Austin, USA - Think back to the last time you had an open conversation about pornography…in church.
For the congregation at PromiseLand West, that conversation was Sunday morning.
Pastor Randy Phillips was nervous about how his congregation would react to bringing up pornography in church.
“Pornography is a subject that we don't talk about a lot in the open and we definitely don't talk about at church,” said Phillips.
But, it’s an issue he believed needed to be brought to light.
“It's destroying our marriages, our homes; it's destroying our relationships; it’s destroying intimacy in marriage,” said Phillips.
About 50 percent of the couples Phillips counsels have marital struggles directly related to pornography.
So, Phillips decided to find a way to open the conversation and show those who struggle with pornography addiction that “there is hope.”
He took a leap of faith and invited Craig Gross, of XXX Church, to speak to the congregation and, “address the elephant in the pew,” said Phillips.
Gross spoke to 1,000 members of the congregation this morning about his church and the issues surrounding the pornography industry and addiction.
He said he began his ministry when he realized the impact of the Internet on the pornography industry.
“My experience with pornography as a kid wasn't really much of an experience or much of a story. I could never find it. [You would] go to, like, the liquor stores, or you had to go to the, the kind of shady parts of town, or the best was you could try and de-scramble the pornography on your cable T.V.,” said Gross. “We would try for hours!”
But, today there are 420 million pornography sites on the Internet.
“Nowadays that seems so foreign that we would have to work that hard to find pornography, 'cause now what you have to do is you have to work really hard to avoid pornography, and that's what I saw working with kids,” said Grogg.
They would tell him that they would not even look for it, but that something as simple as checking an e-mail or logging on to Facebook could cause links to pop up that would lead to pornography web sites.
“It’s everywhere…It’s shattering really,” said Gross
A few years ago, Gross realized this was already a huge issue and that it was only going to become more of one as time went on.
So, he started his XXX Church to help address pornography and help those who have an addiction to find a way out.
But, like most addictions, a person cannot be helped unless they really want to work to overcome their addiction.
“When your wife wants it more than you want this, it's not going to work,” said Gross. And a lot of times it doesn't end well because people don’t think they have a problem.”
Gross says these are the instances when pornography begins to tear families apart and can, ultimately, lead to devastation.