Watching Porn at Church

Would you watch porn in a church building? I wish I could say I was asking merely for shock value, but I’m not.I was talking with David Blythe, a pastor who regularly travels and speaks on the temptations of pornography. A young man approached him after one of his seminars and spoke about being hired as a youth pastor of a church. He moved his family across the country and was just settling into his new job. David told me:

“He was setting up his office one Monday morning, and he went in to turn on his Internet, and he was having a problem. And he traced it down to a hub in the church that wasn’t giving a signal…in the main sanctuary. And he walked in the sanctuary. Up on the big screen was a pornography movie playing next to, he said, ‘the biggest cross you’d ever see.’ And his senior pastor was in the sound booth watching pornography in the sanctuary of the church.” (Listen to the whole interview here)

The senior pastor eventually lost his job.

In one sense I’m not surprised to hear the story. I know (sadly from personal experience) the more someone sinks into the mire of pornography, the less inhibited they become. The fear of “being caught” gradually lessens. The risks become greater. Hardness of heart settles in, and they become like the false teachers Peter warned us about: “They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime…They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin” (2 Peter 2:13-14).

As some hear this story I often see a visceral response: Watching porn in a church? In God’s house? While it is sad that someone would use resources set aside for the worship of God in order to satisfy their lusts, there is something even uglier going on. Every time a Christian man or woman intentionally takes pornographic images into their mind, they are defiling God’s house, whether they’re in a church or not. Read more