The Evils of Pornography

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Reason & Logic > Religion
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20040212/D80LT4F00.html

DALLAS (AP) - Chocolates are always nice, and a diamond necklace would be delightful. But a Dallas-based ministry thinks it has a better idea for Valentine's Day.

"Her gift for Valentines? Stop looking at porn," proclaim billboards put up by NetAccountability, a nonprofit software company that aims to help Christians confront the "secret sin" of pornography.

If national surveys are any indication, it is a personal battle waged by millions of Christians.

Almost 18 percent of people who called themselves born-again Christians admitted visiting Internet porn sites, according to a 2000 survey of 1,031 adults by the evangelical group Focus on the Family. In a 2002 Pastors.com survey, more than 50 percent of responding pastors reported viewing pornography in the previous year.


"It's definitely the church's dirty little secret," said Mike Foster, co-founder of the anti-porn site XXXChurch.com, which hosts online support groups for Christians trying to kick the habit.

NetAccountability co-founders Brandon Cotter and Scott Covington, both in their early 30s, left jobs in the technology field to start the ministry 2 1/2 years ago.

Since then, NetAccountability has sold more than 5,000 copies of software the pair developed that lets a partner monitor the Web sites visited by the recovering porn user. The software sells for $49 a year.

The billboards have been going up in Dallas over the past few days.

"I've seen pornography impact guys all around me," Cotter said. "I've seen it tear up marriages, guys losing their jobs, all over the board. In a lot of cases, they were Christian guys going to church, with otherwise 'normal lives.'"

Bernie Anderson, a pastor at Seventh-Day Adventist churches in the Dallas area, said an addiction to sexually explicit images threatened his marriage and his ministry.

"It was like a double life," said Anderson, 33.

For 20 years, he found himself drawn to pornographic Web sites, movies and magazines, he said. He would get up at night, telling his wife he needed to study, and would surf the Internet for porn. Later, he would spend hours accessing porn sites from the computer in his church office.

"You go take a shower, clean up and say you'll never do it again. Yet the next day, you fall right back into it," he said.

Last summer, the guilt and shame finally became too much for him to bear, he said. The father of three confessed his compulsion to a pastor friend and enrolled in an exhaustive five-day workshop offered by a Christian counselor.

Anderson learned how his habit kept him from true intimacy in his relationship with his wife, he said. Recently, he celebrated "100 days sober" from porn, he said.

He said: "The most powerful thing about it is that it's a secret. Nobody knows but you, so you're just kind of fighting yourself."

This didn't surprise me one bit: I mean, there's only so much "OMG SEX IS TEH EVIL!" crap you can take before you need to release the pressure, excusing the awful pun :p
 

vedder

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Since then, NetAccountability has sold more than 5,000 copies of software the pair developed that lets a partner monitor the Web sites visited by the recovering porn user. The software sells for $49 a year.

Hey cool, I spotted another secret sin of Christians: Greed! Go me! :D
 

Hadmar

Queen Bitch of the Universe
Jan 29, 2001
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Almost 18 percent of people who called themselves born-again Christians admitted visiting Internet porn sites
Only 18%? Liars the rest of them! :D
Since then, NetAccountability has sold more than 5,000 copies of software the pair developed that lets a partner monitor the Web sites visited by the recovering porn user. The software sells for $49 a year.
People pay out of their free will so that others can go Big Brother on their surf habits? :con:
 

jaunty

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Apr 30, 2000
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Recently, he celebrated "100 days sober" from porn, he said.

Whilst on the flipside, I've still got a hangover from celebrating the successful completion of the Fap 500 not too long ago.

Different strokes for different folks I guess. Or no strokes, if that's how you want to take it.
 

TheShiningWizard

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Jun 26, 2000
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She was my favorite porn star when I was... about 13. I should look up some of her stuff again; I've not seen her tits in years.
 

yurch

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May 21, 2001
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Interesting how there's bush popups when going to those sites. (no, not that kind of bush)

I've heard some valid reasoning about possible negative effects of pornography(non-religion related), but of course, you won't actually see that at one of these sites.
 
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MadWoffen

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May 27, 2001
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yurch said:
I've heard some valid reasoning about possible negative effects of pornography(non-religion related), but of course, you won't actually see that at one of these sites.

Ever heard of balance ? Moderation ?

Viewed from Europe, the US looks like more and more like some kind hypocrit puritan talibania where priests molest children and the breast of a woman, something marvellous, is depicted as evil. FFS, some breast in your TV =! from porn! I'm not talking about hardcore here. There are naked women a bit everywhere here, so far, I never heard of someone going nut and serial raping as result. To the contrary, I think it made the people a bit more mature regarding certain questions. Now, it is true that some adverts exagerate and show women like an object...an open debate here.

When I see that sexual habits of a politician is a major factor in the USA, it is clear something is wrong.

BTW, one of our vice-minister is gay, the guy is sympathic and do his job fairly well despite I'm not for his party. I wonder how long he would have survived in the US before being killed by a nut puritan in the name of God against sodomites...

And when we think that the US is the first producer of porn industry...
 

yurch

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MadWoffen said:
Ever heard of balance ? Moderation ?
The discussion revolved more around those pshycholgically vulnerable or incapable of moderating themselves.
As for limiting or censoring pornography, it was deemed more harmful than any benifit that could be derived from it. (the legislature required that would form a stepping stone for more extreme, targeted censorship against certain groups)
 

NotBillMurray

It's Suntory Time!
Mar 11, 2001
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Almost 18 percent of people who called themselves born-again Christians admitted visiting Internet porn sites, according to a 2000 survey of 1,031 adults by the evangelical group Focus on the Family.
In a related study, 82% of born again Christians admitted not owning a computer in 2000.

Glad to see that they are rallying against a healthy sexual activity in favor of sexual repression and a healthy profit. If they were truly trying to help people in service of the church, they would offer their self created software at cost. You would think they would be all for open source releases to save us from sin.
 
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SaraP

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Feb 12, 2002
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Methinks certain uptight Christians need to (a) go read Song of Songs and (b) remember that God created sex. Addiction to anything -- be it gambling, fast cars, or pictures of people with no clothes on -- can be a serious problem, but it doesn't make things inherently evil and bad.