CL: Is there any one critic that you really want to respond to? Have you seen any criticism come in that made you say, “That’s a good point, and I need to deal with this”?
Well, I wouldn’t respond to individuals, but I would engage issues. My thing is always attack the issue not the person because, quite frankly, this book has gotten a lot of media attention, and much of it is non-Christian. I think there are bigger issues here as non-Christians are watching how Christian leaders treat one another. That’s important.
CL: How do pastors get the message about sex wrong in the church today?
I think, for the most part, the dominant message coming from most pastors is what we’re against. We’re against fornication. We’re against homosexuality. We’re against adultery. We’re against pornography. That’s true, but that’s not all that the Bible has to say. The Bible is not just against some things. It’s also for marriage, for intimacy, for pleasure, for fidelity. And I don’t think that that message is nearly as loud. If you ask the average person, “What does the Bible say about sex?” they’d say, “You can’t do this. You can’t do that.” “What else does it say?” “It primarily tells us what we can’t do.”
CL: Do you think viewing pornography disqualifies somebody from ministry?
You’ve got to ask all of these questions like: is it a habitual pattern, is this something that popped up, or is this something that’s an intention of the heart, it’s an addicted thing, they’re out searching for it? I do believe that a habitual pornography habit is disqualifying for ministry. Qualifications for an elder are one-woman man. The husband of one wife in the Greek literally means one-woman man, and if the guy is into pornography habitually, he’s not being a one-woman man.
CL: When a husband views porn, how does it affect the marriage?
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