Defeat Lust & Pornography women with xxx on their mouths
Defeat Lust & Pornography 3 minute read

Open Your Eyes: Porn Is Directly Correlated to Sexual Exploitation

Last Updated: December 22, 2020

“It’s the greatest cancer in the churchؙ—it’s too late to say, ‘Well, give it time and let’s pray about it.’” -Chuck Swindoll

Over the last three years of working with individuals across the country, one thing has become very clear to me: pornography is impacting our culture in profound ways. Even worse yet, because our culture has become so sexualized and pornified, our churches are being desensitized to how vast the blast radius really is.

While sexual sin is not new, online pornography is more widely accepted, accessible, affordable, and anonymous than ever before. According to a 2018 study by the Barna Group, 68% of Christian men and 33% of Christian women view pornography at least once per month. A study of university students found that 93% of boys and 62% of girls had seen internet pornography during adolescence.

Technology is hastening sexual abuse and exploitation across the globe. The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) says, “This reality—combined with a toxic deluge of pop culture messages normalizing harmful attitudes and behaviors—is rapidly transforming forms of sexual abuse, violence, and exploitation from the intolerable to the fashionable and ‘normal.’”

Need evidence?

Exploitation starts with pop culture.

Popular streaming sites like Netflix offer unlimited access to shows and movies that carry a common theme: sex. Music artists write songs about love and sex, and these songs are played on radio stations across the world. How about shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones, which shows graphic sex scenes that often include themes of rape and even incest?

Technology nowadays seems to revolve around sex, and young people are the most impacted. With smartphones always in their grasp, they can’t escape.

Related: The 2020 Dirty Dozen List Revealed

If that was not bad enough, sex exploitation has become a growing issue in our culture. When was the last time our churches talked about this dark side of pornography like that? My guess is close to never, and yet, women are being abused and trafficked every single day.

Porn is fueling this abuse and exploitation.

Real-life accounts from victims showcase how porn was the fuel to the sexual exploitation fire. Consider this story by Elizabeth Smart, who was abducted and sexually assaulted for years. Her abductor used porn to fuel his abuse against her.

A meta-analysis of 46 studies showed exposure to pornographic material puts people at increased risk of committing sexual offenses and accepting rape myths. (Porn Harms, 2020)  According to NCOSE, pornography is used to train women and children forced into the sex trafficking industry, and pimps make porn videos of victims to further blackmail or control them. Child sexual abuse and trafficking is one of the most abhorrent crimes in our society, and its connections to the porn industry are undeniable and must be addressed.

It’s time to engage in war against exploitation.

At Covenant Eyes, we know that pornography is corrupting hundreds of millions of people.  We exist to change the course of history by enabling the world to overcome porn and be restored and transformed. We spend a lot of time teaching individuals, families and church leaders about how using porn affects our mind, body, and soul, how it destroys relationships with those we love, and even how it impacts our mental health or physical health. But we also must talk about darkness linked to the porn industry.

We need to have tough conversations about how the “innocent” porn viewing by our men and women in the pews is fueling objectification and violence against women. We have to own this fact, not ignore it.

Related: Ex-Porn Star Tells the Truth About the Porn Industry

A highly cited study from Dr. Gail Dines found that 90% of porn videos contain some combination of degrading physical and verbal aggression, specifically toward women. That content rewires the brain to believe that the degradation of women is normal.

I want to challenge Christian men and women to think in terms of the real blast radius their porn use has, even beyond the effect it has on our families. It’s time we engage in the war on sexual exploitation with organizations like NCOSE, who works alongside hundreds of thousands of other organizations to fight the evil happening in our world.

We cannot address the pornography problem without calling out its direct links to sexual exploitation. It’s an uncomfortable conversation and people may not want to hear it, but they need to understand that what they watch on their phone or laptop may actually be fueling something that most would agree is a tremendous evil in our would.

Want to get involved? Start with NCOSE.

To learn more about this, I encourage you to check out the work that is being done through NCOSE. They have played a key role in informing, equipping, and connecting people from a diverse range of professional, political, and personal backgrounds. Covenant Eyes is proud to partner with them to continue the fight against ending pornography and sexual exploitation.

We want to challenge each of you to take a stand and join the movement as well. Together, we can go far!

Comments on: Open Your Eyes: Porn Is Directly Correlated to Sexual Exploitation
  1. Shane Denham

    Test comment.

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis viverra fringilla urna eu aliquet. Donec non ultrices eros. Cras tristique nibh rutrum nisi iaculis, vitae maximus diam placerat. Vestibulum pharetra commodo tristique. Duis a ultricies orci, sed rhoncus purus. Proin porttitor, nisi sed venenatis maximus, sem ex eleifend lectus, nec pretium nibh arcu eget arcu. Aliquam erat volutpat.

  2. Shane Denham

    Testing.

    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Duis viverra fringilla urna eu aliquet. Donec non ultrices eros. Cras tristique nibh rutrum nisi iaculis, vitae maximus diam placerat.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related in Defeat Lust & Pornography

Editor's Picks

A normal couple in bed watching porn.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Is Watching Porn Normal?

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it…

9 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Man looking in the mirror, thinking about his identity.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

7 Identities That Make Pornography Fade Into Insignificance

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by…

8 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Scientist looking at a brain scan for dopamine.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Porn and Dopamine: Superstar or Supervillain?

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when…

6 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

A young man studying lust in the Bible at the library.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

What is lust in the Bible?

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church…

11 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

Young man graduating from college.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

My Integrity Is Not for Sale: Living With Integrity in an Immoral World

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others.…

5 minute read

Read Post

Editor's Picks

silhouette of a man standing on a hill

Defeat Lust & Pornography

John’s Story: From Darkness to Light

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s…

5 minute read

Read Post

Related in Defeat Lust & Pornography

A normal couple in bed watching porn.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Is Watching Porn Normal?

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it…

Statistics show that watching porn is extremely common—but does that make it normal? Two-thirds of men regularly consume pornography along with a third of women. So it is true that plenty of normal people watch…

9 minute read

1 comment

Man looking in the mirror, thinking about his identity.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

7 Identities That Make Pornography Fade Into Insignificance

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by…

Right now our culture seems to be obsessed with identifying ourselves by our genitalia, sexuality, political views, and skin color. Of course, these can be important pieces to a person’s identity, but they are only…

8 minute read

0 comments

Scientist looking at a brain scan for dopamine.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

Porn and Dopamine: Superstar or Supervillain?

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when…

Dopamine has received a lot of popular press these days, especially when it comes to things like watching porn. Depending on who you ask, you might think dopamine is a superstar or a supervillain. Once…

6 minute read

2 comments

A young man studying lust in the Bible at the library.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

What is lust in the Bible?

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church…

You probably don’t hear the word “lust” very often outside of church these days. If, like me, you grew up in the heyday of evangelical Purity Culture, you probably heard it a lot! But even…

11 minute read

0 comments

Young man graduating from college.

Defeat Lust & Pornography

My Integrity Is Not for Sale: Living With Integrity in an Immoral World

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others.…

There are some statements that stick better in my mind than others. One statement that caught my attention years ago from a pastoral mentor: “My integrity is not for sale.” When I first heard this…

5 minute read

0 comments

silhouette of a man standing on a hill

Defeat Lust & Pornography

John’s Story: From Darkness to Light

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s…

How can a young person live a life of integrity using today’s technology? This is a question I have asked myself thousands of times. Growing up, it was always my heart’s desire to live a…

5 minute read

0 comments