Controversy Part 3 – Responding to Caliban's Dream

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008
Written By Luke Gilkerson
Categories: Accountability Software, Criticisms and FAQ for Covenant Eyes

Controversy Part 3 – Responding to Caliban's Dream

The controversy still brews . . .

I’d like to thank the writer of the blog Caliban’s Dream for his comments about me and Covenant Eyes. I have to say, you really made me think about some things. Thank you.

First, I’d like to say to Caliban that I don’t find your posts annoying (contrary to what you may assume). I rather enjoy reading what our detractors say. I know Covenant Eyes is not a perfect program (nothing is) and I know that it is merely a tool (one that can be ill-used).

Caliban states, “I have never for a moment suggested ‘purity’ isn’t something worth embracing.” It was not my intention to pigeon-hole him as someone against purity. I will admit, however, it was difficult not to read this in his blog, which trivialized a testimony on our website talking about desiring to erase hints of lust from one’s life. Perhaps I read more into that than was intended. I apologize.

Caliban’s desire seems to be seeing the Sydney Diocese make critical reforms to its practical theology and approaches to discipleship. He sees the installation of Covenant Eyes as part of a larger perceived problem at the school. I apologize if I appeared to be passing myself off as “suitable qualified” to comment about Moore Theological College’s use of Covenant Eyes. My intention was not to do that, as I stated in a previous blog, “Admittedly, I am looking at this new initiative at Moore Theological College as an outsider . . . [but] I hope this initiative will prove to be a healthy and productive one for Moore.” My comments were aimed more at talking about the overall question of sexual purity.

Apparently the original point of Caliban’s blog was: “Covenant Eyes – nor any other from of surveillance – isn’t going to resolve the issues of identity, gender and sexuality that lead to someone developing an obsession with pornography.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself. No software program resolves core issues of personal identity. You would be a fool to think otherwise. I do hope that Covenant Eyes doesn’t have a reputation for being a quick fix to one’s pornography addiction problems. As we add more services and products, our hope is to equip people to dive to the core of the problems. The software is aimed at being merely a launching pad for something deeper.

I do contend, however, with one of Caliban’s comments. He states: “by focusing on the symptom of these problems instead of their cause products such as [Covenant Eyes] in the long term only exacerbate the problem.” I applaud Caliban for his desire to see people get to the root causes of their addictions, but products like CE software are not exacerbating addictions. Covenant Eyes is a tool, nothing more.

If I decide to build a house and think, “I’ll build with wood,” and yet only build walls and a roof, neglecting the necessary concrete foundation, support beams, and interior structures, then I will have only a shell of a house. If a great wind comes and blows that house over, the emptiness of my house will be exposed to myself and others. It may have looked like a house, but it lacked the necessary internal workings. My point is: we can fault the builder of that house but not the wood.

Covenant Eyes software, as a tool, can fall into the hands of those who choose to use it as a way to cover the core issues. Faultless accountability reports can then serve as a cover, like a sophisticated suit of fig leaves to cover Adam’s nakedness. One of our hopes (through this blog and a number of other resources) is that we can steer customers away from a symptomatic approach to sin and call them to something truly transforming.

In reality, Covenant Eyes, because its software points buyers to accountability, can serve as a tool that leads people to the kind of help they need (as it has for thousands). As people are called into developing loving and honest relationships with trustworthy partners, they are called out of the darkness and hiding that feeds their addictions, and into the light.

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:7-9)

It is the fellowship that John speaks of here that is the aim of Covenant Eyes: a fellowship that allows for raw confession and brings people into the redemptive community the Bible calls the Church.

My compliments to Caliban’s Dream. I admire your passion for real purity that goes more than skin-deep.