The Plague of Pornography
Part Three
1/6/08
(The
following was used with a PowerPoint presentation, the asterisks indicate slide
changes.)
Pray
2007
was a phenomenal year for Community of Faith.
The Lord took us places we would have never dreamed of going.
He
gave us a vision, we pursued it, and He miraculously supplied!
*Phil. 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold
of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what
is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which
God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
1.
We haven’t arrived.
2.
We only forget in the
sense that we can’t camp there.
3.
It’s time to press on.
The
ultimate purpose of Jesus Christ on this earth is this…
*Lk. 19:10 For the Son of
Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
Now
how is that going to happen unless we do our part?
*Rom. 10:14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
There
is another reason Jesus came to this earth and this one is not spoken of as
much and to many not even understood…
*1
Jo. 3:7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right
is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8He who does what is sinful
is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was
to destroy the devil’s work.
The
question can again be asked, what is our part?
Just
as God uses us to present the gospel He also uses us to confront the enemy! Or
put in other words, to confront ungodliness and evil.
In
1991 there was a movie that came out entitled “Sleeping With The Enemy.” Much of the church is sleeping with the
enemy!
*The
“Seeker friendly” approach used in so many churches today has very much
weakened the influence of the church in America!
The
apostle Paul had the opportunity and privilege to speak to many high profile
people in his day. One of which was
Felix. Felix held a very high position
as a procurator. This was a powerful
Roman military position.
Now
if you were given this opportunity what would you say? No doubt you would be very careful with your
words.
What
did Paul do?
*Acts
24:24 Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess.
He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. 25As
Paul discoursed on righteousness,
self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s
enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”
The
bottom line is this… We do have the
responsibility to address evil!
God
has raised up many godly leaders through out this land that are addressing
evil.
*Is.
59:19 (KJV) …When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
One
great evil in our society that has also infiltrated the church is pornography.
*The
Plague of Pornography slide—part three.
*Show
clip of the couple where he had secretly been addicted to pornography.
Michele
was very supportive. That’s not always
the case.
When
a woman finds out that her husband has been engaging in pornography. She feels violated. She feels humiliated. She feels devalued.
To
many women they find it very hard to differentiate between using pornography
and committing adultery.
I
want to say right now that if you have been in that situation or in this
situation there definitely is hope and deliverance. This is not fatal. If
ignored the consequences are great!
Pornography
is extremely addicting.
No
matter how harmless you may think the level of porn is that you may be viewing,
it always leads to something worse.
There
is only one direction to go when you choose to look at porn and that is in a
downward spiral. You can only stay at the same level of viewing so long before
your body is no longer satisfied and needs something more harsh or graphic to
be satisfied.
This
almost always leads to some level of acting out, starting with self sex and
getting worse from there. Porn addiction truly can be compared to being
addicted to drugs, but those who have been addicted to both porn and drugs will
tell you that it is even more difficult to overcome a porn addiction.
Pornography
is an issue you cannot ignore. Just
bringing your children to church does not eliminate the temptation they face.
*Show
clip of the pastor’s son addicted to pornography.
*Eph
5:3 But among you there must not be even a hint
of sexual immorality, or of
any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy
people.
Pornography
is direct violation to this scripture!
Pornography is an addiction that becomes a stronghold of the enemy.
*Secrecy
enables the enemy and disables you!
*Ja.
5:13 Is any one of you in trouble?
He should pray. Is anyone
happy? Let him sing songs of praise. 14Is any one of you sick? He
should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil
in the name of the Lord. 15And the prayer offered in faith will make
the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be
forgiven. 16 Therefore
confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be
healed.
1.
Addiction to pornography
falls into the word “trouble!”
2.
No one else can fix your
problem, others can assist you but your deliverance will come from your own
resistance and pursuit of the Lord.
3.
Confessing the sin of
pornography gets it out of the dark into the light.
4.
Now comes the big
question. Who do you confess it to?
5.
The debate could last
all day. But I want to speak as a
pastor who has counseled men in this situation with various results.
6.
The desired end result
is this—sexual purity and freedom.
7.
When a man uses his wife
as the one to confess to the problem becomes multiplied.
8.
There is no way that the
wife can handle the problem the same way as a pastor or strong spiritual
brother in the Lord.
9.
Let me use an example of
a couple that came to me this last year.
They do not attend this church.
*(Blank)
Before any man can be freed from pornography, there has to be two things that
take place first.
1.
*You have to hate the
sin of pornography.
2.
*There has to be genuine
repentance.
Men,
if you say you hate it and still own it, you are deceiving yourself.
Men,
if you have in your possession any pornographic material, burn it, destroy it!
Genuine
repentance is the first step in breaking the trap…
*2
Tim. 2:25 …in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a
knowledge of the truth, 26and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil,
who has taken them captive to do his will.
The
Bible has so much to say about sexual immorality…
*1Th
4:3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual
immorality; 4
that each of you should learn to control
his own body in a way that is holy and honorable, 5 not in passionate lust like the heathen,
who do not know God…
Now
here’s a very important word to both husbands and wives…
If
sexual fulfillment is not very important, why would the Bible directly address
it?
These
next verses have been avoided, misunderstood, and misused.
*1
Cor. 7:1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to
marry. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have
his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and
likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife’s body does not
belong to her alone but also to her husband.
*In
the same way, the husband’s body does not belong to him alone but also to his
wife. 5 Do not deprive
each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may
devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of
self-control.
1.
Men like to use these
verses with their wife who is none responsive.
2.
Verse three is more than
having sex.
3.
Explain the emotional
need of a wife and the physical need of the husband.
4.
A woman who deprives her
husband sexually is just as bad as a man who deprives his wife emotionally.
5.
When this relationship
is not right Satan’s temptation is stronger.
Conquering
pornography or any other addiction will be accomplished by walking in the
Spirit.
*Gal.
5:16 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the
sinful nature. 17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to
the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.
Never
forget that complicated problems still have simple solutions!
*Col
3:5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust,
evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
How do we “put to death?”
*Rom. 8:13 For if you live
according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you
will live…
God wants us to be holy and
He wants us to confront pornography in our area.
*(Citizens against
pornography) Have Kit come and share.
We send tapes to people
outside the church; I received this email from one of them. He does not go to church here.
*“Wow, I am so glad you
preached these messages, I just listen to them this morning and I am
excited on what you are doing, I would like to know how I could sign the
"Citizens against Pornography" petition and be able to pass this
around to my friends. I know God is
going to move again through
*the work you and the
church are doing, and I want you to know you are in my prayers. You truly help me get pasted this and I know
there are others that can be helped.”
We need to team together and
get serious about addressing pornography in our area.
We are not switching from the
atrocity of abortion to pornography.
Until legal abortion is stopped we won’t stop!
They are related…
If sexual immorality was not
so prevalent, abortions would not be so prevalent!
Pornography's Relationship to Rape
and Aggression toward Women.
National Obscenity
Enforcement Unit of the U.S. Department of Justice.
Rape
rate has climbed 43% in the last 10 years.
The
highest incidence of rape victims are teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19.
Finkelhor (1979); Kanin &
Parcell (1977); Koss & Oros (1982)
"It
has been estimated that in the U.S. between one-fifth and one-fourth of the
female population is subjected to rape."
Russell (1984)
Nearly
45% of women in a San Francisco random sample reported that they were subjected
to at least one rape or attempted rape in their lifetime. 82% of the rapes were
committed by non-strangers and 2/3 of the victims were assaulted by
acquaintances or friends.
Koss (1987)
84%
of college students who were victims of completed rapes knew their assailant
and two thirds of them were assaulted by a date.
Bureau of Justice Statistics
(1986)
The
number of forcible rapes and the rates per 100,000 population doubled in the
decade of the 60's and then doubles again in the decade of the 70's -- the time
of the "sexual revolution" in America.
Abel, et al (1987)
"Research
has shown that as sexual callousness grows in strength, rape is considered a
lesser transgression."
Mosher & Sirkin (1984)
There
is a strong relationship between sexually callous attitudes and histories of
forceful, coercive, aggressive sexual conquests.
Milton (1973)
Two
thirds of a sample of convicted rapists frequently fantasized forcible sadistic
acts.
Koss (1987)
Only
5% of women college students who reported forced sex during the previous year
reported the incident to the police.
Russell (1984)
Less
than 10% of rapes reported in the San Francisco survey had been reported to the
police.
Kanin (1969); Mosher (1971);
Koss & Oros (1982)
"About
one-fourth of male college students admitted to having made forcible attempts
at intercourse"
National Crime Survey U.S.
Department of Justice.
Forcible
rape has increased by 562% (73,240 cases) since 1960; by 11% between 1983 and
1986.
Does Pornography Promote Abuse?
Gray, Susan (1982)
"Levels
of aggression in already-angered men are increased by exposure to hard-core
materials."
Federal Bureau of
Investigation
Research
conducted involving 36 serial murderers revealed that 81% (29/36) reported
pornography as one of their highest sexual interests, making pornography one of
the most common profile characteristics of serial murderers.
Dr. William Marshall (1983)
He
found that 86% of rapists admitted regular use of pornography, with 57%
admitting actual imitation of pornography scenes in commission of sex crimes.
Malamuth (1981)
Responses
found to characterize (convicted) rapists were:
1)
general acceptance of rape myths, and
2)
high arousal to rape depictions.
He
studied male college students, asking them, "How likely would you be to
rape if you knew you would not be caught?" --35% indicated they would.
Malamuth and Check (1985)
After
studying 307 students, they concluded that "media depictions (pornography)
suggesting that (showing that) rape results in the victim's arousal contributes
to men's belief in a similar rape myth -- particularly men with higher
inclinations to aggress against women."
Victor Cline, Ph.D. (Utah
Psychologist)
He
identified a common pattern of progression with many pornography users (sex
offenders):
1.
addiction to hard core pornography;
2.
escalation in the need for more shocking material;
3.
desensitization toward initially shocking material; and
4.
an increased tendency to "act out" sexual activities.
Zillmann, Dolf (1982)
Findings
show that massive exposure (4 hours forty minutes over six weeks) to standard
pornography (people having consensual, nonviolent sex) resulted in…
1. a
loss of compassion toward women as rape victims and toward women in general;
2. a
loss of concern about the effects of pornography on others;
3. a
need for more violent and bizarre forms of sex;
4. a
desensitization to violent, non-coercive hard core pornography; and
5. a
trivialization of rape.
Michigan State Police ( Lt.
Darrell H. Pope)
Studied
and recorded the use of pornography in sex crimes. He researched 48,000 sex
crimes spanning a 20 year period (1956-1979). (Research was done in 1977,
replicated in 1981).
In
42% of the 48,000 sex crimes investigated, police indicated that pornography
was involved -- used just prior to, or during the act of sexual assault -- as
stated by the victim or the offender.
Silbert and Pines (1984)
A
detailed content analysis of 193 cases of rape and of 178 cases of juvenile
sexual abuse revealed a clear relationship between violent pornography and
sexual abuse.
Goldstein, Kant and Harman
(1973)
Rapists
are 15 times as likely as non-offenders (30% to 2%) to have had exposure to
"hard core" pornography during childhood or between 6 to 10 years of
age. They also tended to report an earlier age of "peak experience"
with pornography."
It
is highly likely, based upon McGaugh's studies on memory, that the early
experiences "stood out in the minds" of these children because of the
release of the chemical ep-i-neph-rine (ep-a-nef-rine) during their emotional
arousal. This makes these findings even more disturbing.
Pornography's Relationship To Child
Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.
The National Coalition For
Children's Justice (Ken Wooden)
Between
1981 and 1985, child sexual abuse rose by 175%. Child molestation cases in the
home in 1986 were 216,216.
National Center of Child
Abuse and Neglect, Children's Bureau, U.S.
Department
of Health and Human Services: Study of National Incidence and Prevalence of
Child Abuse and Neglect (1988) (NIS-2)
There
were 138,000 children abused sexually in 1986, and another 17,000 in danger and
at risk of being sexually abused.
U.S. Department of Justice,
Network News, Fall Edition (1985)
"One
in three females and one in ten males will be sexually molested before the age
of 18. Four million child molesters reside in this country."
Abel (1985)
A
study of 411 non-incarcerated sex offenders (sexual deviants or paraphiliacs)
showed that sex offenders attempted an average of 581 sex offenses each,
completed an average of 533 offenses, and victimized 336 people each over a 12
year period. This included pedophiles (child molesters).
Abel, et al (1987)
"The
frequency of self reported crimes" (for the non-incarcerated sex offenders
they studied) "was vastly greater than the number of crimes for which they
had been arrested. The ratio of arrest to commission of the more violent crimes
such as rape and child molestation was approximately 1:30.
Report of the U.S. Congress
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations on Child Pornography and Pedophilia
(1986)
"No
single characteristic of pedophilia is more pervasive than the obsession with
child pornography. The fascination of pedophiles with child pornography and
child abuse has been documented in many studies and has been established by
hundreds of sexually explicit materials involving children.
"Detective
William Dworin of the Los Angeles Police Department estimates that of the 700
child molesters in whose arrest he has participated during the last ten years,
more than half had child pornography in their possession. About 80 percent
owned either child or adult pornography.
Child
pornography plays a central role in child molestations by pedophiles, serving
to justify their conduct, assist them in seducing their victims, and provide a
means to blackmail the children they have molested in order to prevent
exposure.
Abel (1986)
He
studied 240 child molesters (pedophiles). They averaged 30 (homosexual or
same-sex) to 60 (heterosexual) victims before being caught. The typical child
molester will sexually abuse 380 children in a lifetime.
Carter et al (1984)
The
Los Angeles Police Department reported that most child molesters were
themselves molested as children. They tend to seek out victims of the age they
were when first molested. One study reported that 57% of molesters studied had
been victims of child molestation themselves.
Dr. William Marshall (1983)
87%
of girl child molesters and 77% of boy child molesters studied admitted to
regular use of hard core adult pornography. The obscene material was used by
these sex offenders for three reasons:
(1)
to stimulate themselves;
(2)
to destroy the consciences and lower the inhibitions and resistance to sexual
activity in their intended child victims; and
(3)
as teaching tools for the child to imitate or model in their real life sexual
encounter with the adult.
John Rabun, Exploited and
Missing Children Unit of Louisville, KY.
"The
Police/Social work team of the Exploited and Missing Child Unit (EMCU) of
Louisville, KY investigated 1,400 cases of children suspected of being victims
of sexual exploitation. Over 40 major cases involved the successful prosecution
of adults involved with over 12 children each. One case involved 320 children.
At the time of the arrest of and/or service of search warrants, all 40 of these
adult predators were found with various forms of adult pornography, and in most
cases child nudes and/or child pornography were also found.
"Over
four years, the EMCU team learned to expect to always find adult pornography
since it was used for:
(1)
the offender's own arousal;
(2) self-validation
of their own sex deviations;
(3)
extortion of child victims or other adults; and
(4)
deliberate and planned lowering of inhibitions of child victims.
The Badgley Report (1984)
The
report found that almost 60% of both male and female juvenile prostitutes had
been asked to be the subject of sexually explicit films or photographs; 12% of
the girls and 20% of the boys had actually been used in making pornography;
juvenile prostitutes are a high-risk group in regard to being exploited by pornographers.
Two
smaller American studies (Burgess: 755 of youth hustlers had participated in
pornography; John Rabun: 37% had participated) emphatically confirm this
finding.
Silbert and Pines (1984)
A
detailed content analysis of 193 cases of rape and of 178 cases of juvenile
sexual abuse revealed a clear relationship between violent pornography and
sexual abuse.
Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorder 111-R
Pedophiles
who act on their urges with children commonly develop excuses or rationalizations
about their illegal sexual activities toward the children:
1)
that they have "educational value" for the child
2)
that the child derives "sexual pleasure" from them
3)
that the child was "sexually provocative" toward them -- led them on.
These
three rationalizations are "themes that are also common in pedophilic
pornography." p.284. In other words, pornography teaches three myths that
pedophiles believe, and act on, when they molest children.
Southern California Child
Exploitation Task Force (1988)
"One
of the men we prosecuted had 50,000 photographs of noncommercial child
pornography in a storage locker. He admitted molesting several hundred children
following his release from a state hospital for a child molestation conviction.
He even maintained a ledger listing those molestations. He taught swimming and
tennis to youngsters, some of whom became his victims."
*Citizens against Pornography
Community of Faith Church is targeting
retailers about the inappropriateness of pornography. At present we are requesting the removal of all pornography from The
Family Video Store in Marion, Illinois. The store clerk did not
sound favorable about there being any removal of pornography from the shelf
when asked. After contacting the
district manager, Roy Williams, his response was also, “No!”
Therefore, we are requesting that you sign
this petition if you are in favor of a ban on pornography at 709
W. Main Street, Marion, Illinois 62959 at the Family Video Store. We will be sending this petition to the
corporate office at Family Video, Corporate Headquarters, 2500 Lehigh Avenue,
Glenview, Il 60026. In signing this
petition, you agree not to patronize this business unless they agree to discontinue
the distribution of pornographic material.
*Citizens against Pornography
Guidelines
Thank you for volunteering
your effort to curb the retail distribution of pornographic material in
Southern Illinois!
We have a strategy that will
reduce the availability of pornographic material in our area.
We are not assuming that we
can eliminate pornography in our area, but we can make a difference!
First, see if any
pornographic material is displayed.
Share with the manager that you would appreciate it very much if the
pornography would be removed from the store.
If you receive an unfavorable response, share that there are many others
who have the same desire as you do.
Explain that you will bring back to the store a petition signed by
others who will not patronize this place of business until the pornography is
removed.
After returning with the
signed petition(s), if the manager is still uncooperative with the removal of
the pornography, leave the petition with the manager.
Remember! Be polite!
Do not be argumentative or rude.
Do not mention anything about
using the full page ad in the paper.
Document the date and time
when you first spoke with the manager and get his/her name. Do this on the first visit and on the
second. If the business is not
cooperative and we put their business in the paper we want to have
documentation of when someone was there and who they spoke with. It could be possible that when their
business name appears in the paper they could come back to us and say that no
one ever spoke with them about this.
That’s why the documentation is very important.
If you happen to speak with a
manager that someone else has already spoken to, that’s OK. A typical response from the manager could be
something like, “someone has already talked with me and I don’t appreciate this….” Simply say, “the fact that someone has
already spoken to you proves that we are serious about this.”
Where do you draw the line
with different types of material? We
are targeting pornographic material; nudity and sexually explicit magazines or
videos.
Remember, by raising the
awareness of pornography it also raises the level of conviction.
There
is a four step process with this:
1.
Approach the manager
(owner) of the store politely with the request to remove the material.
2.
Give the store
information to the church office so the petitions can be typed up.
3.
The petitions must be
signed by as many people as possible.
We will do this at the tables in the back of the auditorium.
4.
The petitions must be
returned to the manager or store owner.
Once
the petitions have been returned, if the management still refuses to remove the
material from the store, then when we place our ad in the paper, this store
will be listed with others who sell pornographic material.
We
want to enlist as many people as possible in this effort. We need other churches and groups who would
be willing to help.
It
is of utmost importance to remember who we represent! Do not be rude, overbearing, or disrespectful. Being bold doesn’t mean being rude.