The question …

I recently received an email note from a friend. She wrote:

"I am curious if anyone knows of some Christian articles dealing with internet flirting or cyber sex … I just can't seem to find anything that I can relate to or identify with, and I know that there must be some other folks who have encountered the same thing."

Not just a guy thing …

Indeed, there are a number of articles online dealing with this issue. Reviewing them reveals something interesting, if not downright scary. Pornography usage and cybersex traditionally have been viewed as a "male problem," because men are thought to be more easily excited by what they see. But now women are at risk too.

It's official: I'm presenting at the 2008 Internet Ministry Conference hosted by GospelCom.

Gospel Communications has teamed up with the Internet Evangelism Coalition and now the two conferences, GospelCon and the Internet Evangelism Conference, have been merged. The conference serves two dual purposes: one is to train GospelCom's ministry partners how to use technology to do their ministry, whether it's finding a useable open source CMS, using design to communicate effectively, or writing better post titles. The second purpose is to train believers to do evangelism and ministry more effectively whether it's learning how to write your personal testimony more effectively, how to share your faith online, or how to use social networking tools wisely.

I'm delighted to be invited to present this year. I'd

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

Okay, this is just irresponsible.

ChristiaNet, billing itself as "the world's most visited Christian website" recently offered a web-based survey asking visitors to answer "eleven questions about their personal sexual conduct." A press release from ChistiaNet trumpeted the results.

After receiving 1,000 results, ChristaNet asked Second Glance Ministries to help evaluate the responses:

"The poll results indicate that 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography."

Further:

• 60% of the women have significant struggles with lust
  
• 40% of the women committed sexual sin in the past year
  
• 20% of church-going women struggle with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis

This is nuts. These survey results are not scientific data. I don't believe for a second that one of every two Christian men are addicted to porn, and I certainly don't buy the assertion that one of every

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

• State of the Blogosphere, 08/08/2006 (Technorati)
  - Technorati tracking 50 Million+ blogs
  - Blogosphere over 100x bigger than 3 years ago.
  - Blogosphere doubling in size every 200 days
  - 2+ blogs created every second, 18.6 posts per second (2x last year's volume)
  - ~70% of the

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

• How do we deal with pastors using pornography? (Andy Rowell)
  Useful article with great links. For more than just pastors. Excerpt: The Assemblies of God "has identified five stages of porn use, each with its own required restoration process. * curiosity: requires three months professional counseling. *

My employer, Christianity Today, posted an interesting and important editorial:  “Deadening the Heart: Killer video games are no 'safety valve'—quite the opposite.” Here’s an excerpt:

Good teachers know three things that contribute to effective learning: active participation, rehearsing behavioral sequences rather than discrete acts, and repetition, repetition, repetition. Video games employ all three. In addition, the vast majority of the gaming scenarios (like the random killing of prostitutes) fail to show the real-life consequences of violence. Perpetrators go unpunished. In short, violent games can deaden us to the horror of violence and stimulate our native sinfulness. It shouldn't surprise us that all media shape us, which is one reason Paul exhorts us to think on things that are true, honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, and excellent (Phil. 4).

Some say these are just games, and that we shouldn't take them