Ask adult Christians what should be done if their pastor is using pornography, and 41% say, “He/she should be fired or asked to resign.”* Another 29% say the pastor should take a leave of absence until he/she stops using porn. Those over 50 years of age were more adamant about that—47% of age 51-69 and 57% of age 70+ were ready to can the pastor. But only 35% of age 25-30 and 27% of age 31-50 felt that way.
Wow–if that were the case, a lot of pastors would be out of a job! More than half (57%) of pastors say they are either currently struggling (14%) or have struggled in the past (43%) with pornography, and 33% of the ones currently struggling say they “are addicted” to porn.
Among youth pastors, the numbers are higher: 64% say they are struggling (21%) or have struggled in the past (43%). A whopping 56% of those currently struggling say they “are addicted” to porn.
It is not surprising that pastors think a little differently than the 41% of lay people who say pastors should be fired. Only 8% of pastors think that a pastor “should be fired or asked to resign” if found using porn.
Related: Why the Church Must Be a No-Shame Zone
And it is even less surprising to find out that 55% of those using porn “live in constant fear of being discovered.” No kidding! I know of many pastors who, upon being discovered, lose their careers, their families, their homes, their friends, everything. Some have even ended their own lives as a result of being discovered.
What solutions do pastors suggest?
- 82% said they should find a professional counselor.
- 59% said they should find “a group of mature Christians who can hold him accountable.”
- Only 1% of the pastors said that the congregation should be told.
But congregations are unaware of the scope of the problem. Awareness precedes understanding, and understanding precedes action. Once the people understand how addictive porn is and recognize that pastors are as prone to the sin as anyone else, they can take action.
Related: Porn in the Church–How to Create Policies that Help
If there is no problem among your pastors, that’s great! But as the pastors themselves say, accountability is the best preventive medicine. How devastating it would be to coast along, thinking there will be no problem, only to find out you need to rehabilitate or replace a key staff person. How disrupting to the ministry, how costly for the counseling, how humiliating for the staff—all of which could be headed off by installing Covenant Eyes on all of the staff computers to maintain accountability and have open and transparent conversations.
It would be like the Black Plague on the church if all of the struggling pastors had to resign. I believe they need help, not banishment. I also believe we need to educate the church that porn is a pervasive problem, and pastors are human, too. If we force pastors to live in constant fear, we force them to NOT seek help, the very help they know is needed.
The majority of those who struggle know what must be done–they need professional counseling along with accountability partners. But they aren’t going to seek that help if they can’t admit they struggle, and they can’t admit they struggle if they know they’re out the door the next minute. We need to meet them at the foot of the cross, where Christ took on the burden of our sins, as well as those of our pastors.
*All data in this article are from The Porn Phenomenon, a 2016 study by the Barna Group.
Ahhhh. seems to me like there are many perverse attitudes in this comment section. And the so called church is filthy, blind, nekked, and poor.
That it cant see that its all of the above.
Once someone is Born Again, this should not be an issue, especially those who are supposed to be uhhhnmm .. above reproach?
Instead they set up for themselves teachers according to their own wicked desire… No you are not sinless after being Born Again..but sin, less and less… And WHATEVER it takes
if you cant keep yourself from viewing what is vile to God, and are actually comfortable living a doublelife then its time to question Are Ye Born Again?
How about get rid of your t.v., lots of soft porn and constant breaking of God’ s laws for enter tain ment
sakes… wow… not to mention constant surfing the web, or sociol media …oh, so we can be revelant..
to what? a wicked and perverse cult
ure? nuff said. Grow up! ye are weak
and have no spiritual discernment!
And yeah.. you just got spanked.
I think people cannot get away from something freely unless they ‘hate’ it. You can do all the behavioural modification techqnics you want, get you accountability partner but unless you hate it it will still be part of your soul, in your heart. I us3d to be addicted to cigarrets for 12 years tried to stop many times. But it wasen’t until one day i had sharp pains in my chest and i said to myself ‘if this is going to stop me from the things i love like areobics, and being healthy i have to get rid of it. I also asked God to help me to ‘Hate Cigarrets’ and he did. When i saw my husband have 2 lung collaspse, my mom got COPD, i hated it. I had to overcome the lies satan had me believe like ‘it is helping keep your weight down’ no in fact he was right it was and if i stopped i thought i would eat alot but God gave me wisdom to get a bag of suckers to help and he gave me the real truth beyond that truth which was ‘if you stop smoking you will have energy to exercise and keep your weight down in a healthy way. The same things go with porn when people really see what this sick industry is all how about. How they kidnap teens and children and force them torcher them, how it is corrupting a person’s mind, how it is unnatural. God did not make us peeping Tom’s. And sex and love should go together. When people start thinking deeply then their motivation for stopping will be greater then ‘this is wrong, i shouldn’t be doing it. Acting like it is no different then indulging in chocolate cake.
If the pastor or priest or whoever is watching porn, they’re not mature enough for their job. It’s not a job for everyone, I couldn’t do it either. St Paul said they need to be above reproach. This isn’t the same thing as being perfect – St Paul wasn’t perfect. But it does mean there’s some level of behaviour they need to be at, and if they’re not there yet, then they shouldn’t be in the position of pastor yet. They can join the rest of us in the pews. It’s not about being judgmental of them, but there are more important things at stake than their career goals, such as the honour of the church and of Christ. If they get caught out, the world has excuse to blaspheme. There are way too many sex scandals rocking the churches already, whether evangelical or catholic or wherever. The idea of Christian integrity is considered a joke by many, and I think this is because too many Christians have a misguided sense of forgiveness. Just because you forgive someone in the pastorate doesn’t mean you let them keep that privilege. Again, it’s not about them, it’s about making sure God is honoured as much as possible.
In fact I find it hard to believe that someone in the pastorate whose heart was committed to God’s glory would not initiate their own resignation anyway, given these circumstances. They would know that it’s not right for them to be in that position at that time.
Yes. It is a mortal sin and it is promoting human trafficking and exploitation. People are taking serious matters too lightly and men always seek to excuse their deplorable behavior by blaming the victims, like many I read in this comments section. Go seek help for your addiction, respect other human beings and be accountable for your sins.