“We've had a lot of people call and ask what it was but honestly it was overwhelmingly positive. The only negative thing was just ‘What is this?’” First Assembly's Assistant Senior Pastor Brad Liebe said.
The church’s senior pastor Dan Betzer was not aware of the billboard until one of the younger parishioners pointed it out by inquiring about the Porn and Pancakes event.
“One of the young guys on staff said, ‘Pastor, have you ever heard of porn and pancakes?’ I said ‘What?’” Betzer said.
But after realizing that the breakfast was being staged as an outreach to men in the local community to spread awareness of “porn addiction,” its possible dangers, as well as alternatives and resources available through the ministry, Betzer endorsed the ministry’s methods.
“The church can't just sit back and say well, let's pray about it. There are times when prayers are not enough and you need to be proactive,” said Betzer.
The ministry’s website posted the following statement and statistics on its Porn and Pancakes page:
“[Pornography] is impacting our planet more than we realize. Reports state that pornography is a 57 billion dollar industry worldwide. There is a new Internet porn site that recently boasted in USA Today that they have 15–20 million visitors per day. Can you even fathom that? To put it into perspective – the highest number of hits to our website was 36,912 hits. That was for an entire month.
“Another study, printed in the Fort Myers News Press, found that 42 percent of all 10-to-17-year-old Internet users had seen internet pornography (whether intentionally or accidentally) in the last 12 months.
“Ladies, don’t think this is simply a male issue … an Internet Filter Review posted that one-third of all visitors to a porn website are female.”
Special guest speaker Pastor Brian Gross of XXXChurch.com will attend the Sept. 15 breakfast. XXX Church is a Michigan-based online ministry that advocates an antiporn philosophy. Gross recently finished a bus tour with iconic adult performer Ron Jeremy. The two appeared in several debates held at colleges and universities across the Northeast.
