Tag Archives: internet

Internet the Greatest Threat to Christians

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I’ve been thinking about this article for the past day.  Read it and then come back for my thoughts.

Internet the Greatest Threat to Christians

First off, I love how he phrases this:

“The Internet has given atheists, agnostics, skeptics, the people who like to destroy everything that you and I believe, the almost equal access to your kids as your youth pastor and you have … whether you like it or not.”

Agnostics??  Those people who don’t know if there is a god or not?  Out to get your kids??  lmao

I love the scary language – “who like to destroy everything that you and I believe.”  Typical Christian exaggeration and scare tactic.  Besides – it goes both ways.  I feel like Christians try to destroy what I believe in as well.

“One of the most staggering statistics in [the] history of the church … 91 percent said there is no absolute truth apart from myself.”

Besides the fact that this statistic makes me want to do a cartwheel .. what exactly does it mean?  If it means that Christian youth are realizing that they can look at a situation and make a reasonable value judgment on it – then I’m thrilled.

“I made the statement off and on for 10-11 years that the abundance of knowledge, the abundance of information, will not lead to certainty, it will lead to pervasive skepticism.”

Knowledge – scary, scary knowledge.  If your religion has anything to offer then it should be able to withstand being put next to other views.  Is isolating believers the only way Christianity can survive?  He’s revealing one of Christianity’s weaknesses here.  Christians have always depended on being able to circle the wagons and isolate the flock.  The internet is blowing that out of the water.

“McDowell … warned that the sexual immorality through the Internet … is an invasive, intruding, immorality … that is all just one click away.  He said the majority of questions young people ask him are about sex, mainly ‘oral sex.’

First of all, it is starting to drive me crazy how most of the time when Christians talk about morality it is somehow related to sex.  Now that I’ve been out of the Christian world for a bit – I’m amazed that Christians think the rest of the world is obsessed with sex.   I think it’s the reverse.  Christians seem obsessed with what people do when they’re naked and they are determined to control it.  They waste so much time, money, and effort on this.  Such a shame.  Can we not spend time, money, and resources on real world problems?  I’m sure you can think of some more pressing issues than people exploring their sexuality.

And of course teens ask mostly about sex!  Does anyone not remember being a teenager??  That’s a normal part of development and I don’t think anyone should attempt to shut that down.

He throws out some statistics about porn and my first question was – so what?  What horrible things are happening because people are viewing porn?  I know Christians like to throw out a whole list of awful consequences and as a Christian I took those for truth.  Now I think it’s just a bunch of made-up scare tactics.

“For 47 percent of Christian families, pornography is a major problem.”

You know how to solve this problem?  Stop telling women in particular that porn is such an earth-shattering problem.  Having been on the inside, I know what Christian women are told about this.  If your husband watches porn he’s being unfaithful – he’s cheating on you!  He doesn’t respect you – he doesn’t respect women.  He’s perverted and he needs to stop.  Christian women end up feeling betrayed and of course that is going to cause a problem in the relationship.  And can I just point out that it’s not only men watching porn.  Here’s one article I pulled up.

“50 percent of divorces were directly related to pornography.”

Bullshit.  First of all – divorces are complicated and I’m sure normally involve many issues.  That makes me suspicious of a statistic that seems to pinpoint one issue that is causing 50 percent of the divorces.  And like I said – even if it is an issue it’s partly because we’ve made it an issue.

I actually like his answer to parents.  Model the truth.  Build relationships.  Use knowledge … without being judgmental.  Same thing I try to do with my kids.

“McDowell said as many as 85-90 percent of the evangelical Christian parents in America are not equipped to handle their kids.” 

How fucking insulting!  And how did he come up with that statistic and how did he determine who was equpped to handle their kids?  And what does that mean anyway?  Sigh.