John Woodhouse, the principal of Moore College, after consultation with the student body and College Board, has advised that the College is embarking on a partnership program to strengthen people against the assaults of internet pornography. Some may assume that pornography should not be a problem for Christian leaders and the College need not be concerned about this matter. Some may feel that an intervention in this area is overly intrusive in individual's personal lives. Therefore we asked John about the thinking behind this initiative.

John, can you begin by giving your thoughts on the pornography plague we all hear about?

I am no expert on this subject, but I think the following four things are at least widely acknowledged to be true, and form the basis for my thinking.

First, pornography does hurt people. It does harm. It hurts the person concerned "” and especially the Christian person, I believe. It messes with your mind in serious ways. It affects your attitudes to something that is in fact good and wonderful, namely your sexuality. It can also harm relationships. It can do serious harm to marriage relationships. It is true that problems with pornography can be a symptom of other difficulties a person or a relationship may have. But pornography is also a cause of difficulties. Did you see the account in the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year of a study that apparently demonstrated that pornography was bad for marriage relationships? The journalists seemed perplexed at such a finding. Most Christians, I think, were perplexed that the journalists were perplexed! Pornography does hurt people.

Second, pornography is powerful. It can capture, and it can create a serious addiction. A seemingly almost innocent curiosity can become a distressing obsession. Then beyond its attractive and addictive power is the power of shame that it causes. Again this is particularly so in a Christian person. The sense of shame is typically very strong and causes further problems. The shame is itself a big part of the power of pornography. A normally honest person finds that he or she lies. The tangle that life can become can be very distressing, and it can be difficult to unravel. You find it hard to know where to start. Pornography is powerful.

Third, the shame means that a person who has been or is suffering from pornography can find it difficult to seek help, indeed difficult to do anything that might suggest to anyone that he or she has a problem in this area.. "Suffering from pornography" is a strange way to put it, but important as I will explain in my fourth point. It can be a desperately lonely problem to have, although many will testify that the act of seeking help was the most liberating thing they have ever done.

My fourth point is very important, and in my opinion needs to be clearly said and heard. Without taking away the real responsibility we all have for our own actions, I do want to say that the "bad guys' in this whole matter are the purveyors of this material. In a very real and important sense those who get caught by it are victims of exploitation. Let me emphasise: we really are responsible for our own actions, and should accept responsibility, but the purveyors of pornographic material are just like drug pushers, and are doing something just as wicked. They have a product that hurts people, and they try to get people hurt by it, preferably addicted to being hurt by it, for their own perverse gain.

Why has the College embarked on this initiative?

Because we as a community at Moore College want to care for each other, to help, and protect one another from the "bad guys'. It is important to understand that this problem needs a better pastoral response than telling anyone who has in one way or another been caught by this stuff that they shouldn't be. They know that! This initiative is intended to help, not condemn.

We need to frankly acknowledge that pornography (and in particular internet pornography) is powerful and harmful. I do not want to exaggerate its power, nor sensationalise the harm it can do. However pornography exploits and misuses powerful, natural, God-given instincts and certainly can do immense harm to individuals, their relationships (including marriages) and ministries. Stories could be told here with shock value, but I will refrain from that. Of course actual experiences are complex, and pornography can be just one factor among several. It is foolish, however, to pretend that pornography itself is not seriously destructive.

There is a responsibility on a Christian community to do all that is reasonable to create a safe environment for all who live and work among us. Internet pornography is a serious problem in our environment that I believe we can do something positive about. In this world you can never create an entirely safe situation, but we can take steps to limit the power of potential dangers to people, and therefore potentially protect people from harm.

My hope is that over the coming months and years, through this initiative,  we will do something positive in our Christian community to diminish the power of internet pornography and thus reduce its potential to harm people, marriages and ministries. We are inviting our community to join in creating a "culture' in which this force is largely neutralised.

What will the College be doing?

I am asking all students and faculty to register and install a software program on their computers called the Covenant Eyes. This software logs all internet sites visited by the computer and reports to a person nominated by the user.

The internet has given the pornography pushers much more power because of the secrecy that it offers. By taking away the secrecy of internet use we will take away much of the power of the purveyors of pornography.

Involvement in the program is voluntary, and no one will be checking who has and who has not joined up. However I am encouraging all to be involved to help us create a culture where this is "what we do around here'.

For a person who has struggled or is struggling with internet pornography, I doubt that they will need persuading that this is a good thing for us to be doing. It may be wise for them to seek more help than this, but this may well play a large part in putting this struggle behind them.

For a person who has never struggled in this area, may I suggest that there are two good reasons to be involved. First, it would be naïve to assume that temptation will never touch someone, even while at Moore College. Second, out of love for others they can play a part in making this "what we do around here', so that it is that much easier for a struggling brother or sister to receive help.

When will this be implemented?

It is already under way.

Do you plan for this to move beyond the College?

At this stage this is an initiative within the College community. However I am hopeful that our graduates will continue to use a program like Covenant Eyes after leaving College and that churches and other groups might see the benefit of creating an environment where the power of internet pornography is curbed by a culture of appropriate accountability.