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The Porn Phenomenon

The Porn Phenomenon

The Impact of Pornography in the Digital Age

Preface

by Josh McDowell

Practically every pastor, youth worker, Christian educator and parent says they want to pass on their faith, morals and values to the next generation. I have spent the vast majority of my life trying to help in that mission.

About six years ago, I began to sense something was seriously wrong. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Whatever it was, it was negatively affecting the receptivity of young people to the biblical faith that parents and churches so desperately want to pass on.

After a lot of questions and investigation, I concluded that young people are being overwhelmed by Internet pornography. The easy access our kids have to pornography is distorting their views of morality and the Christian faith.

While there was good secondary research on the issue, I became convinced that a study among pastors, youth pastors and churched youth and adults was necessary in order to understand the contours of the crisis. Without primary research, I feared it would be difficult to awaken the Church to the emergency.

I consulted key pastors and Christian leaders. Chuck Swindoll encouraged the research initiative and told me he believes pornography is the greatest cancer in the Church today. Dr. James Dobson was also supportive but warned there would be resistance because church leaders caught in the grip of porn are burdened with shame and an incredible fear of being discovered.

Nevertheless, I pressed forward.

Barna Group, under the leadership of David Kinnaman, agreed to take on the challenge. In the end, The Porn Phenomenon became one of the most comprehensive studies Barna has conducted to date. The goal was to assess the extent to which pornography has permeated Christian families, the Church and our society at large, and to determine its impact.

I’ve often said that a problem well defined is a problem half solved. This study defines the problem—but it also goes well beyond that. Be prepared for an eye opener

The Porn Phenomenon is a wakeup call. When 54 percent of Christian young adults ages 18 to 24 seek out porn at least occasionally, and when two out of three youth pastors and more than half of senior pastors say porn is a current or past struggle, we have a genuine crisis on our hands. Porn is undermining God’s truth in the lives of young people and eroding the credibility of the Church.

Pornography is not new. However, the digital tools that deliver and propagate it today are new, and they have fundamentally changed the landscape. But not even the ubiquity and easy access of smartphone and tablet apps will be able to compete with the coming advancements in virtual reality (VR) technology. VR systems such as Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and HoloLens immerse the user visually and sonically in a virtual world. In the near future, all three systems will have add-on devices that bring other parts of the user’s body into the virtual space—meaning a user won’t just see and hear but also touch and feel virtual objects and people as if they were real.

This technology has promising implications for manufacturing design, the medical field, other sciences and the arts. But it is not difficult to imagine the devastating capacity of VR devices to lure an entire generation deeper into a virtual world of pornography, turning what is already a crisis into an epidemic of addiction.

We must act quickly and create better ways of talking about the problem of porn. This study is a good start. We need a culture among church leaders and parents that is more conducive to transparency and emotional safety, where Christians of all ages can admit their struggles. We need to extend more grace and offer greater hope: People can be restored by God’s grace through the body of Christ.

In some places, the Christian community is beginning to take positive steps. Pastors, youth workers and parents are coming out of the shadows to sound the alarm. Individuals and groups are creating resources that offer help and healing. For example, I partner with a group called Covenant Eyes (www. covenanteyes.com) to promote Internet accountability and filtering services for individuals, families and churches.

We can combat the porn phenomenon. More importantly, we can win the battle—if we act now. The apostle Paul’s challenge to the first-century church is as relevant today as then:

Use every piece of God’s armor to resist the enemy in the time of evil, so that after the battle you will be standing firm. Stand your ground, putting on the sturdy belt of truth and the body armor of God’s righteousness. For shoes, put on the peace that comes from the Good News, so that you will be fully prepared (Eph. 6:13–15, NLT).

 


Introduction:
Why the Church Can
No Longer Ignore Porn

Thirty years ago, pornography arrived in the mail wrapped in discreet black plastic. It was checked out for rental from the “special section” behind a curtain in the neighborhood video store. It was purchased from magazine racks raised out of children’s reach (unless the kids were tall, or enterprising, or both). It was commonly understood that some men looked at porn— but as a general rule they weren’t proud of it, and most wouldn’t have dreamed of bragging about it.

Times have changed.

Today, porn slips invited or not onto every screen with an Internet connection. For that matter, much of it originates in regular households with a wireless signal: 50 percent of young women ages 13 to 24 who use porn say they have sent a nude image via text, email or smartphone app.

Attitudes about porn have changed, too.

Three-quarters of young men 13 to 24 talk with their friends about porn at least occasionally. And nine out of 10 of them say that how they talk about porn is encouraging, accepting or neutral. It is commonly understood that most of their friends regularly use porn—and as a general rule they are ho-hum about it.

This is not the case in the Christian community. Certainly, a significant number of practicing Christians (and of pastors) use porn. But many of these folks feel acute guilt and shame when they do, and most say they have no one they trust who can help them stop.

These twin realities—the ubiquity of porn today and the unwillingness or inability of local Christian communities to talk about it—have precipitated a crisis the Church can no longer afford to ignore.

In early 2015 Josh McDowell and his team visited the Barna offices because they wanted to help the Church start talking about porn. In order to do that in a responsible way, they believed, we needed reliable data about people’s use of and attitudes toward pornography.

The Porn Phenomenon is the culmination of a multiphase data-gathering project conducted and analyzed by Barna researchers on behalf of Josh McDowell Ministry. We surveyed nearly 3,000 U.S. teens, adults and Protestant youth and senior pastors about their perceptions of pornography, their use of pornography, how they feel about their use of pornography and much more.

This monograph presents a summary of the data gathered by Barna, as well as secondary research and cultural observations that help make sense of the numbers. In addition, we interviewed a handful of knowledgeable people to get their perspectives and insights (these are included as Q&As throughout the book) and invited Bob Harper, a local pastor here in Ventura, California, to reflect on the questions ministry leaders should be asking themselves in response to these findings. (You’ll find his questions in the margins to amplify your reading.) In the appendix, there are fact sheets for a number of key population segments, such as teens ages 13 to 17, practicing Christian men, youth pastors and so on. At a glance, you can see each group’s views of porn, how frequently and the reasons they use it, and how they tend to feel about their porn use.

With Josh and his team, Barna’s hope is that this data will catalyze a conversation in the Church about how best to respond to the porn phenomenon.



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