Christian Citizenship Council

Pornography
Pornography is the sexually explicit depiction of persons which is created with the primary, proximate aim of eliciting signicant sexual arousal on the part of the consumer of such materials. It consists in removing the sexual acts from the intimacy of the human person, in order to deliberately display them to third parties. It offends against the family, because it perverts procreation, which is rightly the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does serious and lasting injury to the actors, producers, vendors, and the public, since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who indulge in pornography in the damaging illusion of a fantasy world. It is a serious offense against the sixth commandment of the law of God and the dignity of the human person, especially women and children. Local, state, and national authorities have a grave moral obligation to stop the production and distribution of pornography.

Pornography is not "harmless"!
"There is not a day that goes by that I don't regret getting involved in pornography and eventually becoming addicted to it, to the point where I no longer functioned as a normal adult." - Mark John, convicted rapist (AFA Journal, 1998).

"I've lived in prison for a long time now, and I've met a lot of men who were motivated to commit violence. Without exception, every one of them was deeply involved in pornography - deeply consumed by the addiction. The FBI's own study on serial homicide shows that the most common interest among serial killers is pornography. It's true." - Serial killer Ted Bundy in an interview with Dr James Dobson, January 23, 1989

It is estimated that Americans now spend somewhere around $10 billion a year on adult entertainment, which is as much as they spend attending professional sporting events, buying music, or going out to the movies. Consumer demand is so strong that it has seduced some of America's biggest brand names, and companies like General Motors, Marriott, and Time Warner are now making millions by selling erotica to America" - "Porn in the USA." 60 Minutes Special, CBS News, November 23, 2003

"In April 2004, several of California's pornographic movie studios announced plans to temporarily shut down their sets, after learning that two "performers" had tested positive for the HIV virus. Based on the results of these tests, the Adult Industry Medical Healthcare Foundation (AIMHF) announced that more than 45 men and women had voluntarily quarantined themselves from participating in any additional pornographic films" - Source: "HIV Test Results Close Porn Studios" Center for Reclaiming America

Pornography Addiction
During recent testimony at a Senate hearing on whether pornography is (1) a form of speech protected by the First Amendment, or (2) an addictive material that should be unlawful, psychiatrist Jeffrey Santinover described how pornography is analogous to cigarettes, noting that "it is very carefully designed delivery system for evoking a tremendous flood within the brain of endogenous opioids. "It's time to stop regarding it as simply a form of expression. Modern science allows us to understand that the underlying nature of an addiction to pornography is chemically nearly identical to a heroin addiction" - Source: "Porn Like Heroin in the Brain," Family News in Focus, November 19, 2004.

Pornography: Myth vs. Fact
Myth 1: "Obscenity is a matter of opinion - It cannot be defined."
Fact: Obscenity has been defined! The U.S. Supreme Court case of Miller v. California (1972) set forth a three-pronged test:

Myth 2: "The First Amendment Protects Obscenity and Pornography."
Fact: The U.S. Supreme Court case of Roth v. U.S. (1957) stated that obscenity was "outside the protection intended for speech and press ..."
The First Amendment does not protect slander, false advertising, or perjury. It also does not protect obscenity and child pornography.

Myth 3: "Pornography doesn't hurt anyone."
Fact: The untold harm is clearly evident in the addictive or compulsive nature for many diseases, its direct role in the transmission and encouragement of sexually transmitted diseases, the way it shapes attitudes and values, and its relationship to rape and sexual violence.

Myth 4: "You can't legislate morality."
Fact: Every piece of legislation is based on some moral conviction. Laws prohibiting murder and theft are based on the understanding that these actions are morally wrong and harmful to the common good.

Myth 5: "If you don't like it, don't watch it."
Fact: Pornography is like pollution. The person who does the polluting isn't the only person hurt by it. Like toxic waste, it is hazardous to the health of our families and children.

Pornography has grown into a $57 billion dollar worldwide industry.
$12.0 billion of this is US revenue, more than all combined revenues of all professional football, baseball and basketball franchises or the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC (6.2 billion). $2.5 of the $12 billion is related to internet pornography.
25% of total search engine requests are pornography related.
17% of total websites are pornographic.
20% of men admit accessing pornography at work.
13% of women admit accessing pornography at work.
10% of adults admit having internet sexual addiction.
100,000 websites offer illegal child pornography.
Child pornography generates $3 billion annually.
90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed pornography online.
Average age of first internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old.
Largest consumer of internet pornography is the 12-17 age group.
More than 20,000 images of child pornography are posted on the Internet every week.
More than half of all illegal sites reported to the Internet Watch Foundation are hosted in the United States.
Demand for pornographic images of babies and toddlers on the Internet is soaring.
Pornographic web pages now top 260 million and growing at an unprecedented rate.

The Communications Decency Act, passed by Congress on February 8, 1996, made it a federal crime in the U.S. to send indecent communications to anyone or to allow minors to view any message considered offensive by contemporary community standards. In 1998, the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was passed with the direct intent of protecting children from the harmful sexual material on the Internet. On December 21, 2000 the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) was signed into law as a bill that would limit childrens exposure to pornography by requiring the installation of Internet filtering software on computers at schools and libraries.

All three of these laws, which would have protected families and children, were struck down by liberal activist judges within the federal judiciary. The reasoning of these judges, is that such laws protecting children would be a “violation of free speech”. Thanks to these liberal judges, the effect has been a massive growth in Internet child pornography and the continued enslavement of the American public to pornography.