The Phil Files

Sorry if this is not what you were looking for today, just go down one in the article list for something with more meat in it. I’m helping speak in a MIS Business class at a local university about good and evil on the web. I wanted to have a place to send folks for some quick links to some resources that could be a blessing to them. Here are some quick takes that you might find helpful — I could make this post 10 pages long with resources, so this is just my list, but if you have more, pile them on to the list in the comments section!

Surprise, Porn isn’t number 1! Or is it?

When evaluating internet traffic, Porn is not the #1 place for traffic for adults 18-24; in fact, the decline in percentage of web traffic is significant. It is still a major focus area, but these results have caught “experts” by surprise. So what’s #1 and where does porn fit? (Depends on your sources where blogs fall, 3rd, 4th or 5th, but blogs are gaining in strength, “stickiness” — in other words, advertisers like them big time.) For more info, start your search with this article: Facebook More Popular than Porn and the counter-analysis that questions the results (which maintains that “porn, pills, and poker” are the three most seductive and profitable sites on the web).

1. Social Networking Sites — Facebook and the pack
2. Search Engines
3. Email
4. Blogs
5. Porn

Whatever the analysis, the bottom line is that God didn’t make us to be alone and we were built with an inborn craving for genuine, human, intimate, and loving community). This community was to give us help in our work, to keep us warm during the chill of physical and emotional life, and to help us when we crash in burn in the struggles of every day life. It is based on our recognition that others around us, and we ourselves, are someone precious, made with part of the divine built into us. The key here for all of us is to not settle for less than what God wired us to experience in authentic community.

Three resources to get you started on this discussion are the following:

1. Triple X Church and the resources they offer for free and also upgraded surf monitoring and site blocking. All of our church leadership, Elders and Ministers, are using site monitoring software with each other for accountability. We believe it is this important.
2. A frank discussion on one woman’s battle with pornography that opens up the door and let’s us see the other side of porn
3. A reminder about slavery involved in pornography/sextrading that literally enslaves millions of women and children worldwide and is involved in a significant amount of abductions world-wide. The movie Amazing Grace was launched with an information effort about the more than 27 million enslaved today, most women and children.

If you have other resources you have found helpful, please let us know!