Should churches place parental control software on computers used by church staff?
From MMI Weblog,
[Pornography’s] prevalence among staff members has been disclosed when some churches have decided to begin daycare centers to reach out to their communities, [Southern Baptist ethicist Richard] Land said. In preparing to provide coverage for churches, insurance companies typically research what is being viewed online in the church’s buildings.
“I can’t tell you the number of broken-hearted pastors who have called me when they have discovered what some of their trusted church staff have been looking at on church computers,” he said.
What do you think?
From my experience – yes. I was church secretary at a church where porn was downloaded on my office computer.. I did suggest a filter but this was deemed "not necessary". Sigh.
We have filters on ours.
Internet pornography is insidious! My conversations over the past few years with counselors, and in recovery groups, indicate that it is widespread and definitely within the church. Filters may be helpful, and may in some ways reduce liability – but I would assert that much more than filters is needed to address this problem…
Filters should not be necessary – but they can certainly help. I know a preacher who lost his job less than 2 years after moving to the congregation because of what was found on the church computer in the office – but he says he did not put it there. At least if filters are in place, you will have a better idea of who is surfing where. A system manager can get around it, but others have more difficulty.
Jerry
It is within the purview of the leadership of any organization to require such.
Arkie,I couldn’t agree more. Filters aren’t enough. But if they help, they’re cheap insurance against a destroyed family and devastated congregation.
Here is a portion of an email I received recently from the girl that teaches my Sunday morning bible class for people in their 30's:
Last night I was once again overwhelmed by the relational meaning in that beautiful word….repent. There are several significantly different meanings in the greek for the word that we use as a blanket "repent".
In Matthew when Jesus says, "Repent…for the Kingdom is at hand" the word in the greek is METANOEO which means to think differently, to repent with regret accompanied by a true change of heart toward God. The concordance goes on to say, "This type of repentance signifies a change of mind consequent to retrospection, indicating regret for the course pursued and resulting in a wiser view of the past and the future. Most importantly, it is distinguished from METAMELLOMAI which is a form of repentance which means to regret because of the consequences of one's actions with little or no change of heart. It means little or nothing more than a selfish dread of the consequence of what one has done whereas METANEOE means regret and turning away by a change of heart brought about by God's Spirit."
"Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented (metamellomai – had regret) himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. -Mtt.27:3
However, this regret did not turn his heart back to the love of the Father or to his true nature in Christ. It smothered him in shame and condemnation and he was overwhelmed.
Simon Peter partook in a similar betrayal, but I would be interested in studying the type of repentance his heart turned toward. Two men sinned, one man chose freedom through repentance.
My repentance in the realm of pornography is more of a "yeah, I know I shouldn't do it, it's a sin, and I'm sorry I got caught". And with that type of repentance, you can imagine what my relapse rate is.
At some point blocks, filters, accountability partners, etc. just don't cut it. You have to make a decision that time spent in sin is time spent out of the presence of God…and you have to decide that NOTHING is worth leaving the presence of God.
I've gotten around my blocks. When I couldn't, I've gone to my office. When I couldn't, I've got on my handheld which (as far as I know) they don't make filters for.
At the end of the day, I legalistically want to stop porn'ing because it's a sin and I shouldn't sin. Ineffective.
Until our hearts are perfect we need all the help we can get.
Jay:
I appreciate your giving attention to the subject of this post. Probably the single most devastating aspect of a spiritual siege in our day. Destroying much of a generation and crushing a large number of marriages. And a further illustration of just how important the message of Ephesians 4:17ff. remains in our day. The teaching gets at all of this — and gets at why we need to fill our minds with the Word of God. Read it; meditate on it; sing it together.
Recently, as I worshipped with a congregation, I sat behind a group of college students. Insightful assembly. I noticed young women singing joyously and in every case young men sitting silent or just barely mumbling. I was curious so talked afterward and discovered that this was not a case of girls bringing their unbelieving boyfriends. What is up here?
My youngest son, at a Christian university, told me he took an informal poll of friends and acquaintances during the past school year. An estimated 70% of the guys he talked to indicated they were wrestling with addiction to Internet-based pornography. Now, press that outward beyond a Christian university….
And we wonder why so many young adults seem to have so little interest in singing to the Lord. The answer shouts at us: hearts drowning in darkness. And much of a generation seems oblivious to one of the ways to break the chains: feed on the Word of God. Meditate on it. Sing it. Lift up our hearts to God by singing the Word of the Lord.
In Christ,
Bruce Morton
Katy, Texas
I think there is enough evidence to conclude that it may well be prudent to so, and I can't say I'd understand objection to it all. I can recall a study back about a decade, give or take, that shockingly (to me, anyway) showed that internet pornography at that time was affecting a much older ministers than generally assumed. Don't assume it's just the young guys, and don't think that an older staff would need such filtering any less.