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In a culture where sexuality and porn is now a part of everyday life, porn addiction in the church is escalating, according to a new survey.
In a poll of 1,000 respondents, 50 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of Christian women were found to be addicted to pornography. Conducted by ChristaNet.com, a popular Christian marketplace website, the poll asked visitors about their personal sexual conduct.
"There have been dynamic paradigm shifts in the behavior of Christians over the last four years," said Clay Jones, founder and president of Second Glance Ministries, which partnered with ChristiaNet.com to evaluate poll responses.
Many point to the Internet for the pervasive problem of sexual addiction.
"Technology (the Internet) has allowed pornography to flood the market place beyond a controllable level," said Jones.
For the first time in history, the American culture has point-and-click pornography; porn stars have MySpace pages; and the Internet and reality TV have provided new platforms for young women to flaunt their sexuality, as reported by the Associated Press. In April, more than a third of the U.S. Internet audience visited sites that fit into the online "adult" category, according to comScore Media Metrix.
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And according to Michael Simon, a therapist and high school counselor in the San Francisco Bay area, pornography or performative sexuality has "essentially become the standard of sexiness" rather than being one choice among many ways of being sexual, he told AP.
Yet a 2006 study reported by Morality in Media found that 73 percent of U.S. adults think that viewing pornographic websites and videos is morally unacceptable. Males ages 18 to 34 were more likely to say viewing pornographic material is morally acceptable (44 percent) than older males and females overall.
Still, today's sexualized culture also has churchgoing women struggling with sexual addiction. The ChristiaNet.com survey found 60 percent of Christian women admitting to having significant struggles with lust; 40 percent saying they were involved in sexual sin in the past year; and 20 percent struggling with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis.
"We are seeing an escalation to the problem in both men and women who regularly attend church," said ChistiaNet.com president Bill Cooper.
