Jesus Geek

If the image to the left isn’t enough to convince you that you should not be looking at porn online, well, nothing will. Of course Jesus doesn’t only watch us download porn. He also watches us gossip, lie and cheat.

Jesus also isn’t the only thing that watches us download porn, there are some applications that do that as well. They can all be circumvented and avoided in one way or another and that’s what I want to talk to you about today. BTW, thanks to Luke Gilkerson over at Breaking Free for pointing me to this image.

I feel it necessary to preface this article with the following: I am in no way condoning the actions contained herein to bypass, circumvent or avoid software solutions that filter or monitor Internet activity. I am merely providing information to make a point: Filtering and accountability software only works if you are committed to staying pure and truly being accountable online.

You’ve seen the banner ads on websites, videos on YouTube, Vimeo and Tangle and heard personal testimonials from people who swear by these magic collections of 1′s and 0′s that helped them overcome their addiction to porn. Protecting your children and family from the dangers of online pornography are important to you. You also feel that accountability is important in your life because you’re tempted and want to have a way to “stop the temptation”. Well, I’m here to tell you that none of this software works. That’s right, it doesn’t work.

The reason it doesn’t work is because the problem is not your computer, mobile device, the Internet or people who peddle porn. The problem is your heart. No software, book, online 12-step or 30-, 60-, 90-day program can change your heart and as long as your heart wants to view porn, you’ll find a way.

The problem you face with software that monitors or block online activity is that it can become a crutch. Rather that studying the Word, praying and seeking fellowship with other Christians you’ll rely on the effectiveness of the software to keep you on the straight and narrow. The software is not 100% accurate and at some point you’re bound to come across that 5% of the Internet not being blocked or scored and your deceitful heart (Jeremiah 17:9) will lead you down a path that you’ll regret.

Let’s face it: circumventing filtering or accountability software is easy if you know how to use Google. You can find a number of videos on YouTube that can tell you how to hack the software so that you can view anything you want on the Internet. Even easier, you could download a live Linux ISO and burn it to CD and boot to it from a computer’s CD-ROM drive. There’s also USB flash drives that can be configured for the same purpose.

As I said, I’m not here to tell you HOW to get around any safeguards you’ve placed in your online life (even though I just did), merely to point out that if your heart isn’t where it should be, it’s really easy to get around these artificial boundaries. I’m also not writing this to bash these applications. They are useful and can protect you and your family from accidentally viewing porn or other sites filled with hate speech, gory images or just down-right offensive material. They work as long as your heart is where it needs to be to fight and overcome the spirit of anti-Christ in this world (I’m using this as a general term and not referring to someone specifically, see 1 John 2:18).

Your heart needs to change and the only way to do that is through the power of the Holy Spirit in your life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ (Romans 10:9,10). I’m not talking about treating Jesus like a distant cousin or even making sure you visit him weekly like your aunt in the nursing home. I’m talking about a relationship that is so close it feels like someone is sitting on your chest attempting to push all the air out of your lungs when you look at porn. It needs to be a relationship that puts Christ first and all other things second (that includes your church, family, spouse and children). He must be first in everything. You should be so connected to Jesus that you’re like a junky who can’t wait to get his next Holy Ghost hit. You need to get to the point where you’re diminished and Christ is exalted in your life. Only then will all of these safeguards and methods work because you cannot will yourself to do good. With the power of Christ you can overcome any temptation that comes upon you (1 Corinthians 10:13; James 1:12).

That being said, I do want to share with you a guerrilla-warfare method for getting porn out of your life.

1. You must get your heart right with God. Period. This is the most important thing. Confess your sin to your pastor, wife, husband, parents, whoever and get on the road to recovery. James 5:16
2. You must find someone to mentor you. Don’t look for an accountability partner, look for a mentor. You may need to start with your pastor on an elder in your church. They can also recommend someone who could mentor you. My suggestion is to find someone who’s dealt with this before in their own life. Proverbs 15:22; 18:24
3. Read your Bible and pray every day. Yeah, you should be doing this already but do it with purpose. Don’t just read 50 verses for the sake of “getting it done.” Stop and consider each verse or set of verses. Think about how you can apply it to your life and pray those verses over yourself and your family. You may only read 1 or 2 verses a day. The purpose is not to read a lot but to get closer to God. Psalms 119:105; Jeremiah 15:16
4. For the first couple of weeks you may want to call your mentor(s) daily. Let them know you want them to ask the hard questions. Show them you’re serious about beating this thing. Share with them your struggles and what God has been revealing to you in your Bible reading a prayer time. Ecclesiastes 4:12
5. You may need to get rid of the computer for a while. Those of us who work with technology can’t avoid them but at home we can certainly put the thing in a closet for a month or two. Matthew 5:30
6. Give your spouse the passwords to all of your accounts. Maybe even delete some. If you’re prone to having conversations with strangers that you shouldn’t you may want to close all of those social-networking accounts.
7. Configure your router to use OpenDNS and use the filtering and reporting settings. Have your spouse change the password on the router and hide it from you.
8. Configure your computer to require a boot-up password and configure it so that it will not boot from CD or USB drives, only the hard drive. Your spouse should also hide these passwords from you as well.
9. Install an Internet accountability/filtering program like Covenant Eyes on your computer. Have the reports send to your mentor(s) and or spouse. Make sure that when you talk about the results of the filter that you’re honest. Consider the circumstances which the “event” occurred, if any, and truly seek to know what triggered the temptation.
10. Talk to your administrator at work and ask them if it’s OK to install filtering and/or accountability software on your computer. This is a difficult step because you’re basically admitting to someone that you have a problem. Word may get around but if you’re serious then this is a step you need to take.
11. Finally, don’t get bummed if you stumble into porn once in a while. It’s better to fall and get back up than fall and stay down. Stay in the fight! Proverbs 24:16