Breaking Free

I’ve been doing quite a bit of meditating on Proverbs 7 recently. In the text, King Solomon is looking out his window, looking down on the streets of Jerusalem, giving his commentary about a naïve man he sees strolling by the door of a prostitute. She lures him in. He follows. Adultery ensues.

As a recovering porn addict I couldn’t help but see myself in text. No, I’ve never been enticed into a brothel, but discovering the world of Internet porn presented a similar temptation to me. If you haven’t read Proverbs 7 recently, click the link and give it a quick read (it won’t take you more than 2 minutes).

Solomon paints a vivid picture of this woman. She is alluring, sensual, and beautiful. As I read it, I find at least six lures this woman uses, six reasons why this man is enticed to follow her home—the same six reasons why many men find it so enticing to look at porn again and again.

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—Luke Gilkerson

The Covenant Eyes office will be closed on July 4th as it is a federal holiday for our employees. Our customer service call center will not be opperating on the 4th. We will, however, be open on Saturday the 5th for our normal opperating hours.

—Luke Gilkerson

The following is a guest post by Laura Booz. Laura is on the speaking team of Pure Freedom, a ministry dedicated to equipping men and women of all ages to live a vibrant life of purity. She attends Penns Valley Community Church with her husband Ryan and is the proud mother of two adorable children, Vivienne and Lia.

A little over a month ago, I posted a link to a testimony given by Laura’s husband, Ryan. In this talk he candidly shares the story about his porn addiction and how it nearly devastated his marriage. Shortly after hearing his talk I got in touch with Laura and asked her to share the same story from her perspective.

This is the second of three posts Laura is writing to share her story. Please follow this link if you haven’t already read Part 1 of her story. Thanks, Laura, for being so open.

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—Luke Gilkerson

It was a typical Friday morning walking into the Covenant Eyes’ world headquarters offices. I needed my usual caffeine fix, so I headed to the break room to grab a cup of coffee (the Christian’s drug of choice). Only this time, things were different: I was greeted by three bright-eyed teenage girls with brownies, peanut butter bars, and some very tasty chocolate-raspberry-cheesecake type treats.

On the door was posted a sign that said, “Bake Sale! All proceeds go to benefit the Home Foundation.”

What is the Home Foundation, I thought. Abbie, Emily, and Marla, my three brownie-making friends, explained to me that it is a charity dedicated to ending human trafficking.

They told me about the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 people who are trafficked across international borders each year. This figure is in addition to a far larger yet indeterminate number of people trafficked within countries.

A staggering 80% of the victims trafficked across international borders are female, and 70% of the females are trafficked for sexual exploitation. This means, on the low end, 336,000 women are sold as sexual slaves every year.

It is estimated that 50% of those who are trafficked are children.

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—Luke Gilkerson

Covenant Eyes has released a new series of four video tutorials about our Internet filter. If you have any questions about how our filter works, check out these videos for some help. These videos provide detailed step-by-step instructions for (1) setting up the filter; (2) general settings and overrides (3); time controls and protocol blocking; (4) and  filter history and settings.

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—Luke Gilkerson

Singer/songwriter Tawana has been on a faith-stretching adventure, ever since she began pursuing the call to share her music with the world. Despite Tawana’s various obstacles and trials, she continues trusting in the Lord as she lives out the title of her first album: “Just Sing!”

In the midst of her budding music career, she is also speaking out every chance she gets about an issue she feels strongly about: pornography addiction. Read on to find out why.

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—Luke Gilkerson

The following is a guest post by Laura Booz. Laura is on the speaking team of Pure Freedom, a ministry dedicated to equipping men and women of all ages to live a vibrant life of purity. She attends Penns Valley Community Church with her husband Ryan and is the proud mother of two adorable children: Vivienne and Lia.

A little over a month ago I posted a link to a testimony given by Laura’s husband, Ryan. In this talk he candidly shares the story about his porn addiction and how it nearly devastated his marriage. Shortly after hearing his talk I got in touch with Laura and asked her to share the same story from her perspective.

This is the first of three posts Laura is writing to share her story. Thanks, Laura, for being so open.

Read the rest of this entry »

—Luke Gilkerson

The pilot of CBS’ new show ‘Swingtown‘ aired on June 5. It is a TV drama depicting the clash of values around sexuality.

The show highlights the lifestyle of characters Tom and Trina Decker, a carefree couple that has embraced the swinger lifestyle. The first show opens with Tom, an airline pilot, inviting a stewardess to his home to have a ménage à trois with he and his wife. And this is just the first 2 minutes of the show.

The show’s myriad of characters gives viewers an up-close and personal look at several suburban families and their varying attitudes about sex. In 45 minutes they manage to cover marital intimacy, teen sex, pornography, orgies, and sexual dysfunction.

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—Luke Gilkerson

(The following post is from a friend and avid reader who wants to remain anonymous. I asked him to write up some book reviews for our blog. This is his first installment.)

The Purity Principle is a concise 100 page book that contains Randy Alcorn’s impassioned plea for readers to live a life of sexual purity. Unlike some books on sexuality, Randy Alcorn writes for a broad audience and avoids vividly describing sexual impurity. The fundamental premise that underlies the book’s message is what Alcorn describes as “The Purity Principle: purity is always smart; impurity is always stupid” (16). Whenever we choose sin, we suffer. “A holy God made the universe in such a way that actions true to His character, and the laws derived from his character, are always rewarded. Actions that violate His character, however, are always punished” (16, emphasis original). Alcorn continues, “it’s okay to be out there ‘for yourself’ on this issue” (22). The rest of Alcorn’s book is the explication of this principle with practical steps for guarding sexual purity.

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—Luke Gilkerson

A special thanks to A Good Husband blog for asking me to write a couple short posts about overcoming pornography addiction:

• Overcoming Porn Addiction (Part 1): This post talks about the reality of pornography addiction, both from a physical and a psychological perspective.
• Overcoming Porn Addiction (Part 2): This post gives some brief thoughts about where to go for help with a pornography addiction.

—Luke Gilkerson