November 15, 2018
New Report Finds 3 Out Of 4 Pastors Addressed Pornography Issues In The Church This Past Year
Few Pastors Feel Qualified to Address Sexual Struggles
Great Falls, VA – A new report explores how American pastors are addressing sexual challenges within the church. Based on research conducted by Barna Group on 410 senior protestant pastors, Sexuality & the Church in America 1 found that three in four pastors (73%) have handled pornography-related questions this past year.
“The church body, men, women and children, are not immune from the gross consumption of pornography, contrary to what many believe,” said Enough Is Enough® (EIE) president Donna Rice Hughes. “Internet pornography consumption is at all-time high, fueling pornography addiction, sexual exploitation and the breakdown of marriage both in and out of the church. Pornographers understand the content they produce and distribute is highly addictive, and they will likely have a consumer for life unless the addiction cycle is broken. It takes a village to break those chains and restore lives shattered by the harms of pornography. Parents are the first line of defense to protect children, and churches are the first line of defense to equip families and local congregations to prevent the sexual exploitation of individuals of all ages in local congregations and to handle issues of sexual brokenness by providing pastoral counseling and victims resources.”
The report also found that most pastors want to help people with sexual struggles but feel underqualified to address many of the issues they are asked to address. Two-thirds of all pastors (68%) “agree strongly” that the Church should help people with personal sexual challenges. Another one-quarter (27%) “agree somewhat.” Yet, fewer than one-third of pastors feel “very qualified” to address many of the sexual issues listed in the survey.
“It doesn’t alarm us that pastors are encountering so much sexual brokenness over the course of a year. We know such issues exist,” said Daniel Weiss, president of The Brushfires Foundation, and author of the report. “What concerns us is, so few pastors feel very qualified to handle these difficult and painful issues. There is a great need for ministry leaders to be trained and for outside caregiving ministries to work directly with local churches to handle these issues in a caring and professional way.”
EIE offers a Recovering Hearts Initiative that serves as a blueprint for churches and faith-based communities to restore sexual wholeness, integrity, purity, and dignity within the church body. The vision is to implement a holistic strategy promoting healthy sexuality and genuine intimacy and to prevent sexual exploitation of children, women and men by incorporating prevention education, healing/recovery programs and victims/survivors assistance.
EIE first introduced the problem of Internet pornography to Congress, the national media and community leaders in 1995 which led to the launch of the Internet safety movement in America. EIE continues to partner with local and national organizations to stem the pandemic of internet pornography and sexual predation affecting the innocence and safety of America's children.
“Viewing pornography is not a victimless act,” said Hughes. “In the same way that victory for the porn addict can be found through the open arms of a welcoming church community, the same must hold true for all victims of sexual exploitation, child sex abuse, sex trafficking and predation.”
EIE served as a co-sponsoring organization of the Barna Group study commissioned by the Brushfires Foundation.
Series overview
Sexuality and The Church in America is a collaborative research project led by The Brushfires Foundation and TrueNorth Freedom Project, along with Covenant Eyes and 22 other organizations. Based on research conducted by Barna Group with 410 Protestant senior pastors in October 2017, this series of reports examines how churches and their leaders are addressing sexual issues. We intend these reports to help pastors, churches, ministries, and Christian leaders more effectively address sexual matters and become better equipped to serve people in need both within and outside their churches. View all reports in the series and explore detailed findings, survey methodology, and collaborating organizations at: brushfiresfoundation.org/integrity
About Enough Is Enough®
Enough Is Enough® is a national bi-partisan non-profit organization who has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families since 1994. EIE's efforts are focused on combating Internet pornography, child pornography, sexual predation, sex trafficking and cyberbullying by incorporating a three-pronged prevention strategy with shared responsibilities between the public, corporate America, and the legal community.
About The Brushfires Foundation
The Brushfires Foundation is working to equip Christian leaders to foster sexual integrity, healing, and wholeness in their churches and communities. Through online training, on-site consultations, resource creation, and strategic collaboration with other organizations we are
dedicated to serving individuals in need, strengthening and protecting families, equipping churches to share the truth about sexuality with love, and proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the culture.
Enough Is Enough® is a national bi-partisan non-profit organization who has led the fight to make the Internet safer for children and families by incorporating a three-pronged prevention strategy urging a shared responsibility between the public, industry, and government.