The Run Down June 28, 2007
Jul 28th, 2007 | By art rogers | Category: Church, General Christian, SBC, The Run DownI’m not moving back into the SBC politics, thing, but this story transected my feed reader (I’ll explain in a new post later about the new things I’ve done with my feed reader, bloglines) and I just thought it was an interesting parallel. Obviously, this is a church organization that is organized with a hierarchical system, unlike the SBC. Still, I thought it interesting for you SBCers out there.
Zimbabwe: Church Excommunicates 15 Executive Members
This story is about a Catholic Monsignor in Australia who was taunted badly by some teen aged skaters and subsequently lost his cool. After 19 years in Youth Ministry, I can say I have lost my cool more times than I can remember. I never have lost it bad enough to curse at kids. Warning: If you follow the link in the story to the video on You Tube, you will be subject to some opulent profanity.
Red faced church sorry for blue dean
Amnesty International and the RCC are parting ways over the issue of abortion as a result of rape, which is being used as a tool of intimidation in wartime. Full story:
Amnesty, Catholic Church go to war over abortion
Here is a sobering story. Pornography is making its way into lives of women. It used to be that porn was targeted at men and even teenaged boys, but now, women are falling prey to the chains of this sin. xxxchurch.com is cited in the story. I admit readily to you that I have the accountability software produced by xxxchurch installed on the laptop at home and my church laptop. I have helped several others install it on their computer. Porn is insidious and addictive. I think the church needs to address porn in a real and open way. Right now, we avoid the subject because some people in the church think that the topic of sex or anything related to it should be avoided at church. When we do that, we surrender our congregations to the influence of the world who talks about sex from a twisted and worldly perspective. Moreover, we allow the world to caricature the church’s position into a ridiculous one: that God hates sex and that you should feel guilty about it even when you are married. We have to be honest with our people about sex and quit pretending that it is something that we should feel guilty about, because when it is according to the plan of God – you shouldn’t. Anyway, here is the full story:
Revelation: Women joining men in porn-addiction ranks, Christian groups say
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Art,
My wife and I have dealt with a few women (not here in Charlotte) who have struggled with porn. It is a killer for male and females.
I agree with Kevin. As I’ve said before elsewhere (which, come to think of it, you may not have seen), issues of women’s sexual struggles are grossly misunderstood and ignored in the church. We struggle just as much as men with a lot of things the church tends to say are specifically male issues. Sexual addiction is not just a men’s problem. We women are just as vulnerable to it. It may not look exactly like a man’s struggle, but then again, a coke addict may not look just like a functioning alcoholic, but both are still addicts. Unfortunately, the help available to men isn’t available to us, mainly because the church has so bought into the lie that we don’t struggle with it. Also, I think women’s ministry leaders are either too ashamed (perhaps they struggle with it themselves) or too embarrassed by topics such as pornography or other kinds of sexual addiction to bring it up.
I’ve been reading a book called “No Stones: Women Redeemed from Sexual Shame” that has helped me understand a good deal of my own struggles in this area. Most women (and men too, I think) have been deceived by the various books out there as well as by the general teaching of society and the church that we just don’t have the same struggle with sex as men do. That’s just a bold-faced lie. And it sets up women for horrible falls into deep sin patterns that she feels must be kept hidden at all costs. Its doubly shameful because a) it’s sin and b) it’s not “feminine” or “womanly”;” these are men’s issues and what kind of a disgusting whore I must be to struggle with them,” is the way our thinking goes. Its no wonder its only being discovered now. Our mothers and grandmothers were too ashamed to come out of the closet and the only reason we’re coming out now is because, with all the skeletons in there there’s no room left for us.
Lu,
Amazing words. Thanks for being so “to the point.” I’d love to investigate this further, sometime. I see pornography wrecking homes left and right. For the sake of others’ confidentiality, I won’t go further.
The guys at xxxchurch.com are right, though. In the church, it is a dirty little secret that many of our people are in bondage to this stuff.
Art,
Thanks for the post. As a fellow pastor I’ve tried to deal with this issue from the pulpit and I get the most chilled response from my people. It’s like I was talking about racism in the 1960′s. Anyway, you’re right. We must deal with all issues we face together in our everyday lives.
And by the way. Tell your Music & Youth Pastor to get himself to work. Jason is a great friend and a wonderful brother in Christ… He’s been a “part” of our family for years. If you ever need any good stuff on him…let me know.