Pornography- What's the Big Deal?

Pornography. What's the big deal?

You may think that viewing pornography doesn’t hurt anybody, let alone the person viewing it. It’s just a harmless way to pass the time, a victimless form of entertainment. Think again. Over time, pornography has the power to control a person’s mind, actions and impulses. Pornography has the power to destroy relationships, marriages, and even your ability to properly function sexually. It’s a bigger deal than most people think!

What you See is What you Get! Right?
Wrong! Pornography can mis-shape ones view of sex, the opposite sex, and can create unhealthy expectations in relationships. Many guys who view porn will compare girls (or even their wives) to the ones they have seen in porn. Pornography is not a realistic depiction of sex, women, men, and definitely not love. Porn turns women into objects to be played with, abused, controlled, and dominated. Repeated exposure to porn can even shape the way you view women and how they should be treated.

A Path to Sexual Dysfunction?

Anything that you do often enough can become a habit. If you develop a habit or addiction to pornography, you condition yourself to respond sexually to it. The body responds to and is aroused by the images, creating a conditioned sexual response. That sexual response can turn into a sexual habit, which can become a NEED for sexual gratification.

For example, you may have heard of Pavlov’s dogs. Ivan Pavlov was a researcher who would ring a bell every time he would feed his dogs. Eventually the dogs would begin to salivate at just the sound of the bell, showing that the dogs brains had been conditioned to respond a certain way to a given sound, and not food at all. Pornography works the same way. Viewing pornography actually affects your brain in such a way that chemicals are released that trigger your arousal response. What does all of this mean? Pornography can actually condition your body to NEED it in order to have sexual gratification. Imagine not being able to be aroused and have sex in REAL LIFE without using pornography! That, is a form of sexual dysfunction. And that is where pornography can take you.

Porn Affects Relationships and Marriages

At a 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, two thirds of the 350 divorce lawyers who attended said the Internet played a significant role in the divorces in the past year, with excessive interest in online porn contributing to more than half such cases. Pornography had an almost non-existent role in divorce just seven or eight years ago before.

The rise in internet porn use and easy accessibility have contributed to the breakdown of the family in America today.

Pornography is Everywhere! Consider these FACTS:

There are 4.2 million porn sites on the web, representing 12% of the entire internet.

Daily there are 68 million search requests for porn, representing 25% of all requests.

There are approximately 100,000 sites offering illegal child pornography.

At least 1 in 7 youth have received a sexual solicitation over the internet.

The average age of first exposure to porn over the internet is 11.

“Promise Keeper” men admitting to viewing porn last week- 53%.

The porn industry makes nearly $100 BILLION in revenue every year!

The porn industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink. Every second $3,075.64 is being spent on pornography.

Every second 28,258 Internet users are viewing pornography.

Every second 372 Internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines.

Every 39 minutes a new pornographic video is being created in the United States.

What Now?

Hopefully you realize that nothing good can come from viewing pornography, especially when you consider the long-term consequences. Pornography has the potential to destroy relationships, marriages, and cause addictions that are extremely difficult to break. If you are dabbling with porn- STOP. If you feel that you have already developed a problem in this area, seek help. Talk to your family doctor, your pastor or to a trained counselor. Don't let porn destroy your life and relationships.

States Reject Abstinence Funds

Charlotte Observer 6/25

States reject abstinence funds- Some say the program is too strict and doesn't provide teens with enough info to be safe.
By Kevin Freking
Associated Press

WASHINGTON --Skeptical states are shoving aside millions of federal dollars for abstinence education, walking away from the program the Bush administration touts for slowing teen sexual activity.

Barely half the states are still in, and two more are leaving.

Some $50 million has been budgeted for this year, and financially strapped states might be expected to want their share. But many have doubts that the program does much, if any good, and they're frustrated by chronic uncertainty that it will even be kept in existence.

Iowa Gov. Chet Culver, a Democrat, made his decision to leave based on the congressionally mandated curriculum, which teaches “the social, psychological and health gains of abstaining from sexual activity.” Instructors must teach that sexual activity outside of marriage is likely to have harmful effects.

“It was just too strict,” said Emily Hajek, policy adviser to Culver. “We believe local providers have the knowledge to teach what's going to be best in those situations, what kind of information will help those young people be safe. You cannot be that prescriptive about how it has to be taught.”

A federal tally shows that participation in the program is down 40 percent over two years, with 28 states – including North and South Carolina – still in. Arizona and Iowa have announced their intention to forgo their share of the federal grant at the start of the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

Not effective?

The program was created by Congress in 1996 as part of welfare reform. Since 2002, lawmakers have approved 19 short-term extensions – usually for three or six months at a time. But on three occasions, the program was extended for just a few days. Whatever state officials think of the program's aims, that's not the kind of bureaucratic consistency they need to budget for employees and to put contracts out to bid.

“The funding stream became inconsistent. We didn't know from one quarter to the next whether we'd be getting the rest of the money,” said Elke Shaw-Tulloch of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare. “We got to the point where we didn't have any infrastructure to put the money to use. At the same time, there was mounting evidence the abstinence programs weren't proving to be effective.”

Throw in a rising pregnancy rate among 15- to 19-year-olds in Idaho – 2,543 in 2006 compared with 2,396 in 2004 – and state officials decided last summer it was time to get out.

Favorable reviews:

Stanley Koutstaal, the federal official who oversees the abstinence-only program at the Administration for Children and Family Services, notes that more than half the states still choose to participate.

He called for long-term reauthorization of the block grants so that states and their contractors can be more certain about the future and can plan accordingly.

Some states' officials speak favorably of the program. In Georgia, some 250,000 students have participated in abstinence education since 2000 through schools, church groups and nonprofit agencies. Teachers in Georgia go beyond the abstinence message. They stress community service and doing better in school, said Jen Bennecke, executive director of the governor's office for children and families. Bennecke says the program has led to an almost a 50 percent drop in pregnancy rates for Georgia youths ages 15-17 since the mid-90s.

Participants, nonparticipants

The abstinence-only grants have been controversial from the start.

Supporters say sex education sends a mixed message and that abstinence is the only method that is 100 percent effective in preventing pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease. Critics say abstinence education simply doesn't stop teens from having sex, and those teens need more information about how to reduce pregnancy and disease.

In April 2007, a federally funded study of four abstinence-only programs by Mathematica Policy Research Inc., found that participants had just as many sexual partners as nonparticipants and had sex at the same median age as nonparticipants.

Why not NC too?

Raleigh News and Observer
Point of View:
Published: Jun 25, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jun 25, 2008 02:23 AM
Why not N.C. too?
Barbara Holt and Eva L. Ritchey

Her flushed face revealed her anxious thoughts. Her hands were folded tightly on the table. She spoke of the moment that changed her life 27 years ago in a community far from her home.
In college, a passionate evening had resulted in an unplanned pregnancy. Rather than end the pregnancy, her parents found a place for her with a loving family referred to them by a pregnancy care center in Alabama. Now, as she had always anticipated, that child, now a young woman, was eager to meet her birth mother. In two weeks, the mother and her husband would be boarding a flight to meet the daughter she courageously entrusted to others.

Thousands of times in pregnancy care centers, similar events take place. Women of varied backgrounds, often under pressure from others to abort their children, come to these centers to find support and material aid. Meeting the needs of women who come to these centers is often a financial challenge for the more than 70 support centers in North Carolina.

Now we have the opportunity to provide additional funds to these worthwhile islands of mercy.
State Rep. Mitch Gillespie has introduced HB 932 to authorize a "Choose Life" license plate for North Carolina. Fifteen dollars from the sale of each plate would directly benefit North Carolina centers without any cost to the taxpayer, because specialized plates include a $10 fee to cover all state costs. Since 1999 when the first "Choose Life" license plate was approved in Florida, 18 other states have followed. More than $8.7 million has been raised from the over 400,000 plates sold or renewed.

In the Southeast, North Carolina is the only state left that will not allow the "Choose Life" license plate.

We are grateful to House Transportation Committee Chair Becky Carney for her efforts in getting HB 932 out of the committee. We hope that the Finance Committee will give the bill a favorable report so the bill has a chance to become law. After all, North Carolina has approved over 130 license plates that promote everything from Save the Sea Turtles to NASCAR drivers to shag dancing.

Some object that "Choose Life" is an "issue" plate and as such should not be allowed. What about the "Sons of Confederate Veterans" plate, which includes a stars and bars insignia. That clearly evokes emotions on both sides?

A few legislators are concerned that a "Choose Life" plate would create a forum exclusively for the "anti-abortion" viewpoint. While courts have differed on whether the state can allow one message and not an opposing message, proponents of the North Carolina plate are simply asking for the right to display the "Choose Life" message.

In Women's Emergency Network v. Bush, a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to challenge a "Choose Life" statute based on the First Amendment. "The First Amendment protects the right to speak; it does not give Appellants the right to stop others with opposing viewpoints from speaking," the court wrote.
And though our state courts have stated in Rosie J. v. N.C. DHS that there is a "legitimate governmental objective of encouraging childbirth," North Carolina continues to prevent individuals from expressing that viewpoint.

Planned Parenthood has characterized pregnancy care centers as providing "... misinformation, intimidation, coercion, or harassment to women seeking reproductive health care." That is not how Mimi Every, executive director for 16 years of Pregnancy Support Services in Durham and Chapel Hill (trianglepregnancysupport.com) would characterize her work.

She says "Center staff and volunteers are well trained and motivated to help, not to promote an agenda, but to extend kindness to hurting women ... Because there are no fees for services, pregnancy centers do not stand to gain or lose anything depending on choices women make about their unplanned pregnancies."

Why would Planned Parenthood protest our Choose Life plate when it could use the same procedure for getting its own plate?

Non-profit, volunteer-driven pregnancy care centers provide services to the whole woman and to needy families, sometimes well after birth, or abortion. (Yes, pregnancy care centers even offer tender and compassionate assistance to those who need care after an abortion.)

Thousands of North Carolina citizens are only asking for what many other citizens already have, a special registration plate. Our state already allows "Save the Sea Turtles." Shouldn't the state allow citizens to purchase a plate that says "Choose Life"?

(Barbara Holt is president of North Carolina Right to Life Inc. Eva L. Ritchey, is president of N.C. Pro-Life Democrats.)

Ministry Update and Prayer Requests

Maternity Homes in NC are eligible for State Maternity Funds on behalf of clients that meet financial eligibility requirements. Most maternity homes require that clients access these funds in order to be able to move into their facility. The state ran out of these funds recently. Lois' Lodge is a ministry that accepts clients irregardless of their financial circumstances. As a consequence we have been deluged with applicants. Each of these women has a story that is heart wrenching. Many of them grew up without healthy families and are at risk of creating the same scenario for their own unborn child. Most do not have a personal relationship with a Heavenly Father that loves them unconditionally and is able to fill the holes that they have in their hearts. Due to having a limited capacity for six residential clients at a time, it is a challenge not to be able to meet all of the needs that are being presented. Please pray that the Lord will provide us with wisdom as to who He would desire for us to serve at this time. And pray for all the other hurting women who are in need of a Savior.

Also, we are currently hiring new staff. Please pray that the Lord will call godly women who have a heart for families in need to serve in this capacity. Summer is a challenging time financially for nonprofit ministries. We enter this summer in pretty good shape financially. Praise God for the ongoing provision which He provides to accomplish His purposes at Lois' Lodge! Please pray that the Lord will continue to provide the means to meet all of the needs at Lois' Lodge through the course of the summer. Thank you so much for your ongoing prayers. They really make a difference.

Choose Life License Plate a Non-issue for this Year

Sad news from Barb Stevens, director of the Carolinas Pregnancy Care Fellowship. Rep. Mitch Gillespie has reported that the chairman of the Finance Committee has informed him that the Choose Life bill will not be heard this session. He will reintroduce it next year.