“I’m fairly sure that if you took porn off the internet,
there’d only be one website left and it’d be called, ‘Bring Back the Porn.’”
— Dr. Perry Cox, Scrubs

So it’s time for a little honesty, even if it’s a little painful.

This may come as a shock to some of you, particularly of the female variety, but when men are left alone with the computer long enough, we will eventually go look at things we shouldn’t look at.  It doesn’t require any level of unhealthy obsession, nor do I refer to those accidental exposures resulting from sites that masquerade as sites offering something else, but hope to lull someone in unexpectedly.

Sooner or later, we just go there.  I would think that there are some women who do the same thing.  Perhaps not as many as I might imagine, perhaps not.

What I do know is that I am trying to avoid the temptation.  And thanks to two amazing friends of mine, one here in Charleston and one now in California, I’m getting a little assistance in this endeavor.  I now have a program on my computer that bills itself as “accountability software.”  It quietly keeps a record of websites I visit, and if it suspects mischief on my part, it sends my friends an email with the link to the site in question.

I know for a fact that it works, because the first “accountability report” has already reached my friend Archie.  I am happy to report that the sole link listed on the email he received contained a link to a blog entry in which the writer listed some of the humorous search terms his blog visitors had used; some of the words, though certainly not X-rated (or even R-rated, for that matter), included words like sex and the names of certain undergarments.  There were no pictures, nothing untoward.

It’s the kind of thing none of us should need, of course, but in those times when weakness might otherwise take advantage of one’s will, there’s something to be said for shame as a deterrent.  Though my two friends are quite strong in God, I know that they are equally apt to struggle with such a problem from time to time:  No Christian is perfect, though some of us tend to lose sight of this critical little fact from time to time.

I’m grateful to them for being willing to keep me accountable.  And I feel better going into 2009 knowing that I’ve got two such loyal friends to keep an eye on me when I need them most.  It’s a nice way to start a new year.