A new study concluding that pornography use leads to decreased enjoyment of sexual intimacy for men illustrates \u201cthe detrimental effect\u201d obscene images have on \u201ca male\u2019s sexual health,\u201d a leader of Southern Baptists\u2019 anti-pornography campaign told Baptist Press.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe study reinforces the fact that pornography writes a sexual script that leaves out God, unconditional love, respect for each other and honoring each other,\u201d Jay Dennis, co-sponsor of the Join One Million Men campaign, said in written comments. \u201cParents should take heed that the younger a male views pornography the more he will use pornography for sexual stimulation. The study underscores that pornography lessens enjoyment with a real-life partner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Launched at the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in Houston, Join One Million Men is seeking commitments from 1 million men to live pornography-free lives. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the Woman\u2019s Missionary Union sponsored the initiative along with Dennis, pastor of First Baptist Church at the Mall in Lakeland, Florida.<\/p>\n
Researchers Chyng Sun, Ana Bridges, Jennifer Johnason and Matt Ezzell wrote in the December issue of \u201cArchives of Sexual Behavior\u201d that \u201cpornography is sometimes dismissed, celebrated, or problematized as fantasy, and many consumers may access pornography explicitly as a form of entertainment, but pornography is also much more. What happens on the screen may implicate life off of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers asked a sample of 487 males ages 18-29 a range of questions regarding the frequency of their pornography use, their use of pornography in conjunction with sexual encounters and their enjoyment of sexual intimacy.<\/p>\n
The research team found \u201csignificant positive association\u201d between pornography use and \u201creliance on pornography to obtain\/maintain sexual excitement.\u201d Use of pornography also made men more likely to \u201cview pornography during sexual activity\u201d with a real-life partner. Porn use correlated with less enjoyment of sexually intimate behavior.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur findings are consistent with a theory suggesting that pornography can become a preferred sexual script for men, thus influencing their real-world expectations,\u201d the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n
Only 10.9 percent of the men surveyed reported that they did not currently use pornography. A mere 1.3 percent of men surveyed said they had never encountered pornography.<\/p>\n
The vast majority of study participants (97.9 percent) were unmarried, but 75.4 percent reported having engaged in sexual intercourse. Participants reported on average that religious faith was only moderately important to them, suggesting that the study results may not apply to men in committed relationships with Christ. All participants were college students.<\/p>\n
Donna Rice Hughes, president and CEO of the anti-pornography organization Enough Is Enough , said the study proves that pornography \u201cis not just harmless fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe science proves exactly how harmful porn is to relationships and society,\u201d Hughes said in a news release. \u201cWhich is why we are fighting so hard to educate the public about how to prevent this toxic material from its devastating harms to children, women, men, marriages and our culture. At Enough Is Enough , we bring this research to the public, to Congress, to leaders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study also found that 48.7 percent of today\u2019s college males were first exposed to pornography prior to age 13. Researchers claimed that \u201ccurrent sex education models — in the schools and in the home — do not seem well-equipped to assist boys in navigating or critically engaging the messages of pornography.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study\u2019s authors criticized abstinence-only sexual education programs, which teach teens to delay sexual activity until marriage, as \u201cineffective in helping adolescents make informed and healthy sexual choices.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Dennis agreed with the principle of sexual abstinence until marriage, noting \u201cthe boundaries God has set for our safety and enjoyment.\u201d Pornography ignores those boundaries and depicts as normal \u201cdegrading and humiliating acts along with physically aggressive behavior toward women,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Dennis concluded, \u201cParents must begin educating their children, especially their sons, on why pornography is not God\u2019s plan and how it damages and degrades real relationships. Education, information, accountability and biblical truth communicated by a loving parent can help turn the tide.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A new study concluding that pornography use leads to decreased enjoyment of sexual intimacy for men illustrates \u201cthe detrimental effect\u201d obscene images have on \u201ca male\u2019s sexual health,\u201d a leader of Southern Baptists\u2019 anti-pornography campaign told Baptist Press. \u201cThe study reinforces the fact that pornography writes a sexual script that leaves out God, unconditional love, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1254,66,628,31,292,3520,335,720],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6043\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.churchedge.com\/illustrations\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}