Porn Sunday tackles ‘dirty little secret’

Sex is rarely the stuff of Sunday sermons – it’s just too personal, too provocative, too private.

A growing North Idaho church, however, has chosen to tackle this taboo topic. Last week, pastors at Cedar Hills Church in Sandpoint talked to an initially nervous crowd about sexuality and marriage, and how sex is “a gift from God.”

This week, they’re taking on porn.

As part of a nationwide movement called “National Porn Sunday,” Cedar Hills is focusing on the effects of pornography and a problem that some Christians describe as “America’s dirty little secret.”

About 40 million American adults regularly visit pornographic Web sites, according to www.XXXchurch.com, a site established by two Christian pastors who wanted to combat the problem of pornography. Their statistics also show that 53 percent of men who belong to Promise Keepers have viewed porn in the last week, and 47 percent of the Christians they polled admitted that pornography is a major problem in their homes.

Even church leaders aren’t immune. One in five pastors has struggled with porn, according to Focus on the Family, an evangelical Christian organization. The addiction inevitably affects families, careers and spiritual lives, said Cedar Hills’ senior pastor Eric Rust.

“The fact that we follow Christ doesn’t mean it’s not a temptation for all of us,” said Justin Landis, Cedar Hills’ music and arts director.

Along with hundreds of churches across the country, the Sandpoint church will focus on pornography during all three of its services on Sunday. They may also share a documentary called “Missionary Positions,” which tells the story of the Revs. Mike Foster and Craig Gross, the young California pastors who started www.XXXchurch.com. Instead of the Playboy Bunny, these two religious leaders travel with their own mascot, Rex the Rabbit. They’ve been known to set up booths at pornography trade shows, handing out postcards that say “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”

Rust, Landis and other spiritual leaders at Cedar Hills in Sandpoint prayed for months about their decision to get involved with National Porn Sunday. Some church members found the topic extremely touchy and even offensive, but Rust reminded them that “Jesus was no stranger to controversy.”

At the same time, pastors at Cedar Hills didn’t want to point fingers and shame people.

“We’re anti-porn, but the goal is not to guilt anyone who has seen a naked person,” said Landis.

Their congregation – one of the largest in Sandpoint – is affiliated with Assemblies of God International and has 600 members. The church includes families, middle-aged couples and retired folks, but the average age is about 32 to 35. Rust, Landis and the two other pastors who founded Cedar Hills three years ago are all under 35.

These church leaders want God and ministry to have meaning in people’s lives, they said. That’s why they haven’t shied away from taboo topics such as money, sex and pornography. They also want to respond to issues with “authenticity,” said Rust, who will talk about the first time he saw a pornographic video as a seventh-grader.

“Those images burned in my mind,” said the 32-year-old pastor. “That’s the danger of pornography – it sticks like glue, creating barriers to relationships and intimacy.”

Pastors at Cedar Hills aren’t expecting hordes of people to raise their hands and admit to being porn addicts, Rust said, but they want families and individuals to know there’s support out there and that they’re not alone. After Porn Sunday, he hopes the congregation will keep talking about the issue during their weekly small group discussions in living rooms, coffee shops and other places throughout town. He expects some will turn to www.XXXchurch.com‘s resources, which includes an online discussion group called “a prayer wall” and free accountability software.

Having a problem with pornography “doesn’t make you the devil,” said Landis, who’s 26. “It makes you human.”