Archive for the ‘News’ Category

The guys at Covenant Eyes have created a new partnership with the Christian music industry called Covenant Musicians.

This is their stated purpose…

Covenant Musicians is a network of Christian artists who are committed to seeking sexual purity in their life and promoting it in their music. Covenant Musicians is a community of musicians and ministries partnering together to call the church to a life of openness, honesty, and accountability.

I especially appreciate their catch-phrase: Radical Honesty, Intentional Accountability, Authentic Community. Those things resonate deeply with what we are all about at Pure Community Ministries!

We are in the process of getting a logo designed for Pure Community Ministries. It is an interesting process because it forces us to think about who we are and what we do as a ministry. I’m excited to see the end result.

Stay tuned!

NPR aired a short, but powerful story of how a woman falsely accused a man of rape who was subsequently incarcerated for eleven years.

She was a victim, but after he was exonerated by DNA evidence, she was the one in need of forgiveness. The man showed incredible grace to her. So much so that she found the strength to forgive her actual rapist.

You can listen to the piece online: Finding Freedom In Forgiveness.

The guys at xxxchurch.com recently acquired Pure Online and re-branded the program as X3Pure. They offer three different 30-day programs: for married men, single men, and single women. The programs cost $99 and include online streaming video sessions, a workbook and a license of SafeEyes.

It’s cool to see x3 venturing out into more and more avenues to help folks who are struggling with porn. They have been known for quite some time for their ministry to porn conventions.

And this blog post just wouldn’t be complete without including the marketing mugshot of Craig, the porn pastor himself! Is it just me, or does it look like his left arm is completely missing?

If the picture scares you, just read the green words. They are true…it is a waste of time to try to beat porn addiction on your own!

If there are any alums of the program, we’d love to hear from you.

Here is a surprising article from the Associated Press…

AMSTERDAM – The municipal pornography archive in the Dutch city of Leeuwarden is missing and officials fear it may be gone for good.

What is surprising to me about this article isn’t that the pornography was stolen, but that a government municipality had an official porno archive.

I know a guy who was arrested for stealing credit card numbers to use when accessing pay porn sites. Porn and theft going together isn’t anything new. An official government porn collection, on the other hand, is new to me!

SafeEyes Mobile has been released for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

One of the major areas of vulnerability for a lot of folks is their internet-enabled mobile device. Gadgets such as the iPhone, iPod Touch and Playstation Portable haven’t had filters available. It is great to begin seeing standards, such as that of the iPhone, allow software developers to create ways to protect users from porn.

I shudder to think about a teenager with a PlayStation Portable walking around Kroger surfing porn on the free WiFi while his mother rummages through produce totally oblivious to her son lusting over the internet mere feet away!

Unfortunately as of this posting, there is still no filtering software for the Playstation Portable that I am aware of.

You can learn more about SafeEyes Mobile by going to their website at www.safeeyes.com.

I don’t have HBO, but I am interested in a documentary that is airing tomorrow called, “The Trials of Ted Haggard“.

It is always interesting and frankly sad to see how the church shoots its own wounded. That is not to condone Mr. Haggard’s behavior, but rather to indict the church for vehemently distancing itself from a man in obvious need of the grace of Christ to rebuild the brokenness in his life.

Somewhat ironically, Ted Haggard spoke at my graduation dinner from Christ for the Nations Institute back in 1999. I was inspired by his passion and knew that he was a prominent evangelical Christian leader. The irony is that now I have been through to a certain degree some of the process that he must be undergoing in recovery from sexual sin. He spoke encouraging words to us about going out and doing God’s work. Now I feel I can with some authority encourage him to do the same!

Those of us who struggle with habitual sin know that the outward behavior is a reflection of the inward condition of the heart. Jesus put it this way…

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.
- Matthew 15:19

The point is that the behavior was merely an expression of a heart that needed changing. We all have one of those, don’t we?

If you get to watch the documentary, comment here on it. I’d be interested to hear about it.

By the way, Ted Haggard is going to be on Larry King Live tonight to talk about the film.