By Dave Hauser
If anxiety is the biggest problem facing American men and women in the 2020s, then pornography is the quick relief that takes those same people away from their problems.
We live in a world where pornography has become the new cigarette. With the warnings about tobacco, nicotine and death, there has been a huge drop in cigarette smoking over several generations; however, anxiety has always plagued man since the beginning of time and anxiety is not new.
Just like cigarettes, pornography websites do not have to advertise every minute on television like a pharmaceutical company. They do not need marketing campaigns to attract new viewers, nor do they need acres of land to grow tobacco. They simply need to build content and have demand. Pornography websites get more web traffic than popular news websites and they only need to show up in a search engine. While cigarettes may shorten your own life, there is no known connection to evil and that is why we are in a dangerous point in our culture.
Recently, while watching a guitar lesson on YouTube, I saw to the right in the list of recommended videos and one suggestion was “140 Women Porn Stars That Have Died.” I was somewhat surprised to see that number and went to watch the video, which was alarming in that most of these women died before their thirtieth birthday from either suicide, accidental drug overdose, murder, or bizarre circumstances. The video was accompanied by somber music, and it really hit a nerve about this industry.
At the same time, there have been a number of mass shooters and gunmen, including the attempted assassin of Donald Trump, who have committed atrocities without clear motives. There was one huge common denominator discovered after searching their computers and cell phones and that was an increasingly larger and larger appetite for pornography as they reached their tragic date.
While the 140 dead and the gunmen are the extremes of this world, many human beings are in bondage to this industry which affects their daily life. It affects intimacy in marriages. Younger men who are addicted are simply viewing women as objects. It becomes impossible to date and if they do get to meet women, they are comparing them to the women they witness with a click of the mouse.
When I was young, pornography was inaccessible. In the 1970s, you had to go to an X-rated cinema, and it always had “creepy” overtones. Advance to the 1990s and you have VCR’s and On-Demand, but still really not an easy purchase. Married men would have to hide a bulky videotape or explain an on-demand charge that was not for boxing. So, the Internet changed everything making everything accessible and free. Music, movies, lessons, and, of course, access, to porn.
There was a time when porn or nudity was considered acceptable with the excuse of “I am just looking, and I am not hurting anybody.” My mother actually ordered the subscription to Playboy for my father, and at least Playboy came in the mail with a brown bag over it. Today, an eleven-year-old with Internet access will be able to view highly graphic videos and most of the time, the parents will be unaware, which begins a very bad addiction.
Ministering to Christian and secular men that are under thirty these days, I see that somewhere in their development, they encountered pornography and the lasting effects have been hazardous. It is a barrier to entry into faith for sure.
When a Christian accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior and the Holy Spirit is now active in them, they start to see things as Jesus would see things, which means every time they watch porn, they are taking Jesus on a date with them to watch it. Christian men wonder all the time why they are not seeing the blessing of God and often, as church leaders, we see no maturation in men and then find out they are in bondage to pornography. It is like trying to plant a tree on the North Pole in December and expecting to see cherries blossom. It won’t happen.
Jesus does state in Matthew 7:24-27 that whether you are a Christian or not you will experience storms, which means everyone experiences ups and downs and the only way to combat anxiety successfully is to turn to God. That impulse where you feel you are losing control and need relief, is when you should turn to God and pray, but that window is so short, and it may be easier for many to just click and escape.
Voyeurism was prevalent in the Bible where David stared too long at Bathsheba, which set a course for murder. Samson walked a long distance to be with Delilah and lost his powers. Jesus is clear that adultery begins with just thinking about it.
So, you are reading this and may not be a believer and feel that this article is not for you, and you would be wrong. Whether Jesus is your Savior or not, pornography is horrible. With 140 dead porn stars, there is a good chance you are watching and fantasizing about a woman that died tragically at a young age. If you are unsaved and married and watching porn content, there is no way that you are in a happy marriage.
There is a positive note to this. I have seen testimonies of men defeating pornography with the help of God. It is not easy, but they end up having accountability with other men and they have a very strong prayer life. Much like alcoholism or any other addiction they can’t abandon, without infrastructure and spirituality, they will revert back.
Project 2025 has a mission to outlaw pornography in some fashion, which has good intentionality, but what becomes of the big part of the population that are addicted and won’t have access? How would they survive? That is why the church has to play a big role in bringing people closer to God, so they have that relationship with Him when things go south in their lives. But first the church has to clean up the problem from within.
If you have any questions, you can contact me at david@hausernet.com. Our church has men’s and women’s ministries as well as prayer services that can help in these areas.
