The Temptations of Facebook

Does Facebook tempt couples into committing adultery? One pastor seems to think so :

Facebook and adultery seem to go hand in hand, according to the Rev. Cedric Miller of Neptune, N.J.

So, on Sunday, Miller is going to ask his congregation at Living Word Christian Fellowship to delete their Facebook accounts, the Associated Press reported.

Miller told the AP that, over the last six months, 20 couples at his church have run into marital problems after a spouse reconnected with a former love interest on Facebook.

Because of the troubles, the pastor is forcing about 50 married church leaders to delete their Facebook accounts. If they won’t give up Facebook, they’ll have to resign from their leadership positions at Living Word, the AP reported.

In the past, Miller had asked married church members to share their log-in passwords with spouses, but that didn’t seem to be a good enough solution.

“I’ve been in extended counseling with couples with marital problems because of Facebook for the last year and a half,” MIller told the AP. “What happens is someone from yesterday surfaces, it leads to conversations, and there have been physical meet-ups. The temptation is just too great.”

As I said in my article, ” Virtue in Virtual Gomarrah “, because technology “has made it possible to turn every household into a virtual Gomorrah, it is natural to assume that the solution to the problem is also technological.”

But while such technologies can help us avoid the supply of temptation, they have no effect on our demand for it. A heart prone to lust does not require cable TV or a broadband connection to turn temptation into sin; the human imagination is quite adequate to manufacture the temptation.

Technological means may be enough to solve some purely technological problems. For responding effectively to sins and temptations, however, the only adequate technology is a sanctified nature. Nothing can filter out tempting images but our own revulsion to them and our love for something else, or for someone else—and ultimately for Someone else—we would not want to disappoint.

With all due respect to Rev. Miller, the problem may not be Facebook but a lack of sanctification within his own congregation. Mature Christians who are focused on loving Christ and their spouse won’t be tempted to commit adultery simply because an old flame is a click away.