Dr Paul Allen

Voddie Baucham exposes the pornographic nature of our culture and provides men and women with a key tool necessary to fight addiction.

The release of the Fifty Shades of Grey movie, timed for Valentine’s Day , is a more important and lamentable event than many Christians may realize. What the movie represents is nothing less than the evolution of pornography in an age increasingly distant from a biblical vision of sexuality and human dignity . One of the hallmarks of the Christian worldview is an affirmation of the unity of the transcendentals — the good, the beautiful, and the true. Christianity affirms — and demands — that the good, the beautiful, and the true are actually one, unified in their source. The source of what is good, beautiful, and true is none other than God himself, who alone is infinitely good, beautiful, and true. Our very knowledge of beauty, goodness, and truth are due to God’s gifts of revelation and creation. He defines the good, the true, and the beautiful by his being, and they are unified in him. This means that Christians believe the radical truth that nothing good can be ugly, that ...

English: Caricature on "The great epidemic of pornography". From 19th-century French illustration (in Courrier Français?). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) It is going to take time—decades at least—before we are able to accurately tally the cost of our cultural addiction to pornography . But as Christians we know what it means to tamper with God ’s clear and unambiguous design for sexuality: The cost will be high. It must be high. We all know the cost will be high in fractured families and heartbroken parents, husbands and wives. Already we are seeing far too many of these and each one is its own tragedy. We know the cost will be high in the countless thousands of women who are used and abused in front of cameras so they can be violated for other people’s pleasure. That is a sickening tragedy as well. But an overlooked cost, and one that will only become clear in time, is that porn is stealing the best years from a million young Christian men and women. Porn is dominating ...

Author: Jonathon Holmes. One problem that biblical counselors will surely face in their counseling and everyday conversations, regardless of gender, is the addiction and enslavement to pornography . It is not uncommon to hear and meet counselees whose first introduction to pornography happened in their pre-adolescent years of 7-12. With a problem so prevalent and pervasive in the church, numerous books and articles have been written on the topic. How can biblical counselors contribute to this conversation? Biblical Counseling Coalition (BCC) member and Association of Certified Biblical Counselor’s Executive Director , Heath Lambert recently authored a book entitled, Finally Free: Fighting for Purity with the Power of Grace which has ably defined and elucidated a gospel-centered approach to fighting the sin of pornography. Additionally, a helpful list of resources has been gathered on the BCC website to equip biblical counselors on this topic as well. Something I have found persona...

L'ivresse de Polichinelle by Joseph Faverot (b. 1862) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Christians differ in their attitudes toward alcohol. Some Christians believe that we have freedom to consume alcohol in moderation. Others hold that the Bible forbids all consumption of alcohol or that, even in the absence of a clear command to abstain, it is so dangerous and so likely to lead to addiction, that it is downright foolish to drink . Regardless, all Christians hold that drunkenness is a sin and that this sin relates to the loss of control. A drunken man loses his sense and his self-control. As Solomon says, “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” On Monday I attempted to anticipate some of the cost to the church if young Christian men continue to spend their youth embroiled in the pursuit of pornography . Solomon warns that pornography is sapping them of their strength. In their strongest and most energetic years, in the years when ...

The Twilight Saga (film series) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The release of Breaking Dawn Part 2, the final movie in the Twilight series , has brought with it what is the last flurry of Christian reaction to the popularity of the books and films. Mars Hill pastor Mark Driscoll , in a recent blog post titled “ A Father’s Fright of Twilight ,” describes the series as “for teenage girls what porn is to teenage boys: sick, twisted, evil, dangerous, deceptive, and popular.” Driscoll goes on to highlight news stories about Twilight-crazed teenagers participating in real-life vampirism. He calls for discernment and regrets that Christian parents “naively” allow “this filth” into their children’s lives. Twilight is aimed at girls, and because it appeals so deeply to so many girls and women, the problem with Twilight is a problem about gender. The biggest worry about Twilight is that Bella , the main character, lives a life completely centered on the guy she loves. The love she has for Edw...

Peep show window displaying pornographic entertainment at Cherries on St. Mark's Place in New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Author: John Jalsevac . It was in the mid 90s that we began to hear a whole lot about this new thing called “the Internet ,” which could answer all of mankind’s deepest questions. At around the same time I hit puberty and began to spend my time moping about pondering the age-old riddle of what, exactly, women look like underneath their clothing. Evidently at some point I put two and two together and punched the appropriate keywords into the prehistoric version of Google , with spectacular results. So far so good, and if it had stopped there, the experiment might have been innocent enough. But there was a catch. Like most who have played the peeping Tom with porn, I found that my curiosity wasn’t satisfied. On the contrary. I had only learned what this woman looked like. But what about all the others? Obviously I needed to see a few more examples. ...

There’s little doubt that pornography is a modern-day plague. Though pornography has always existed in one form or another, the Internet has created a medium through which it can be disseminated both widely and discreetly. Almost an entire generation of boys has succumbed at one time or another, with a new generation quickly falling into all of the same traps. And it has not just been boys; many men have found the temptation irresistible (and, of course, not a few women). While there are some who try to downplay pornography’s impact on life and marriage, evidence is mounting that it is a terribly destructive force. Two new books from New Growth Press address the issue head-on. One targets men who are struggling with pornography or any other manner of sexual sin and the other brings help and healing to women who have found that their husbands have an addiction. David White ’s  Sexual Sanity for Men  seeks to help men “understand that sexual sin starts in thei...

The following letter on pornography and business ethics was written by two prominent public intellectuals— Robert P. George , a Christian and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf , a Muslim —and sent to hotel industry executives last week. We write to ask you to stop offering pornographic movies in your company’s hotels. We make no proposal here to limit your legal freedom, nor do we threaten protests, boycotts, or anything of the sort. We simply ask you to do what is right as a matter of conscience. We are, respectively, a Christian and a Muslim, but we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good. As teachers and as parents, we seek a society in which young people are encouraged to respect others and themselves—treating no one as an impersonal object or thing. We hope that you share our desire to build such a society. Shoul...

Peep show window displaying pornographic entertainment at Cherries on St. Mark's Place in New York City. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The following letter on pornography and business ethics was written by two prominent public intellectuals— Robert P. George , a Christian and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf , a Muslim —and sent to hotel industry executives last week. We write to ask you to stop offering pornographic movies in your company’s hotels. We make no proposal here to limit your legal freedom, nor do we threaten protests, boycotts, or anything of the sort. We simply ask you to do what is right as a matter of conscience. We are, respectively, a Christian and a Muslim, but we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good. As teachers and as parents, we seek a society in which young people are encouraged to respect ...