If you think I want to talk about pornography, you’re crazy. God put this (the dangers of pornography) on my heart since the beginning of starting beLydia and yes, we bring it up when we host Awareness Gatherings but I really hate talking about it.
I never spend a lot of time on it because it’s something that makes everyone uncomfortable.
Lately though, I have felt God press into my heart about being bolder. So here goes (warning, this isn’t a light topic)…
What you need to be aware of is that pornography is a gateway to sex trafficking and pedophilia and Christians are huge part of the problem.
Pornography is connected to sex trafficking and pedophilia in two obvious ways:
1. According to Thorn, nearly half of sex trafficking victims report that pornography was made of them while in bondage.
So just for clarity, that means that the “actors” and “actresses” are sex slaves that are being raped. They don’t want to be there. They aren’t “enjoying” it, they are forced to be there. If they are under the age of 18, there are not old enough to give consent.
If you’re viewing that pornography, you are feeding the demand.
2. Pornography is like a drug where you need more and more of it to get the same level of enjoyment. Pornography fuels the sex trafficking industry by increasing the sexual appetite of the viewer. What you see, starting with “soft porn” eventually needs to be more “hardcore” and that becomes normal to you.
Children are being abused in the most horrific, unimaginable, evil ways because of the demand issue. Babies, toddlers, children and teenagers are literal sex slaves.
Why?
Because so many people are addicted to pornography and there is money to be made.
From Covenant Eyes:
“Pornography gives the brain an unnatural high. In a recent TEDx talk, physiology teacher Gary Wilson explained that when men look at porn, they experience surge after surge of dopamine in the brain. The brain eventually fatigues, stopping the production of dopamine, leaving the viewer wanting more but unable to reach a level of satisfaction. As a result, everyday pleasures stop causing excitement and the viewer seeks out more novel, more intense pornography to get the same high as before.”
Wake Up People, 50 Shades of Grey is Pornography
Because everyone was talking about 50 Shades of Grey, I ordered it and didn’t get past a few pages because I knew it was pornography. I deleted it off my Kindle and thought surely people were joking that they liked it.
Soon after I attended a bible study and before class started, the topic of 50 Shades of Grey came up. A majority of the women had read it (and finished it–not just peeked at it) and I almost fell off my chair. Hello? That book (and now movie) is pornography.
The popularity of that series not just amongst secular women but also Jesus followers is enough to tell you we are completely unaware of what pornography is and how it’s changing our culture.
Parents be aware. Our children most likely will never marry someone that hasn’t been exposed to pornography. Jesus help! But if WE the parents don’t know what it is, how can we guard our children against it?
Bottom Line: If you’re consuming pornography, you are apart of the sex trafficking problem and I urge you to get help now.
Online Resources to Check Out
We have found that the best resources for this topic are: Thorn, Fight the New Drug, Beggar’s Daughter and Enough is Enough.
Thorn works to fight child sexual abuse on the tech end, working in partnership with law enforcement and technology companies.
Fight the New Drug provides a vast amount of scientific research on the dangers of pornography and how it actually changes the brain.
Beggar’s Daughter, written for the Christian women by a former porn addict, shares that we need to change the culture in order to fix the problem.
Enough is Enough has a tremendous amount of research on the dangers of pornography. They also share tips on staying safe online.
One example (and we know it’s gotten worse since 2013) of the connection between pornography and child sex trafficking from their website:
“Researchers at the University of Massachusetts at Boston performed a Google trend analysis showing searches for “teen porn” more than tripled between 2005-2013, and teen porn searches reached an estimated 500,000 daily in March 2013 or over one-third of total daily porn searches. You read that right, 500,000 searches daily for teen pornography. Americans are becoming more and more attracted to pornography depicting sex with underage persons and this growing exposure to increasingly deviant porn is driving more criminals toward victimizing more teenagers.”
Additional Resources
3 Reasons You Must Not See ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’
9 Things You Should Know About Pornography and the Brain
New UK study finds porn affects brain like drugs, alcohol
National Center on Sexual Exploitation
