The numbers don’t leave much room for debate: Pornography is one of the most dominant forces on the internet today. Every second, 28,258 people are viewing pornography online. Recent analyses indicate that top pornographic websites like XVideos receive significantly more traffic than major platforms such as Amazon, TikTok and Netflix, highlighting the extensive reach and engagement of adult content online. Despite its prevalence, many churches still struggle to address the topic openly.
Porn use isn’t just high — it’s normalized. Especially among young adults. One Barna study found that more than 70% of Christian men under 40 have viewed porn in the last year. Among all practicing Christians, 54% admit to using porn, and 1 in 4 say they view it weekly. For comparison, weekly church attendance among U.S. adults has dropped below 25%.
Church leaders aren’t exempt. A 2024 study from the Legacy Coalition found that 67% of pastors report a past struggle with porn, and 18% are currently battling it. Yet only 35% feel “very qualified” to address it from the pulpit.
Despite the reach and relevance of the issue, many churches are still using outdated frameworks to approach it — if they address it at all. The traditional script usually blames lust, then quickly pivots to shame, then maybe accountability software. But Jay Stringer, a licensed therapist and ordained minister who specializes in sexual brokenness, says that script is incomplete and potentially harmful.
“To be sure, lust is one of the most important contributing factors to sexual brokenness,” Stringer writes. “But in our excessive focus on lust, we have lost sight of the other interrelated factor that drives sexual sin more than all the rest: anger.”
According to Stringer, the problem isn’t just lust. It’s what’s lurking underneath it.
“Lust and anger are the primary tributaries to the river of unwanted sexual behavior, be that the use of pornography, an affair, or buying sex.”
If churches don’t address both, he warns, they’re setting people up for relapse — or resignation.
It’s not just a theological oversight. It’s a pastoral one.
“Too often, faith leaders have been loquacious in discussing purity, lust, and even sexual addiction,” Stringer writes, “but largely silent on the issue of anger and power as it relates to male violence against women.”
And it’s not just a matter of getting the language right. It’s about helping people actually heal.
“If faith leaders want to see sexual brokenness transformed, it’s time to say, ‘Time’s up on our love affair with lust,’” he writes. “We need to be honest about how we have painfully oversimplified, even perpetuated, horrific sexual sin by failing to name anger alongside lust as the partners in crime they are.”
That’s not a call for the church to become sex therapists. But it is a call to become more theologically, psychologically and culturally literate about an issue that affects millions in the pews — and not a small number in the pulpits.
Some ministries are trying to shift the narrative. Organizations like XXXchurch, Covenant Eyes and Naked Truth Recovery have developed resources for churches that want to engage the topic with more nuance. But the average Sunday morning still carries more silence than strategy.
The reality is this: Porn isn’t going anywhere. It’s a multibillion-dollar industry with a faster distribution model than the church has sermons. If the church wants to be a meaningful voice in this conversation, it has to go deeper — not just into purity, but into pain. Not just into boundaries, but into the reasons people cross them.
That starts with honesty. And it continues with formation — a discipleship that treats sexuality not as something to fear or manage, but as something that can be redeemed, healed and understood in light of the Gospel.
Because while the church has been slow to speak, the algorithm has been loud. And if the church can’t offer something deeper than shame and filters, people will keep going elsewhere to make sense of their struggles.
The question isn’t whether porn is a problem. The numbers are clear. The question is whether the church will finally show up to the conversation equipped to do more than whisper.
