“As addictive as crack cocaine,” anti-pornography Baptist preacher Jay Dennis of the First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland, Florida re-launched his One Million Men campaign this past week at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting in Houston with the goal to get at least one million men to live a porn-free life.
Pastor Dennis was inspired by his staff’s concerns about pornography in the church: wives who’d caught their husbands, moms worried about their sons. And so he pumped out a website, “Join 1 Million Men” where men can pledge to live porn free by getting “on The Wall”, and encouraging other men to do the same. These men admit that they’re powerless over porn and through God’s power, also choose daily to:
- Surrender to the Holy Spirit
- Confess Sinful Thoughts Immediately
- Replace Sinful Thoughts with God’s Word
- Choose Specific Men to be Accountable To
The Wall of Shame
Since good Christian women obviously would never watch porn – how can they get in on the action? Why, by joining the “Women Warriors”, one million women committing to praying heavily for the One Million Men…because nothing can dissuade a man from watching porn more than a woman’s prayers for his sinful soul.
There is a related iPhone app with scripture, tips, tools and testimonials from men who’d found themselves caught in the devil’s grasp. There are also videos detailing how men can eradicate their porn stashes, including sometimes even destroying their computers.
Dennis called porn a “weapon” that threatens “husbands, dads, fiancées and even church leaders.” He warned that there is an “almost 100 percent chance that your son will be exposed to some type of pornography” and that a cell phone “could be a tool used by Satan to gain a stronghold into your child’s mind.”
(The below is a Jay Dennis anti-porn remix courtesy of the Daily Beast)
In the website’s testimonials, Robert F. Schwarzwalder, Jr., the Senior Vice President of the Family Research Council (the “FRC”), an organization whose prime mission is to advance faith, family and freedom in public policy and the culture from a Christian worldview, highly recommends the program, stating very strongly that:
Pornography is a cancer, destroying lives and ruining families. Jay Dennis is a wise and careful surgeon, using the fine scalpel of God’s Word to help men gain victory over this moral disease. It’s my hope that fully ‘one million men’ and even more will find hope and healing through this outstanding resource.”
Cancer. Moral disease. A Satanic weapon. Destroying lives and ruining families.
So where’s the data proving all of the above? Oh, right…there is none. Actually, the data on pornography mostly proves the opposite, and any linking of pornography to societal ills is more than likely ideologically motivated. But what are a few fuzzy facts among friends? They’ve never stopped the religious right from using any tactic necessary to shame the American public into believing that their behavior is morally wrong and that unless they find god and stop their immoral behavior, be it homosexuality, abortions, use of birth control, or even masturbation, they personally will destroy the fabric of America and burn in everlasting hellfire.
The real problem here is not a man’s porn collection. No. It’s using an agenda of shame, a powerful, painful and potentially dangerous emotion, to sell salvation.