I'm not sure why I feel compelled to post on this topic. Maybe it's nothing more than just to give you some resources to draw upon when discussing the issue, or help you consider how you may be directly or indirectly affected by its contamination. I know that I've had several friends and people close to me addicted at one point or another.
If there is any doubt as to the Church position on the issue, the following are some great talks regarding the subject:
- President Hinckley's talk from the general priesthood session at General Conference, October 2004.
- Elder Oaks' talk from General Conference, April 2005.
- President Monson in the First Presidency message from July 2001.
- Ensign article from a husband and wife, detailing both of their experiences dealing with his addiction.
- And this is the church subject page on the topic.
I'm surprised at how many times I have confronted people about the subject. I had one friend that was living with me for a short time that had a problem with it. I remember just feeling so awful about even having to bring up the subject. I saw him all throughout the day and I was getting a headache just from the dread of having to confront him about it (because he was using my computer to do it). I felt like I was feeling worse about bringing it up than he did about me finding out about it. It's just such a sad, debilitating addiction. I have some teenage cousins that have dealt with it. One of the most disturbing things was looking through one of their yearbooks at the comments that were left and several girls talked about his male organs and having sexy time with him. No joke. I would think that everyone in some way or another has been directly, or indirectly, targeted by its agenda.
One person that I always reference when discussing the subject is Dr. Judith Reisman. I read one of her books, Soft Porn Plays Hardball, that discusses how devious the popular distributors work to mainstream sexuality, permissiveness, and pornography into our culture. One of the most interesting articles is by Dr. Reisman that examines the physiological effects of viewing pornography. Here is an exceprt that I couldn't cut and paste and had to type out for your consumption:
As far as the brain is concerned, a reward's a reward, regardless of whether it comes from a chemical or an experience. And where there's a reward, there's the risk of the vulnerable brain getting tramped in a compulsion.
Howard Schaffer, head of Harvard's Division on Addictions says:
I had great difficulty with my own colleagues when I suggested that a lot of addiction is the result of experience...repetitive, high-emotion, high-frequency experience...but it's become clear that neuroadaption - that is, changes in neural circuitry that help perpetuate behavior - occurs even in the absence of drug taking...
Vanderbilt psychiatrist Peter Martin's research on "normal subjects" finds the brain activity experience in sexual arousal of his normal subjects "looks like that accompanying drug consumption."
...Lust, that is sexual arousal, toward a real or media image, when experienced in the body as a drug high, poses significant danger, especially for those with an already delicate psyche. For, such chemical flooding of the brain would too often override ones cognitive thought and interfere with rational decisions to protect themselves and others.Neuropsychiatrist, Richard Restak is enthusiastic about scientific confirmation that "we can change how our brain operates" saying, "we can literally change our brain for the better as a result of new interests and the development of new talents." "Brain research is confirming a long cherished and valued belief that when it comes to our mind and its development," says Restake, "we retain a gratifying measure of control after all."
One interesting point that Dr. Reisman brings up in the book is the direct correlation that exists between the rise in soft porn with a corresponding increase in the divorce rate, as well as sexual dysfunction. It's no coincidence. Another interesting article of hers is the linkage between pornography and rape. From the article, she writes:
In "Journey Into Darkness" (1997), the FBI's premier serial-rape profiler, John Douglas wrote, "[Serial-rape murders are commonly found] with a large pornography collection, either store-bought or homemade. … our [FBI] research does show that certain types of sadomasochistic and bondage-oriented material can fuel the fantasies of those already leaning in that direction."
In "The Evil That Men Do" (1998), FBI serial-rape-murderer-mutilator profiler Roy Hazelwood quotes one sex killer who tied his victims in "a variety of positions" based on pictures he saw in sex magazines.
"Thrill Killers, a Study of America 's Most Vicious Murders," by Charles Linedecker, reports that 81 percent of these killers rated pornography as their primary sexual interest. Dr. W.L. Marshall, in "Criminal Neglect, Why Sex Offenders Go Free" (1990), says based on the evidence, pornography "feeds and legitimizes their deviant sexual tendencies."
In one study of rapists, Gene Abel of the New York Psychiatric Institute cited, "One-third reported that they had used pornography immediately prior to at least one of their crimes." In 1984, the U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence reported, "Testimony indicates that an alarming number of rape and sexual assault offenders report that they were acting out behavior they had viewed in pornographic materials."
More pornography equals more rape of children and women. We need to ask whether Big Government is now selling out to Big Pornography as it did to Big Tobacco for half a century.
A lot of the support that legitimizes the pornography industry is based off of the work of Alfred Kinsey, a famed sexologist from the 1940s. One popular statistic that is attributed to his work is the one stating that 10% of the population is homosexual. I'm sure you've heard that before. The problem with his work was that his work was based on a poor sample that had a selection bias. The statistic is misleading because people assume that it's a normal sample. The question that his statistic answer would be more appropriately phrased, in a population of prisoners with a number of the offenders sexual deviants, what percentage of the population is homosexual? The answer would be about 10%, in that case. His work gained so much support because big-money backers like the soft porn industry can use his "scientific" conclusions to peddle their product. This link talks a little bit about her book on the subject.
Lastly, this final video and excerpts are kind of what inspired me to write this post. I don't know how the subject popped up into my mind the other day, but then I remembered a conversation I had with another missionary back when I was serving in Chile. He was talking about how his dad was a bishop and some of the brothers that he was helping with their addictions. One thing that his father would always bring up was the final interview that Ted Bundy had with Dr. James Dobson.
There are several parts to the interview, but this one delivers the message well. If you're interested in more, this is part 1, part 2, part 3, part 5, and part 6. Part 4 is what I have here. The first part speaks of Dr. Dobson's credentials and why he feels Bundy gave him a legitimate and honest interview. I've only seen part 1, 2, and 4. It's probably all well worth watching though. One interesting thing that Dobson points out is that Bundy had Dobson agree to use all proceeds from the distribution of the video go solely to the manufacturing and distribution of the video, and then all remaining monies would go to the fight again pornography. I think the video speaks for itself, but I will include this one last very alarming excerpt spoken by Ted Bundy in the interview:
I wasn’t some guy hanging out in bars, or a bum. I wasn’t a pervert in the sense that people look at somebody and say, “I know there’s something wrong with him.” I was a normal person. I had good friends. I led a normal life, except for this one, small but very potent and destructive segment that I kept very secret and close to myself. Those of us who have been so influenced by violence in the media, particularly pornographic violence, are not some kind of inherent monsters. We are your sons and husbands. We grew up in regular families. Pornography can reach in and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20 or 30 years ago. As diligent as my parents were, and they were diligent in protecting their children, and as good a Christian home as we had, there is no protection against the kinds of influences that are loose in a society that tolerates....
Please do everything you can to insulate yourselves from this completely consuming and dark addiction. Pray for your husbands, boyfriends, and friends, because it is something that we have to combat on a daily basis. And if you know anyone dealing with this problem, don't treat it lightly.
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