The law of inequal probability... Pornography and the 'average' man.

Yes, even on the internet there is great inequality between men and women... When it comes to blogs and websites, however, it does seem to work the other way to which it works in meatspace.

Sadly, in the 'real world' men still have far great privilege than women - men seem to push their cronies to the front of the line for promotions, salary increases, and all sorts of benefits. Men create prominence for other men.

On the internet, however, women do tend to get a lot more attention than men... Sadly, it is also the negative attentions of men that cause women on the internet to rise in prominence - and trust me, it is seldom 'good men' with 'good intentions' that participate in such activity! No, I'm not being cynical. I am simply being realistic. If you want to test it, simply add the following tags to your blog post and watch your daily hit rate RISE:

Deceptive tags: free porn, nude, female, sex, xxx, experiment, men on the internet,

Sadly pornography is a huge problem (mainly for men), and the relative availability of it on the internet must be having a marked influence on society, and particularly on what should be healthy relationships.

I am not sure if anyone has access to research on this issue? I know of a number of Churches (particularly those with men's ministries) that are tackling this issue head on! I think that it is certainly a necessary consideration for Churches in our time.

I can remember working with a group of guys who felt they had an addiction to pornography when I was an army chaplain - in those days (back in th monolithic era) one could only get access to 'illegal' videos and magazines. I shudder to think what happens among young men these days!

As with so much in life, I guess that such ministries can be most effective, not just as interventions (i.e., helping people who have a problem), but also in a preventative manner. I had never considered that Churches should work with young men in their youth groups to consider how Christians ought to respond to pornography. It was not much of an issue when I was a youth pastor (or perhaps it was and I was just naive).

Part of what I shall be doing in my new ministry is working with men, some will be ordinary guys like me, many will be more 'high profile' (business leaders and government persons). I am starting to think about some of the ministry concerns that I will need to approach with care and insight. I would love to find some creative way to engage not only fathers, but also their sons in this issue (both prevention and intervention).

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Technorati tags: helping men, minisrty, dealing with addiction, pornography