Pornography – The Doorway to Sodom and Gomorrah

If you have not noticed the un-Christianising of our society
then read the following.

Relentlessly it seems, we are following
the well worn path of many great Empires who, with no fields left
to conquer, stooped to carnality and the occult as the means to
find some enjoyment in life. In every case they eventually and
inevitably crumbled under the weight of the decay and filth,
losing all their glory and their power.

What is it about the human race that we never seem able to
learn from history? Inexorably, we are treading this same insane
path again, but on a Global scale, led by the very 1st world
nations who should be leading the world in the light they once
loved. It is a fact that whatever happens first in America has a
flow on effect on the world. Most of the statistics in this
article are figures from the USA, so we have much to ponder on if
we live outside the US, because a tidal wave of junk is already
on its way.

As always, the Bible prophesies this trend. 2 Peter 2:5-8 says
–

"…and did not spare the ancient world, but saved
Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing
in the flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities
of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction,
making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy
conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among
them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and
hearing their lawless deeds)"—

I wonder how many of our readers are feeling more and more
like righteous Lot, who was tormented by the filth of the society
around him. Thankfully, this degeneration will be the last the
world sees, as the prophetic clock ticks down to the 2nd coming
of Jesus Christ.

The following statistics, from both secular and religious
sources, show the extent of our moral degeneration, and reveal
that porn is now as American as Apple Pie, and has found a place
in every corner of American society, including the church.

At 13.3 billion, the 2006 revenues of the sex and porn
industry in the U.S. are bigger than the NFL, NBA and Major
League Baseball combined. Worldwide sex industry sales for 2006
are reported to be 97 billion. To put this in perspective,
Microsoft, who sells the operating system used on most of the
computers in the world (in addition to other software) reported
sales of 44.8 billion in 2006.

The MSNBC.com Survey in 2000 assessed that 60% of all website
visits are sexual in nature. The No. 1 search term used at search
engine sites is the word "sex". Users searched for "sex" more
than other terms such as "games," "travel," "music," "jokes,"
"cars," "weather," "health" and "jobs" COMBINED!!! The study also
found that "pornography/porno" was the fourthmost searched for
subject.

Alexa Research reported 72 million as the approximate number
of unique visitors to adult websites in 2006, per month,
worldwide.

The total number of porn pages they can view is a whopping 420
million. Let me illustrate how huge that number is. If a person
viewed 100 porn pages each day on the web, it would take 11,506
years to complete the viewing!

A 2000 MSNBC.com Survey found that as many as 80 percent of
visitors to sex sites were spending so much time tracking down
erotica on the computer that they were putting their real-life
relationships and/or jobs at risk. "Until they discovered
cybersex, most of these people had no problems with sexual
addiction", according to the survey’s author, Al Cooper, a
sex therapist at the San Jose Marital Services and Sexuality
Center in San Jose, California.

Listed below are reports and surveys containing various facts
from investigative reports regarding the pornography industry
–

The sick underbelly of porn is the abuse of children. The U.S.
Customs Service estimates that there are more than 100,000
websites offering child pornography (which are illegal)
worldwide, as reported by Red Herring Magazine.

If you thought Hollywood was a ‘bit’ player in all
of this, think again. The LA Times reports that Hollywood
currently releases 11,000 adult movies per year – more than
20 times the mainstream movie production. Let’s look at
some quotes from recognised authorities and commentators.

• 39 million homes receive the adult channels in scrambled
  form, while the number of children with potential exposure to
  such images is about 29 million. Morality Continues to Decay.
  Barna Research Group, November 3, 2003.
• One in 4 American adults surveyed in 2002 admitted to seeing
  an x-rated movie in the last year. National Opinion Research
  Letter 55%: Percentage of Porn movie rentals vs. non-porn movies
  in hotels in 2005. AVN News, State of the Adult
  Industry.

• The average teenager spends three to four hours per day
  watching television and 83% of the programming most frequently
  watched by adolescents contains some sexual content. Gary
  Rose/ Focus on the Family 2005.
• 1/3 of 13 year old boys in Alberta, Canada admitted to
  viewing porn. University of Alberta Study, March
  2007.
• 42% of songs on ten top-selling CDs in 1999 contained sexual
  content, 41% of which were "very explicit" or "pretty explicit."
  Family News in Focus, July 2005.
• "Last year, Comcast, the nation’s largest cable
  company, pulled in 50 million from adult programming. How much
  does DirecTV make off of adult product? Maybe as much as 500
  million, off of adult entertainment, in a broad sense," says
  Dennis McAlpine, a partner in McAlpine Associates, who has
  tracked the entertainment industry for over two decades. "I would
  think it’s probably more than what their overall profit is.
  The other areas are losing money. That’s making
  money."
• The big hotel chains: Hilton, Marriot, Hyatt, Sheraton and
  Holiday Inn, all offer adult films on in-room pay-per-view
  television systems. And they are purchased by a whopping 50
  percent of their guests, accounting for nearly 70 percent of
  their in-room profits. One hotel owner said, "We have to have it,
  our guests demand it." CBS News.

The eye-opener is the statistics gleaned from the Christian
community. These demonstrate several things:

1. That Grace is being preached without the balance of
   judgement.
2. That the spirit of this world has invaded the Church.
3. That righteousness and holiness are not taught, nor are they
   the template for Christian living.
4. That the Church is struggling to deal with this demonic
   onslaught.

Here are some figures that are truly shocking and very
sobering.

STATISTICS ON THE CHURCH

• March 20, 2007: At a men’s summit in Oregon before
  2,000 men, Shelley Lubben of Shelley Lubben Ministries challenged
  those who were struggling with porn addiction to stand. 30% rose
  to their feet. She immediately challenged them a second time,
  with the result that some 70% were standing.
• March, 2007: At a small Christian conference in Austria, 75%
  of the 25 men in attendance admitted to being involved with porn;
  50% within the past 6 months.
• April 6, 2007: 70% of Christians admitted to struggling with
  porn in their daily lives. CNN.
• August 7, 2006: 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all
  Christian women are addicted to pornography. 60% of the women who
  answered the survey admitted to having significant struggles with
  lust; 40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past
  year; and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle
  with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis. Results of a
  ChristiaNet poll reported by Marketwire.com
• December 2000: the National Coalition to Protect Children and
  Families surveyed 5 Christian Campuses to see how the next
  generation of believers was doing with sexual purity: 48% of
  males admitted to current porn use and 68% of males said they
  intentionally viewed a sexually explicit site at the school.
• Roger Charman of Focus on the Family’s Pastoral
  Ministries reports that approximately 20% of the calls received
  on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as
  pornography and compulsive sexual behavior.
• A 1996 Promise Keepers survey at one of their stadium events
  revealed that over 50% of the men in attendance were involved
  with pornography within one week of attending the event.
• In the 2000 Christianity Today survey, 33% of clergy admitted
  to having visited a sexually explicit web site. Of those who had
  visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites "a few times" in
  the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a
  couple of times a month and more than once a week.
• Out of 81 pastors surveyed (74 males 7 female), 98% had been
  exposed to porn; 43% intentionally accessed a sexually explicit
  website. Survey of Pastors. Seattle. April 2000.

Pornography is corrupting the church and destroying our
nation; without action the problem will only get worse. However,
the most degrading and inexcusable statistics are those of our
children.

STATISTICS ON CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

• 9 out of 10 children aged between the ages of 8 and 16 have
  viewed pornography on the Internet, in most cases unintentionally
  (London School of Economics January 2002).
• Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography: 11
  years old (internet-filter-review.com).
• Largest consumer of Internet pornography: 12-17 year-old age
  group (internet-filter-review.com).
• Adult industry says traffic is 20- 30% children (NRC
  Report 2002).
• 1 in 5 children (10 to 17 years old) receives unwanted sexual
  solicitations online (Youth Internet Safety Survey, U.S.
  Department of Justice, 2001).
• 2 in 5 abductions of children ages 15-17 are due to Internet
  contact (San Diego Police Dept.).
• 76% of victims in Net-initiated sexual exploitation cases
  were 13-15, 75% were girls. Most cases pro gressed to sexual
  encounters - 93% of the face-to-face meetings involved illegal
  sex (Journal of Adolescent Health, November 2004).

Where will all this end? It seems that man has again proven
that without the moral compass of the Bible and the power of the
Holy Spirit to change us, there is no other direction but down.
We have read for years the prophetic word as to conditions at the
time of the end, but I don’t think any of us were really
prepared to actually start living through them. Come Lord
Jesus!