What You’ve Been Searching For

Is Online Church Similar To Pornography?

Could it possibly be that online worship is just as bad as porn? Somebody thinks so. I’m Joel Fieri, This is What You’ve Been Searching For. Let’s talk about this. Stay tuned.

All right. As I said in the beginning, this is a tough subject or could possibly be. I came across an article by Michael Foster on a site called, It’s Good to be a Man. He states that, “Pornography is to sex as Zoom is to worship.” And as you know, I’ve been talking in recent weeks to younger people out there because our demographics information has told us that we have a lot of young people searching and listening to our podcasts. And if there’s a problem that’s prevalent with young people today, especially young men, it’s pornography. And if there’s a trend that’s popular with young Christians, it’s online/digital/virtual worship and fellowship. So Michael Foster put these two together and it’s a provocative title linking pornography with online worship or Zoom worship, I guess he calls it. But some of the points he makes aren’t too far fetched.

I think the analogy is a little far-fetched, but some of the points he makes really aren’t, and as he points out, many times in the Bible, God does draw a close analogy between whoredom and idolatry. So let’s take a look at some of the points he makes and I’ll let you decide for yourself. Pornography, first off, it does a lot of things. It deprives, especially a man, it’s mostly a man looking at erotic images and videos, things like that, of women. So many things that pornography robs a man of in terms of a relationship with a woman. Pornography is just a temporary instant gratification where the women depicted are selected for their, obviously for their attractiveness, they are perfect; it gives them a view of a perfect body and gives them a fantasy of having the perfect woman who will react just in the perfect way he wants her to.

And once it’s over, it’s over. There’s none of the struggling to build a relationship. There’s not the awkward meeting. The asking out. All the things that go with a romantic relationship that put sex in a context are missing with pornography. There’s none of the struggle of an actual physical relationship between a man and a woman. It’s not an idealized thing where she reacts perfectly and it’s perfectly satisfying and then you go your own ways. Now, it only happens on porn and in movies, okay? In real life, these things can get complicated, but they’re also very rewarding.

The woman is, in real life if you have this kind of relationship and you have this physical relationship with the woman, the woman is there the next morning next to you. And you’re an extrovert. Not only do you want her next to you, she wants you next to her. It’s kind of an all-encompassing relationship that is built and worked through and has its reward in real life where pornography does not. It robs men of all the depth and reality of a relationship with a woman. Much the same way in a completely different context, that online church can do that with a Christian. When you forsake actually going to a church and meeting in person, instead doing it online virtually from your couch or from your phone, wherever you are, you’re not having to get up and get dressed and make it there on time.

Find that parking space, get to the building, say “hi” to people, put on at least a pleasant face. If you don’t want to see these people, maybe they don’t want to see you, but they’re putting on a pleasant face, too, and you actually go into a physical space, sit down to someone you may or may not want to sit next to, hear them sing. Maybe they sing well, maybe they don’t. Maybe they have to listen to you sing. All these things, you have to sit through that sermon. One of the things in online church that my old church has discovered that had a heavy online presence was that people don’t always finish this because they sign on and start tuning in. A lot of them don’t finish.

Maybe they’re just there for the show, the worship, which is really just singing. And a lot of times people go on sites like maybe Elevation or Hillsong or Bethel and watch these perfectly produced worship shows, is really what they are, with very attractive people singing. And they set a mood and they have an emotional response and that’s all they want. They may or may not listen to that message. A lot of times they don’t. So there’s no expectation for you to stay and listen online also.

The pressure for everything to be perfect is much greater, I think, online because it is a show. It is something that has to keep your attention on that screen. Another thing that never happens online is that extra grace required person that always wants to talk to you and somebody is shaking their head behind the camera. This because he was telling me about it just the other day. There’s people there that maybe God has to stretch you to meet and to minister to, and maybe you, and that wouldn’t happen from your couch at home. Again, maybe you’re the extra grace required person that someone else has to deal with. So you’re robbing that person of that experience and that growth too.

So all these things, and these are just the physical manifestations of it. There’s also the interpersonal dynamics that are represented maybe in that extra grace required person, or maybe there’s an expectation that you will come back to that church at some point during the week and serve with the church or minister to someone, or be involved in further education. Something like that. All these things that we used to take for granted as part of physical church have been taken away by virtual church. And if all you do is virtual church, then you’ll never have these growth opportunities. You’ll never have that iron sharpens iron experience with other Christians.

And when you think of iron sharpening iron, there has to be contact there. Iron can’t sharpen iron unless there’s some friction and some sparks sometimes fly. So it’s not always a perfectly pleasant and entertaining experience. Sometimes it can get rough. Just like in real marital relationships, male-female relationships, there can be sparks, things can get rough. So this is where these two ideas intersect. And I think he makes some really good points. The very same things that pornography deprive us of in relationships, online church can, and I think sometimes does, maybe to a lesser extent, or not nearly in the realm of it being sinful so much. But it could fall into what he says here, “A realm of idolatry,” maybe. But it’s at least an abandonment of the desire to fully grow by being part of an actual physical congregation of believers beating together.

The Bible says, “Do not forsake meeting together of the body because all of these things are produced. All this growth and all this experience you have with other believers leads to a closer walk with God.” That’s how he designed it. He didn’t take us away. He left us with each other. So that’s something that online and virtual church can rob from us again. Why am I saying this to young people? It should be fairly obvious. The younger generations are much more in tuned to their screens. And as a matter of fact, my observation is most young people live their lives through their screens. Very rarely do I see a young person that doesn’t have a screen in front of them. And I’ve talked before that I’m conflicted with this podcast network. I’m trying to get as much Christian content out on the web onto screens as I possibly can.

And yet I see the danger of the screen addiction with young people and with young Christians, especially this is a temptation that is just as strong, if not stronger, than pornography is with some of our young men. So again, this is going to be your reality. You’re going to have to fight this if you want, I think, you’re going to have to fight this.If you want a full walk with God, a full experience and growth in your Christian life. So again, this will conclude my series on my message to young people. But we do have other series coming up. I’m going to be exploring more of what you’ve been searching for. Again, as I always say, if you like these videos, hit the Like button. Subscribe if you want to see more. Share if you think other people would like to hear this. And if you want to see other good content by other strong Christians with strong messages, go to: christianpodcastcentral.com. Go ahead and do it. Thank you.