This Super Bowl Sunday, over 300 hundred churches will host an unconventional event that has nothing to do with the bravado of America’s favorite gridiron sport and everything to do with…porn.
Feb. 6 is Porn Sunday, an event sponsored by XXXChurch.com. You might be thinking, “Why would churches host a porn event?” or “That’s it, the American Church has finally crossed over to the dark side!” but nothing would be farther from the truth. National Porn Sunday is an event to help draw attention to “the elephant in the pew”—pornography and sexual addiction within the church today.
Football, a sport closely associated with bikini-clad women in beer commercials, hard-nosed machismo, and all-things manly, might be an odd thing to pair with an anti-porn event, but many ministry leaders and churches are hoping to leverage the platform of American football to highlight the often-taboo issue of sexual addiction.
According to XXXChurch.com, 40 million adults visit a pornographic Website every day, and nearly half of all divorces list pornography as a contributing factor.
Patrick F. Fagan, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Research on Marriage and Religion, says, “Pornography hurts adults, children, couples, families, and society. Among adolescents, pornography hinders the development of a healthy sexuality, and among adults it distorts sexual attitudes and social realities. In families, pornography use leads to marital dissatisfaction, infidelity, separation, and divorce.”
Porn has relational dangers, but at its root it’s a spiritual issue that needs to be dealt with in the open. Pastor Mat Cox of Eastlake Community Church in Lawrence, Kansas, was interviewed by CNN about participating in Porn Sunday. Cox told CNN, “It’s just a great event to have the day of Super Bowl Sunday…to address something that really churches are generally unwilling to talk about.”
Porn Sunday will include a 35-minute live broadcast with notable NFL players, including quarterbacks John Kitna from the Dallas Cowboys and Matt Hassleback from the Seattle Seahawks. Green Bay defensive tackle Ryan Pickett is on the board of XXXChurch.com and was originally scheduled to participate in the live broadcast but since the Packers are playing in the Super Bowl, he wisely opted for a pre-recorded message.
Hosting an anti-pornography event on Super Bowl Sunday is unorthodox to say the least, but maybe it’s the perfect time to deal with the hidden secret of porn head on.
After all, everyone loves a good comeback—and maybe this year, at least for some, the real redemption story won’t happen at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, but in churches across the country as men tackle the tough issue of sexual addiction and get right with God and their families.
