As far as most young people are concerned, ignoring garbage is worse than watching it! That’s just one of the shockers in a blockbuster pornography study the Barna Group plans to release this spring. When asked, most teenagers (56 percent) say “not recycling your trash” is “usually or always wrong,” compared to the 32 percent who think watching porn is wrong. Unfortunately, the news gets much worse for parents of the next generation. While teen sex may be down, watching it is not. Most high schoolers and young adults are turning to pornography “because it is less risky than actually having sex.”
But that’s not necessarily true, studies say. There are plenty of dangerous side effects to pornography that can destroy lives just as easily as promiscuity. Pornography creates problems in marriages, children, and even society. Men who look at pornography are more likely to feel dissatisfied in their marriage -- making it a prime pathway to infidelity and divorce. At its core, pornography is a love-killer. In one analysis, the more porn a man was exposed to, the more likely he was to prefer that women be submissive and subordinate to men. And as MARRI’s research bears out, men with this addiction also have a higher tolerance for things like rape, sexual aggression, and promiscuity. Child sex offenders, for instance, are more likely to view pornography, which helps fuel the demand for sex trafficking.
And if you think adult entertainment spares you from disease, think again. Pornography leads to sexual permissiveness, which is the gateway to STDs. It’s physically devastating, too -- even fundamentally altering the brain! And yet, women are more into pornography than ever -- a sad irony for an industry built on their exploitation. In a world where these images are a cell phone away, parents need to be especially vigilant. “Sexting” is rampant, Barna Group found. A whopping two-thirds of teens told the researchers that they’ve gotten a nude photo on their phone (41 percent have sent one).
As discouraging as Barna Group’s findings are, they may be exactly what pastors and parents need to hear. It’s time for America to wake up to the fact that too few Christians are talking about the problem of pornography. And until they do, there’s no one to blame for the country’s cultural condition but us.
