Oct 30 2006
Churchâs Old Web Site Has Porn Link
The Hope Community Church in Dover, N.H., is spreading the word it has a new Internet address - one not linked to pornography.
Pastor Steve Spearing said Friday that a pornography company bought the churchâs old domain name without the churchâs knowledge.
He said the sale happened a few weeks ago when the church changed Internet service providers and changed its Web address. He said he didnât realize the site had been sold until he got a call from a Massachusetts woman who was interested in moving to the area and was doing research on the Internet about local churches. Read about it here.
This is so outrageous! It is bad enough that porn ruins the lives of 1000’s of people each day but to stoop to this low is horrible.
What do you think?
7 responses so far
It should not be a surprise that they target churches to embarras them. That is what they do.
Maybe we should turn the tables…begin to buy old porn domain names and put a gospel message on them. Then when they go to their favorite old web site…
Maybe the message could include where to get help for their porn addiction or the damage it causes…or a statement about “what would your wife think” or “what if this was your daughter.” It may not be popular, but it might “cool” the mood!
Keith
That’s sort of what the xxxchurch.com people are doing.
I see that Pastor Spearing quotes the internet provider as saying that “They will target ministries as an embarrassment”.
I wonder if it is far more of a business decision to get people who would be tempted to purchase some material they innocently ran accross. Clearly some of the highest purchases of porn materials are in hotel chains in some of the more conservative states.
I would suggest the motivation of the porn company is more money than embarassment.
MIT is right on!
Producers of porn have the easiest job in the world–put their material out there, and people will pick it up. Manufacturers of other addictive material do not have billions of years of evolutionary science on their side. It is not natural for a person to crave the taste of alcohol–one must develop a taste for it before they become addicted. Cigarettes are the same way–most people, when trying their first puff, get sick as a dog, but they keep coming back. Porn plays on that which is natural and normal–the drive to procreate. It is much harder for a person to resist.
If a person were driving to church this Sunday, and found that the building had moved, and a cigarette shop or liquor store had taken its place, there would be no real problem with most folks wanting to go inside and partake. But a person going to the church’s website, that is a different matter altogether. Secretive fulfillment of a desire that comes natural to a person–that’s how they make money. And that is the only reason they are doing this. Not to shame a church, but to create new buyers. And create new buyers is exactly what they will do. Very sad.
What was it that Jesus said about causing an innocent person to stumble? That it would be better for them to have a millstone around their neck and be thrown into the sea than to face judgement? I sure wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of someone who would do this.
I agree with Lees1975! that is a place i would not want to be.
this is why we got both “org” and “com” domains for our church. we didn’t want someone accidentally going to the wrong site. my old blog (on blogspot) was mirrored by an apocalyptic christian pro-israel-nation site. it was bizarre. i think you can still see it at: http://adamfeldman.blogpsot.com/ (ingenious… the swapped the “p” and “s” to make “blogpsot”).