Covenant Eyes CEO warns of porn epidemic, urges churches to stem 'civilizational crisis'

Nearly all pastors discern porn addiction as growing problem within past 20 years: Barna

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, January 17, 2024

The CEO of Covenant Eyes, a subscription-based porn accountability software, warned that pornography is demonic and urged churches to do more to address the scourge that he said has become a "civilizational crisis."

Ronald DeHaas, who founded Covenant Eyes in 2000 when he had two teenage sons and saw the gathering storm during the early days of the internet, told The Christian Post that churches "need to be talking about" the epidemic of porn addiction among young Christians especially.

His comments come as Covenant Eyes is rolling out a new ad campaign featuring its cartoon mascot "Colossal Man," a superhero who requires the aid of an accountability partner to overcome his pornography addiction despite his superhuman powers.

DeHaas pointed to statistics that indicate pornography is a problem even among those who might not typically be expected to struggle with it.

Covenant Eyes claims to have helped more than 1.5 million users in their quests for "victory over porn" by implementing software on computers and mobile devices that renders it nearly impossible for users to exploit loopholes to watch pornography undetected.

'A civilizational crisis'

DeHaas, who also serves as clerk and an elder at Community Church (EPC) in Owosso, Michigan, pointed to "The Porn Phenomenon," a 2016 Barna study that found while porn addiction is rampant among church-going Christians, "most churches do not have programs specifically designed to assist those struggling with porn use."

The landmark study conducted in partnership with the Josh McDowell Ministry found that 93% of pastors and 94% of youth pastors discern that porn is a bigger problem in churches than it was 20 years ago, and that 57% of pastors and 64% of youth pastors have personally struggled with it, either currently or in the past.

Of the pastors who were still using porn, 87% said they felt great shame about it, and 55% said they live in constant fear of being discovered.

Seventy percent of the youth pastors who participated in the study claimed to have had at least one teenager come to them for help with porn addiction in the past year. The majority who sought help were high school or middle school boys, though many said the problem is also emerging among girls.

"They need to be talking about it, they need to recognize that most of the 12-year-old kids in their church have already viewed pornography," DeHaas said of church leaders. "Some of the 12-year-old kids are probably addicted to pornography."

He pointed to "The Healing Church: What Churches Get Wrong About Pornography and How to Fix It" by Sam Black, director of recovery education at Covenant Eyes, as a useful blueprint.

DeHaas noted that among the approximately 850 applicants for last year's Covenant Eyes' scholarship, which potentially offers $5,000 to full-time college students who use the software, the vast majority revealed in the first sentence of their essay that they were either addicted or profoundly struggling with pornography by the age of 12.

"Some of them were as young as 6 years old," he said.

"We're talking about, by and large, Christian families and 12-year-old kids in Christian families who are struggling with pornography," DeHaas said. "And so, this has become their sex training, their sex education. And the boys, of course, are learning, 'This is how I'm supposed to treat girls,' and the girls are learning, 'This is how I'm supposed to be treated.' And so, it's not good. It really isn't."

DeHaas perceives widespread porn addiction as "a civilizational crisis," citing studies that show porn-induced erectile dysfunction and other sexual problems have skyrocketed among young men to an unprecedented degree.

He noted a Time Magazine article from March 2016 titled "Porn and the Threat to Virility," which detailed how increasing numbers of young men whose brains have been marinating in pornography from an early age often find themselves incapable of maintaining a relationship with a real woman.

"If men can't have kids, it's a civilizational problem," he said.

'Demonic attacks'

DeHaas also said "there is no doubt in my mind" that there is a demonic element to the pornography addiction that his company aims to remedy, and he believes that spiritual attacks have afflicted them amid their efforts.

"Someday I should write down all the times that we have had attacks here at Covenant Eyes," said DeHaas. "They've been demonic attacks, they really have."

DeHaas said the spiritual battles against his company have manifested in "disruption" of the relationships among company executives, most of which he said have healed, though he also claimed they have experienced technological attacks.

"I don't know whether Satan has control over servers," he said. "I have trouble thinking that he does, but sometimes I think, 'Boy, there are just issues.'"

"There have been times that we've had severe hacking attempts, and really bad things that people have tried to do, but none of them have been successful," he added. "We've shut them off at the door, and God has really protected us."

'There is hope'

Covenant Eyes drew national headlines last November when a 2022 clip of House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., emerged that showed him explaining to members of his Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, Louisiana, how he and his teenage son were using it keep each other accountable.

The resurfaced video drew scorn from many corporate media outlets, some of which accused Johnson of being "creepy" and having "unusual porn habits."

"He was being a good parent is what he was doing," DeHaas said of Johnson. "And, of course, people twist it, and that's just typical. But it doesn't bother me, because it's expected."

"The people who want to promote pornography — and who want to promote sex trafficking, even — of course they're going to make fun of it, they're going to twist it," said DeHaas, who added that in the wake of the mainstream media blitz against Johnson, Covenant Eyes experienced "record sales."

"So a lot of people said, 'Oh, there is help,'" DeHaas noted. "There really is."

DeHaas said the importance of accountability in the battle against porn addiction is crucial. He urged those who are struggling with despair regarding their habit to be transparent with another person, which is a key aspect of the Covenant Eyes app.

He said how many of the scholarship applicants he mentioned who claimed to have fallen into porn at an early age consistently cited being transparent about their problem with a parent as a major success.

"When you're transparent about it, you realize everybody around you is struggling," he said. "You're not alone, and there is an answer. And that ultimate answer is Jesus Christ."

"But if you go into the recovery process with an ally, and you focus on Christ, that really is the hope. There is hope, and there is success," he added. "Faith and transparency are the key."