You may have seen the recent Babylon Bee article,”Covenant Eyes Eradicates Pornography Addiction With New, Highly Effective Eye-Plucking Feature.” If you haven’t, I’d encourage to give it a read.
It’s hilarious.
It’s not the first time the satire website lampooned Covenant Eyes. On June 28, 2017, Babylon Bee published the article, “Covenant Eyes Introduces ‘Extreme’ Version Which Emails Internet History To Paul Washer.”
For the most recent article, Babylon Bee approached Covenant Eyes with an offer to sponsor the content of the article. We said “yes,” because we want people to know that while we take what we do very seriously, we don’t take ourselves too seriously.
We believe that the best accountability relationships mean you not only cry with a trusted ally, but also laugh with them. It’s okay to have light moments. It’s okay to just hang out. Putting too much seriousness in a relationship with an ally can get tiresome and lead to it ending. That’s why we focus on developing open, honest, fun relationships.
Covenant Eyes ensures that humor is part of company culture by hosting its annual Marmot Day celebration. It’s when Covenant Eyes team members celebrate the furry little rodent and enjoy a company picnic, complete with great tasting food, games, and a wood-chucking contest.
Accountable relationships shouldn’t be a negative experience. They shouldn’t be a “sin hunt.” Rather, they should provide security and enduring encouragement.
Bonding with a person is better than binging on pixels. Most people know that, but it takes an ally to reinforce that truth and hold them to that standard. The best relationships are with those you can cry with, and also laugh until you cry.
Our software and content helps people stop using pornography for good, or never start. We enable people to overcome porn and be restored and transformed. That’s something to celebrate, tissues or not.
Accountable relationships shouldn’t be a negative experience. They shouldn’t be a “sin hunt.” Rather, they should provide security and enduring encouragement.
So why not call them “support groups” or “encouragement groups”? “Accountability” is a word with a meaning and that includes negative consequences for failure. Without the group imposing negative consequences for failure, accountability is non-existent. It is just a word designed to either falsely give the appearance of possible punitive action or there is actual accountability which would inevitably include a “sin hunt.”
Promise Keepers, the original creators of “accountability groups” or “accountability partners” had sin hunting in mind. Having watched these groups in action it became obvious that they weren’t working because, instead of creating a better class of Christian man, all they did was create a better class of Christian liars. Now that we know better, we still keep the label “accountability” but are secretly redefining it to mean something else.
Just a couple thoughts regarding the reply above… I’m not sure “accountable”necessarily includes the concept of punishment. I believe it simply means being able to give an accounting of something. In this case, a man gives an accounting of his actions. It means he doesn’t go through life without having to face up to the actions he’s been taking. His friend/accountability partner then will hopefully encourage him in how to prevent the actions in the future (which might mean better boundaries).
It seems to me that pornography already has quite a bit of punishment in the form of bondage to lust and a warped mind with regard to sex and the human body. I’m not sure how many men would want to stay a part of a group that imposes punishments for failing. (We can say, “Well, then they must not be serious about quitting porn…” but do we really want men to feel ashamed after slipping and then deciding they don’t need anything more negative like punishments so they just stop the group/accountability relationship altogether? In other words, they already feel like crap, why open themselves up to more in the form of punishment?) Perhaps by punishment, the gentleman means setting more stringent boundaries, such as disabling Safari on the iPhone, disabling the App Store, or even getting rid of the smartphone altogether. I feel those can be great options for people struggling with lust and pornography. If that’s what you mean, I think most people (including the writer of this article) would totally get behind that. I would agree with him if he’s saying that just getting together and telling each other “It’s gonna be alright…everyone messes up sometimes” is not going to help men grow. There do need to be real change brought about by real actions on the part of the man who wants to be free.
Also, I’d be interested in knowing what both MichaelC and Dan Armstrong mean by “sin hunt.” I’m guessing they might be talking about slightly different things and calling them the same thing. I would think Dan is meaning that when two guys/women get together to discuss their online habits, they don’t just nitpick every little sinful thought or every time they let their eyes stay “too long” on a person they see online or in real life. But I would also think that he also would agree that each person needs to be very honest regarding his thought life and overall actions (online, at work, at homes etc.), and whether he had good intentions when he went to a site that showed up on his accountability report. These times of getting together can turn into each person confessing each time they lusted, each time they almost clicked on a stupid article on a news site, each time they looked too long at a person walking down the street… The time begins to be focused on the sin, instead of the boundaries to help prevent the sin. And it might/will be better served discussing how each can strive to love their Lord and their spouse better which can lower the desire for lust/pornography (and I’m not saying that if you love your wife and God that you won’t ever struggle with lust).
Anyway, just my two cents’ worth. Obviously I cannot speak for Dan, the writer of the article above. :)