Pornography Addiction

Pornography is one of those things that most of us will agree on what it is when we see it. Whether it is pictures on your phone, videos on your tablet, or magazines, pornography is designed to titillate and stir sexual desires through nudity or the portrayal of people having sex. And pornography is everywhere. The ubiquity of porn comes through its ease of accessibility, affordability, and anonymity. You can find porn on the internet at the click of a button on a mobile device in your pocket, and you can do so without people knowing you’re accessing it, all for free. This makes getting porn and pornographic material the easiest it’s been in human history. Not only is easy access available, but there is just so much of it out there for consumption, and people are actively looking for it. According to some statistics for the United States, thirty-seven porn videos are created every day, 2.5 billion emails containing porn are sent or received daily, a quarter of all search queries generated are related to porn, and over 100,000 queries related to child pornography are received. While it might be tempting to think that porn usage and addiction is an isolated occurrence, it affects 5-8% of the adult population. About 200,000 Americans are classified as porn addicts. Viewing porn isn’t by any means an exclusively male preserve - about a third of porn viewers are women. The Church isn’t exempt from these realities, either. According to some statistics, 1 in 5 youth pastors and 1 in 7 senior pastors regularly use pornography – that’s around 50,000 church leaders. Over half of Christian men and around 15% of Christian women say they watch porn at least once a month. Clearly, as human beings, we have collectively taken the remarkable [...]