Thursday, January 29, 2009 » “XXX” and “church” don’t mix. The only time they usually meet is when one condemns the other. Yet the combination of those words created a website ministry devoted to keeping people of all ages away from those triple-x’s.
XXXChurch.com, dubbed “The Number One Christian Porn Site,” provides information about the pornography’s addictive qualities and accountability resources to prevent porn viewing. With the number of porn viewers rising—40 million in the United States—this type of program seems to have a large target audience.
XXXChurch founder, Craig Gross, spoke at Indiana Wesleyan University Monday about the problem of pornography for college students.
“We are always looking for ways to help our students to live lives of purity that are honoring to God,” said Assistant Dean of Chapel, Rev. Pat Hannon, “We invited [Gross] to the campus to help begin the discussions needed for students to be freed from the grip of pornography.”
Gross and XXXChurch travel the country educating Americans on facts about the pornography industry, and provide help to those who want to separate themselves from it. He spoke to IWU students, citing that Christian college students are just as likely to view porn as any other demographic.
“Porn’s outsmarting technology everywhere,” Gross said. “If you want it, you’ll find it.”
According to Gross, students on campus can still find access to porn despite strict filters like iPrism. But the filters are there for a reason; the blocking provides a way to keep students accountable as much as possible.
“I think the harder they make it on you, the better. Once you get out of [IWU], [porn’s] going to be readily available,” said Gross.
According to Gross, learning to abstain from porn during the formative college years will be a life-long benefit.
For this reason, XXXChurch created its own accountability software called X3 Watch that is programmed to email a trusted friend or mentor when any questionable site is visited. The software is free to download, but can be upgraded to a pro version for a low price. XXXChurch also provides a program called Safe Eyes, which includes filtering along with accountability.
Gross encourages IWU students to not let porn be the “dirty little secret” on campus, but to bring it out in into the open in healthy conversation.
“When you start talking about porn, it’s a big deal,” Gross said. “People start freaking out in some regards. It’s shocking; it’s in your face.”
To Gross, this shock is a good thing; when pornography remains taboo, students struggling with an addiction who want a way out do not get help they need in order to overcome.
“I think would be great to see [this open conversation] spread internally through the halls [with] people saying, ‘let’s take some of these things [we learned] and bring them to life in our small groups and in some of our accountability circles. Let’s do this and not just talk about it,’” said Gross.
For more information about XXXChurch or X3 Watch, go to http://xxxchurch.com.