daily lives, something like a family story, so I did not bother much and decided to rest my eyes to sleep. When I opened my eyes later, I could feel from the gestures of the boy that he has become intensely excited, almost oblivious to all his surroundings, engrossed, stiffen, and possibly intoxicated, so I simply had to take a peek at what he was doing.
What I saw on the video was not a family type of movie of a harmless school girl story, but a 'Hentai' type of pornographic anime showing a scene of the school girl tied up and being raped by the professor with her wailing in tears! That really shocked me!
Students these days have too many gadgets to play around, and many of these are unnecessary and sometimes even harmful. To think of underage boys and girls watching videos of such materials on a mobile gadget makes me think what has become of the new age generation today.
Parents these days are too ready to sponsor their children to buy such devices, but few are responsible enough to bother about finding out the harm such gadgets may bring. That is as much as we can say about parental guidance.
Much knowledge and information have been gained from the Internet, but with each gain also comes the negative effects influencing and intruding the private lives of many.
One of the greatest negative effects that influence private lives is the easy access to pornographic materials on the web. According to the Webster Dictionary, voyeurism refers to "one obtaining sexual gratification from seeing sex organs and sexual acts; broadly: one who habitually seeks sexual stimulation by visual means".
In the information age today, getting materials of visual sexual stimulation is very easy. Pornography in cyberspace is accessible 24 hours a day and available everyday on the web. No amount of measures taken by watchdogs can completely wipe out access to these materials. Whether it is interactive games or web viewing, pornographic materials are here to stay. Voyeurists no longer need to go to underground places to seek such material; they can get it right at home on the computer.
What then have we gained from technology? Is it better knowledge or is it worst? What has become of the world today?
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. (1 John 2:16 NAS)
Therefore, "do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him" (1 John 2:15 NAS).
Imagine the kind of videos allowed on the web these days. You no longer have to go to porn sites to be enticed. Today, even public video hosting sites like YouTube has materials that, in my opinion, are disconcerting.
The following are screen captures of two videos showing how degrading our generation has become!
If you agree with me on this, feel free to leave me your comment at this blog entry, and let's talk about what measures we can take to disallow such obscene display of sensuality in the public eye.
Apologist and author Josh McDowell launched Just1ClickAway.org, a new website to raise awareness about online pornography which he says is a problem big enough to cause the downfall of the church.
