Dale McNish, Gleaner Writer

Rev. Joel Edwards. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

There is very little or no erotica between my wife and I. When we have sex, it seems she does it out of duty. I look at images and watch movies to get sexually excited. At times I will relieve myself, other times I will go to my wife and play out a fantasy in my head. - Courtney

Male church members surfing for sexy pics, survey reveals one-in-five churchmen regularly view pornographic websites, while an estimated two-thirds struggle with their appetite for virtual sex, a survey has found.

Faced with this growing problem, churches are now turning to sex education and Internet spyware to try and lessen the impact as well as promote sexual purity among their flocks.

Rev. Dr. Joel Edwards, the Jamaican-born general director of the Christian think-tank, Evangelical Alliance, said the alarm has been raised and churches need to recognise and face the urgency of the sexual misgivings of some members of their congregations. His comments come on the heals of a survey commissioned by Christian Vision for Men (CVM), an organisation that encourages and equips Christian men in the U.K. to share their faith.

The survey findings coincide with revelations from international gospel superstar Kirk Franklin who blew the cover on his own addiction to porn.

His confession of sexual transgression has caused the once taboo issues of pornography, masturbation and other sexually compulsive activities to become hotly debated topics in congregations.

Rev. Edwards said: "The real challenge is to ask, what does this mean about how we educate people in church? What are we preaching to people about on Sundays? What are we teaching people in Sunday schools and what are we saying to people about sexuality in our youth groups?

"How are we using our valuable time and resources to effectively respond to this, and give people healthy relation- ships which will pull them away from pornography?"

"We are overdue for an overhaul in terms of what it means to sit in a church on a Sunday. By teaching life skills, of which sex is a part, Christians need to know how to deal with money, relationships, how to develop as a professional and how to develop as a parent," he said.

Rev. Edwards believes an individual fixation on pornography may not necessarily be caused by a 'hyper sexual being' but could stem from having a low self-esteem, feelings of insecurity and loneliness.

MARRIED

Courtney (not his real name) visits porn sites twice weekly. He's been married eight years and has two children. He denies being addicted, insisting that he fulfils a void in his sexual life by entering the virtual realm.

He told The Voice: "There is very little or no erotica between my wife and I. When we have sex, it seems she does it out of duty. I look at images and watch movies to get sexually excited. At times, I will relieve myself, other times I will go to my wife and play out a fantasy in my head. "As a Christian, I am struggling with what I do because I would prefer that my wife could satisfy me. But after having our second child four years ago, she simply has no drive. We've tried counselling and it hasn't helped. My wife does not feel comfortable speaking to people about it.

"I am very selective about the intensity of the images I view. In a sense I reassure myself that at least I am not sleeping with someone else. I simply view sexual material. I think there are many people who would not be honest about this kind of thing. But I am not addicted. I am trying to revive the romance with my wife, once that is achieved, I'll have no need for porn."

Bishop Joe Aldred, head of the Minority Ethnic Christian Affairs Department at Churches Together, England, downplayed how widespread the problem is, saying that while it is not 'an exclusively a single person issue," it is also not an epidemic in the church.

He said that the Church will work with members to help them steer clear of their indulgence. "We need always to be aware that we live amongst, and are trying to work with, people who are fallible," he said.

"Everything you see happening in the world has some resonance within the Church because the people who go to church live in the world, the Church isn't this perfect place that is secluded from what's happening outside."

Besides the educational programme, CVM believes the answer in solving addiction to Internet pornography among the U.K.'s male Christian population lies within a computer software called Covenant Eyes.

ACCOUNTABILITY

Lance de Vries, CVM's operations director, said Internet accountability is the way forward to kicking sexual addiction. Once the programme is installed on your computer, it records every website visited, scores sites for potential pornographic content and sends a report to 'accountability partners'.

"Perhaps your wife, dad or son, perhaps your vicar/pastor or your best Christian mate, who will in turn send their report to you," said de Vries, whose organisation is a member of the Covenant Eyes Affiliate Programme. There is a £5 monthly charge for the service.

De Vries believes the software programme occupies a frontline position in offering a solution to Internet porn addiction. One user of the programme wrote on the Covenant Eye website: "This is the best system I've seen by a long shot. When you know that your accountability partner is going to see where you've been surfing, it has a way of sucking the life out of temptation."

However, Nicholas Foster, a former church youth worker argued against the software, which he said will not be an effective deterrent in curtailing the online activities of wayward churchmen.

"People who really want to give up visiting porn sites should not visit them in the first place, so I can't see the point in feeding back a report," he said.

In a U.S. media interview Franklin, who has been married for 10 years, said he thought marriage would 'fix' his obsession with pornography 'but that's when I started realising how much it was an addiction."

The 36-year-old Texas-born musician is credited for revolutionising traditional gospel into a seamless fabric, creating his own style and sound that transcends age, race and denomination.

The Voice is owned by the Gleaner Company Limited.