Per Christum

http://www.diocese-kcsj.org/Bishop-Finn/pastoral-07.htm

Porn.

Pornography.

Its time to talk about it.

(I have put a lot of images of the Mother of God in this post for a very good reason when we talk about these sins, we need her.)

There is no shortage of it, there is no lessoning of the market for it. 70% (as of 3 years ago) of men ages 18-24 view it online regularly.

Let’s talk about it.

All of this is taken from the above link. It was written in 2004. Do any of us think it could have gotten better or even remained static?

The scope and costs of Pornography

According to 2004 IFR research, U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 billion). Porn revenue is larger than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises. The pornography industry, according to conservative estimates, brings in $57 billion per year, of which the United States is responsible for $12 billion. (Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III , and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005.)

The Internet accounted for US $2.5 billion of the adult industry’s revenues. Dirty Downloads Ready to Go on iPods, Ron Harris, http://www.macnewsworld.com/, 2005

According to a March, 2004 figure, there were 800 million rentals each year of adult videos and DVDs (Overdosing on Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. http://www.worldandi.com/. )

Current estimates are that $20 billion is spent annually on adult videos (sales and rentals).

Half of all hotel guests order pornographic movies. These films comprise 80% of in-room entertainment revenue and 70% of total in-room revenue. (Sex-Film Industry Threatened With Condom Requirement, Nick Madigan. The New York Times, 24 August, 2004.)

Cable pay per view amounted to $2.5 billion.

Magazines accounted for $7.5 billion.

Scope of Internet Pornography

In 2004, there were 4.2 million pornographic websites; 372 million
pornographic pages.

Daily there were 68 million pornographic search engine requests (25% of requests). 2003.

Sex is the number 1 topic searched on the Internet. (Overdosing on
Porn, Rebecca Hagelin. http://www.worlandi.com/, March, 2004.)

Daily there are 2.5 billion pornographic emails (8% of total emails).(2004)

The most common ways people have accidentally reached pornographic
content on the Web are pop-up windows (55%), misrepresented links (52%), misspelled URLs (48%) and auto links within emails (23%) (Fifty Percent of Workers Spend Nine days a Year on Personal Surfing at Work. Cerberian Inc. and SonicWALL, 20 July 2004 .)

There are 100 thousand websites offering illegal child pornography
(U.S. CustomsService estimate).

Adult Internet Pornography Statistics

70% of 18 to 24 year old men visit pornographic sites in a
typical month. 66% of men in their 20s and 30s also report being regular users of pornography. (First-person: the culture of pornography, R. Albert Mohler, Jr., Baptist Press, 28 December 2005.)

20% of men and 13% of women surveyed admitted to accessing pornography at work. (Internet Pornography Statistics. Internet Filter Review, 2004.)

There are 40 million US adults who regularly visit internet pornography websites One out of three visitors to all adult web sites are women.

Women favor chat rooms two times more than men.

Effects of Pornography

40% of adults surveyed believe that pornography harms relationships
between men and women. (Consensus Among American Public on the
Effects of Pornography on Adults or Children or What Government Should Do About It, Harris Poll, 7 October 2005 . http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.)

30 percent of surveyed adults said their partner’s use of pornography made them feel more like a sexual object (Marriage Related Research, Mark A. Yarhouse, Psy.D. Christian Counseling Today, 2004 Vol. 12 No. 1. August, 2004.)

One out of every six women grapples with addiction to
pornography. (Internet Pornography and Loneliness: An Association? Vincent Cyrus Yoder, Thomas B. Virden III , and Kiran Amin. Sexual Addiction & Compulsivity, Volume 12.1, 2005. )

47% of Christians surveyed said pornography is a major problem in the home.

As little as six hours exposure to soft core porn (anything designed to arouse one sexually) is enough to destroy the viewer’s satisfaction with his or her spouse; decrease the value of faithfulness; decrease the ability to be with one person and cherish that person; and increase the thought that women enjoy rape. Survey 2004 Children and the Internet

Children use the Internet. 96 percent of kids have gone online; 74% having access at home and 61% use the Internet on a typical day. Kids stay connected, USA Today snapshots. 5 January, 2004 .

In a survey reported in 2000, 21 percent of teens say they have looked at something on the Internet that they wouldn’t want their parents to know. (A World of Their Own. Newsweek, 8 May 2000.)

Children Internet Pornography Statistics

90% of 8-16 year olds using the Internet have viewed pornography on
line (most while doing homework). 2004

Eleven years old is the average age of first Internet exposure to
pornography. (2004.)

Among underage viewers of pornography, children 12 years old to 17 years old are the largest consumers of Internet pornography. 2004.

A survey of 600 households conducted by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children found that 20% of parents do not know any of their children’s Internet passwords, instant messaging nicknames or email addresses.

Only 5% of parents recognized the acronym POS (parent over shoulder) and only 1% could identify WTGP (want to go private?), both of which are used frequently by teens when instant messaging Ads target online victimization of children. USA Today, 20 May 2004.

Incidents of child sexual exploitation have risen from 4,573 in 1998 to 112,083 in 2004, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Reports of child exploitation up. (USA Today Snapshots, 17 February, 2005 .)

Child Pornography generates $3 billion annually. (Internet Filter Review. 2004.

What this report does not cover? Who is making the money and who is being victimized.

Not just pop-culture icon & hero Hugh Hefner. No, the octogenarian running around in his (now age appropriate) pajamas like a 14 year old boy isn’t who is profitting the most.

Pornography is the third largest revenue for organized crime in the United States just behind drugs and gambling. (Federal Bureau of Investigation, reported in “Talking Points: Important Facts About Pornography, Take Action Manual, National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families, p. 8.)

85% of revenue from pornographic magazines and videos goes into the pockets of organized crime, much of it untaxed. (”Outreach: Facts About Pornography,” American Family Association.)

(from: http://www.afec.org/issues/pornography/facts.htm)

Who is getting seduced into it? “Porn doesn’t have a demographic; it goes across all demographics,” says Paul Fishbein, the 42-year-old founder and editor of Adult Video News, the trade publication for the “adult” industry. “There were 11,000 adult titles last year versus 400 releases in Hollywood. There are so many outlets that even if you spend just $ 15,000 and two days-—and put in some plot and good-looking people and decent sex–you can get satellite and cable sales. There are so many companies, and they rarely go out of business. You have to be really stupid or greedy to fail.” That is right my friends, it is easy garunteed money to get into an industry as a producer or performer or distributor.

In Germany and some other European nations, the age of consent is 16 - “performers” in some of these films are well under 18. They are high school kids. It is legal to post those films there on the web. The world-wide-web. How hard do you think it is to access those sites in Peoria?

It is destroying homes, preventing vocations to religous and family life. It is becoming a growing addiction for millions that is perfectly legal, and piped into homes via the net.

I have counseled a drug addicted “porn star”. (Yea, there is a company here in Ohio doing killer business. We have pornstars right here in the heartland!) This kid is a mess. A slave to drugs, and a victim of a broken home, those that made a market for this travesty are complicit in this soul’s death in mortal sin (God forbid) should that day come.

There are now at least 5 distribution companies that operate likie “Netfilx” exclusively with porn. I cannot find figures on their combined revenues or circulations. Does anyone think that it is now less or will remain less than Netflix?

It is shit. Lets not tiptoe or be polite. Let’s be blunt.

It is feces and it will rope you to despair. God will not be mocked. His plan for creation and our sexuality will not be mocked.

Let’s think about something also. The “performers” in porn are being exploited - even willingly. For the market that has been created (by how many baptized???). There is no end of money to exploit these people.

Q. Why did God make you?
A. God made me to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with Him for ever in heaven.

Did God make your sons and daughters to mock Him?

Let’s be clear - support of this “industry” through demand and consumption means that we escort each other to hell.

Pray for all those suckered into this lie and empty promise. Souls are at stake.