Would we have any ministers if it were stated “if you looked
at porn you could no longer be in ministry?” This question came up a couple of
year ago, I interviewed a head Human Resources (HR) person of a large church.
This Church had over 25,000 members across multiple campuses.
I was interviewing this lady about my master’s extended
research paper (Like a thesis but this was only 68 pages long). The subject was
hiring practices in the Church. They had a core philosophy in hiring of
Character, Competency and Chemistry. They said different people interviewed the
different C’s. With her being apart of HR, she asked a lot of hard personal
questions in regards to Character. They did a great job asking all sorts of
questions. One of the questions they said they ask is do you look at porn?
The conversation around porn was interesting. I asked what
if they were honest and answered yes, would they be instantly eliminated? She said
no. I was surprised and asked why? She said depending on the study, about 60
percent of ministers admit looking at porn, if we said no, we couldn’t fill
half the positions in the Church. I said how do you handle this answer?
She explained, we appreciated the honesty and have our
follow up questions: When was the last time you looked at porn? Do you have
accountability partners? Do you have software on your electronic devices to
help protect against porn or to hold you accountable? If they answer yes to
these questions and give us explanations to the questions we continue on with
the interview. If they answer no or say they are able to hold themselves
accountable then we stop the interview and no longer pursue the interview. She
said porn is a problem and mention as of that day, she was going to have to let
two members go because of porn being sent across computers. Porn is a problem
and is nothing new from biblical times.
Paul shares about porn and Christianity in 1 Thessalonians
4:3-4…
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you
should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your
own body in a way that is holy and honorable.”
The Greek word used for sexual immorality is porneia
meaning: to
engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of
prostitution—‘to engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual
immorality, fornication, prostitution.[1] 2,000
years after this was written and it is still a struggle we have. Living for
Jesus is living above and trying to live a life pleasing to God.
Honestly of out of all the sins, this is a huge temptation
to me. I grew up with my mom leaving my dad because he had a drinking problem,
I haven’t really been tempted to drink as a result. I don’t believe alcohol is
evil or a sin unless you indulge in way to much of it. For the most part I stay
away from it. I don’t smoke and I have never tried an illegal substance of any
kind. Porn is a temptation for me though and I have fallen into temptation in
the past. I have to make sure as I am trying to live a holy life, I have different
steps to keep me accountable.
I am a firm believer in www.xxxchurch.com, every electronic
device I am on has their accountability software. I have my wife as an
accountability partner (I usually have another person in my life as an
accountability partner too, and am looking for a new one). I want to live a
life that is holy and honorable, this doesn’t mean that I am perfect by any
means, but as I live for Jesus I have times I fall short of this. I am still
trying and working on being a better person all around everyday.
How about you?
Have
a great day.
[1]
Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English
Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United
Bible Societies, 1996), 770.
