The more I roamed the internet and hit flesh pots I was disturbed by the pictures, the content and the fact that innocent souls were being suckered by what was a powerful underground pornography industry. I knew that mounting a campaign against porn had been met with limited success. Creatively thinking, I thought appealing to the owners of porn web sites to desist from carrying porn content would somehow be effective. Far from the truth! I remember asking a young businessman with a popular Jamaican web site to stop carrying porn hyperlinks. He told me he did not feel that he was a part of perverting young impressionable minds with a maize of a licentious flesh pots. He stated that porn web sites were already available online and individuals were going to hit the link or advertisment at some point anyway. The porn links were the most visited by users to his web site and he said there was no way he was going to remove them.
E-mail to call others to repentance
I quickly realised that the only offense a Christian in the army of God had of winning an assault against this dark and faceless enemy of internet porn promoters was to try personally to reach individuals. Individuals who were struggling with the associated evils being packaged and presented on the internet. Whether by launching my own web site or becoming mobile and stopping by each address on the shrouded virtual streets, I had to try and encourage others to resist evil and seek Jesus in overcoming an age of evil. Christians have an opportunity daily to personally fight against the evils of the internet while using the information channel for the purpose of good and that was what I was about.
Anonymity was driving the idealism behind the flood of folks who jam packed the hollow chat rooms hoping to make personal connections. With time on my hands and the tool of the internet being available all over campus and at home, I worked on developing a strategy in delivering my message from God to the lost. Since the internet was destroying lives, I wanted, with the help of God, use Information Technology to transform lives for Christ Jesus. Whether in Chat rooms, e-mails or message boards, my purpose was to try and meet people on the real. I tried to meet the soul at heart, hoping to appeal to individuals to discard their sinful lifestyles. The sooner I tried Christian witness to individuals online the sooner the respondents would question my sincerity and my motives. Many told me I had no right wanting to be a friend of theirs, others offered me negative reinforcement, they had a hard time trusting me.
Via e-mails for weeks, months, days I would write notes between brothers and sisters. Some older than I, some younger. I recognised that most of my correspondents were not very adept at conversing over long periods and the conversation subject would usually became sexual. It seems most people were using the most efficient communication tools to make a sexual hook up of some sort. This was like a whole new hunting ground for social interaction.
Internet obsession for a righteous cause
With my allegiance being to Christ Jesus I remained sober. I soon realised that most folks interacting online were also having a hard time coming to grips with the pitfalls of the internet as too much freedom and multiple trap doors promoting lewd and lustful sexual culture. The internet easily is an obsession, one can easily become addicted, hooked may you will. From early on many of the sexually explicit web sites I visited were clicked upon randomly. I guess that’s why use of the internet is a hobby, and candidly we refer to it as surfing the net rather than logging onto the world wide web.
Cyber space appears to be the place to explore the wild side of life. Voyeurs, Down Low Freaks, Prostitutes, Sadists, Porn addicts, all being offered a window of anonymity to revel. I find that it is easy to feel displaced on the internet. Then we all have to gain greater control over how we choose to use these tools of communication in our everyday life. I prayed to God about offering myself more as a brother in the faith who was willing to stand as friend and role model to any vulnerable individual on the internet who wanted to seek a change to do right in their life. Like most Christians I knew there were other lost souls out there across the world who could be reached for the purpose of overcoming this evil age and I wanted to be a disciple of Christ, I want to serve Jesus’s purpose. I needed to find a way to represent Jesus and let others know that even while sinfulness persists on the internet not all of us are sold out ,but, you and I can change our lives through repentance.
Non believers scoff at my message
The moment I started to promote a pure and more Holy Spirit inspired message, hate mail began. Some folks stopped replying, some ridiculed me and others tried to tempt me, while others threatened to kill me if we ever we met up. I was not dismayed; I zoomed in and increased my outbound mail. The mail out became an electronic Christian ministry of sort, so was the message of repentance which I carried to chat rooms. Matthew 10:19 do not worry about what you are to say, when the time comes the words you need will be given you, for it is not you who will be speaking, it will be the Spirit of your Father in you.
At this point in my life I am young enough to recognise that I have the ability to be a positive role model to someone else. At 25, the prime of my life, I have never been involved in a sexual relationship as I am content in keeping my body chaste. I have always soberly maintained a desire to have sexual intercourse only when I get married to the woman whom God blesses me with. I knew from the responses I received that many of the young people I communicated with were struggling with issues of manhood and womanhood and the responsibility which God places on us. I have been going through with this as well. My message to them was one discouraging homosexuality and where the person was already involved in that lifestyle I tried to encourage them to repent of their sins.
