Spiritual Battle After Sexual Sin

In a CT article adapted from a message he gave at Passion '07, John Piper gives gospel-grounded instruction in withstanding Satan's onslaughts after sexual sin:

The problem is not just how not to fail. The problem is how to deal with failure so that it doesn't sweep away your whole life into wasted mediocrity with no impact for Christ.

The great tragedy is not masturbation or fornication or pornography. The tragedy is that Satan uses guilt from these failures to strip you of every radical dream you ever had or might have. In their place, he gives you a happy, safe, secure, American life of superficial pleasures, until you die in your lakeside rocking chair.

I have a passion that you do not waste your life. My aim is not mainly to cure you of sexual misconduct. I would like that to happen. But mostly I want to take out of the Devil's hand the weapon that exploits your sin and makes your life a wasted, worldly success. Satan wants that for you. But you don't!

What broke George Verwer's heart back in the 1980s, and breaks mine today, is not that you have sinned sexually. It's that this morning Satan took your 2 A.M. encounter—whether on TV or in bed—and told you: "See, you're a loser. You may as well not even worship. No way are you going to make any serious commitment of your life to Jesus Christ! You may as well get a good job so you can buy yourself a big widescreen and watch sex till you drop."

Read the whole thing.

Another Look at Jesus and 'Porn Stars'

At Boundless Webzine, Matt Kauffman responds to objections from readers of his previous article questioning the evangelistic strategy of Pastor Craig Gross and other members of a ministry reaching out to erotic entertainers at a recent pornography trade show. At issue is the wisdom of leading with the message "Jesus Loves Porn Stars." (Gross and his ministry partners handed out about 3,000 Bibles whose covers sported those words at the convention.) Matt offers sound counsel for all of us who are prone to gloss over the issue of sin and judgment in order to quickly present the good news of God's love:

The greatest temptation for Christians today, however, is not to be too harsh, much as some may be guilty of that; it's to be too soft. In the name of being winsome, we're pulled to go along with a live-and-let-live society that seeks nothing so much as freedom from moral strictures and hard truths. And even when we may not intend to do so, we have to realize that society around us is all too eager to find the only "true" Christianity in a religion that fits comfortably into that worldview.

In the ears of most who hear it, "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" fits the bill. And that's why, whatever else may be said for or against the people who've chosen to lead their witness with those words, it's simply sending the wrong message.

Self-Produced Child Porn

There's a disturbing article in today's New York Times about teens who use webcams to start their own home-based pornography businesses. They call themselves "camwhores."

The business has created youthful Internet pornography stars - with nicknames like Riotboyy, Miss Honey and Gigglez - whose images are traded online long after their sites have vanished. In this world, adolescents announce schedules of their next masturbation for customers who pay fees for the performance or monthly subscription charges. Eager customers can even buy "private shows," in which teenagers sexually perform while following real-time instructions.

The lure is the prospect of easy money. Many teenagers solicit "donations," request gifts through sites like Amazon.com or negotiate payments, while a smaller number charge monthly fees.

The central figure in the story is a boy named Justin, now 19, who entered the world of cybersex five years ago shortly after acquiring a webcam he originally hoped would help him connect with other teenagers. He didn't attract the attention of any adolescents but did catch the eye of a number of adult men. One of them helped him set up an account on PalPal.com and promised him $50 to sit in front of his camera bare-chested. Eventually his "audience" grew to 1,500 paying customers (Justin earned hundreds of thousands of dollars in under 5 years) and the requests became more sordid.

One of the most alarming things about this story (and there are many) is the description of the people who paid for Justin's services:

In its investigation, The Times obtained the names and credit card information for the 1,500 people who paid Justin to perform on camera, and analyzed the backgrounds of 300 of them nationwide. A majority of the sample consisted of doctors and lawyers, businessmen and teachers, many of whom work with
children on a daily basis.

As Justin's business grew, he became technologically more savvy, adding more sophisticated cameras to his computer system which he hid in his room. There's a sobering lesson for parents in all this:

Justin's mother, Karen Page, said she sensed nothing out of the ordinary. Her son seemed to be just a boy talented with computers who enjoyed speaking to friends online. The Webcam, as she saw it, was just another device that would improve her son's computer skills, and maybe even help him on his Web site development business.

"Everything I ever heard was that children should be exposed to computers and given every opportunity to learn from them," Ms. Page said in an interview.
She never guessed that one of her son's first lessons after turning on his Webcam was that adults would eagerly pay him just to disrobe a little.

A video interview with Justin is also available (check sidebar of article).
 


Earlier this month Al Mohler wrote a commentary about the dangers associated with the explosion of teen blogging in which he said, "Responsible Christian parents will establish clear boundaries and rules for their childrens' use of the Internet. There should be absolutely no expectation of privacy when it comes to what their teenagers are doing and writing on the Internet. The stakes are simply too high." In light of this new phenomenon, the extent of which is unknown, such a warning is all the more urgent.