Motorcycle Riders to Bring Message about Porn

A group of motorcycle riders will leave Gateway Community Christian Reformed Church in Abbotsford, British Columbia on Sunday, June 29 to start a 4,600-mile journey highlighting the dangers of pornography.

Taking part in what is being called the Shore 2 Shore With a Roar motorcycle tour, they will cross the U.S./Canadian border, ride through several U.S. states and part of Ontario before ending their trip on July 26 in New Jersey.

Their goal is to help raise awareness of the devastating impact pornography can have on the lives of people, says Jim Terpstra, one of the organizers.

Five major rallies, featuring well-known speakers on the topic of the negative influences of pornography, are planned at Christian Reformed churches en route.

At the rallies and in many other stops along the way, Terpstra said, they will be posing the question: “How can we as a denomination combat such a huge monster in our world? I believe we need to start by admitting that this evil has crept into our churches and homes.”

Estimates vary, but a 2006 study pegged porography at being a nearly $100 billion worldwide industry.

Numbers of users are hard to come by since users, both inside and outside of the church, are reluctant to talk about it openly.

And that is one of the reasons for the motorcycle ride.

“Some of the focus will be to challenge the leadership of our churches to address the issue of pornography with positive steps and to talk about it,” said Terpstra.

One of these steps, he says, is for churches to get involved with and to promote Covenant Eyes, a website that offers, among other things, an Internet filtering and accountability service.

“The church has been silent about the distortion of God’s gift of sex for too long. It is time to speak against pornography,” he says.

Although the CRC has had a position statement on pornography, Terpstra’s church, Charlottetown CRC, on Prince Edward Island, wanted to see the denomination do more to educate church members about the dangers of pornography and to help people stop using or accessing it.

With this in mind, Charlottetown CRC drew up an overture that Classis Eastern Canada brought before Synod 2012, asking the denomination to plan ways to address the problem of pornography.

In order to show support for the overture, Terpstra and three others drove their motorcycles to Redeemer College in Hamilton, Ontario, where synod was meeting in June 2012.

“We wanted to be available to anyone who had questions about our church’s request to synod, and we wanted to advertise our bike trip,” said Terpstra in an Interview with The Banner.

After discussing the overture, Synod 2012 urged “each congregation to carefully and actively address the damage being done through the use of pornography and to promote a biblically healthy view of human sexuality.”

It also said use of the Internet has made access to pornographic materials much easier.

Synod then urged the CRC's Board of Trustees to develop and implement a plan to assist churches in confronting pornography use within their congregations, in understanding the factors that lead to its use and the damage it causes, and in supporting healing for those who are affected by its use.

 The CRC's Safe Church Ministry is supporting the Shore 2 Shore motorcycle ride. On its website, it says: “Internet pornography doesn't belong in Christian community. It does not honor God, or others, but debases, rather than celebrates his gift of sexuality. Let's talk about it.”