Internet Porn Merchants Targeting Former Christian Domains
by Allie Martin
January 17, 2005
(AgapePress) - An Indiana man is warning Christians who have registered Internet web sites to be careful not to let their domain names lapse. Two years ago, Indianapolis resident Merlin Gonzales launched a web site for his ministry. However, the Christian worker was called into another ministry area and allowed his original web site registration to lapse.
Gonzales went on to become involved in an outreach and church-planting ministry with the Vineyard Community Church. Then, recently, he was surprised to hear from a friend that his former ministry's URL (the Uniform Resource Locator -- its unique Internet or World Wide Web address) is now home to a pornographic site. He has since come to realize that pornographers are purposely targeting religious or ministry-oriented sites for this purpose.
The chagrined Christian says the Internet pornographers lay traps for the "highly unlikely" browsers that might never go online looking for porn, but who might "stumble" onto a site with a religious name " and, finding a porn site there instead, "will get hooked." Thus, he says, the smut merchants are provided with "a new source of users ... new slaves, addicted to pornography."
Gonzales suspects Internet pornographers probably may try to grab up a Christian ministry's web address almost as soon as it became available. "Just be cautious about leaving your domain name unprotected," he warns, "because as the Bible says -- there are predators out there, looking to devour someone and to exploit anyone for their own sakes. They don't care."
The church planter and ministry worker encourages fellow Christians, ministries, and churches that have web sites to make sure they pay the nominal annual fee required to keep their domains from falling into the hands of porn peddlers. Christian site managers should stay aware of their domain registration expiration date and be sure to renew the registration on time, or even early.
