Kids and Porn

The title isn't for shock value. It is more of a disclaimer. I don't want to write this post. I want apple crisp and coffee on the porch with my husband. I fear not writing this. So here it goes. . .

Every single day I think about the effects that pornography and strip clubs have on young women and young men. Every day I think about what God would have me to do with this burden. Every time I think about it my heart aches - deeply. Then I read Anne Jackson's blog "Addicted to Porn?" Then I went here. Dirty Girl Ministries. I think that what these women have to say and the fact that they are speaking out about it is admirable. It isn't easy to admit these things. Too often people think that porn only effects adult men. And certainly not Christians and certainly not young girls.

Two weeks ago I was here and at the conference they talked about addiction and grace and trauma and healing and forgiveness, etc. One of the things that keeps sticking in my mind is this: what is addictive to you or me might not be to someone else and vice-versa. Just because it isn't addictive to you, doesn't mean that it won't be a devastating addiction to someone else. Porn can be like that. I know people who looked and left. I know others who were shown a magazine at a very young age and found themselves highly addicted to pornography at a very young age. The magazine under the bed isn't harmless, anymore than a fully loaded gun would be. The gun just kills faster. Pornography might not kill you physically, but it kills something inside of you.

The girls in the strip club and the girls in the magazines/internet are someone's daughter. It can be justified and said "well they are adults and they know what they are doing - no one is making them". Well that might be true. But to the person going to the strip club and looking at porn, do you know what you are doing? Do you know how degraded that young girl feels? Do you know the hurt and lack of self-worth she feels? Do you know the guilt she will feel later in life? Do you know she is someone's mommy? She is a person. It might be legal, but it doesn't make it right.

To the guy who just wanted to show his friend the magazine or just a quick peek at some 'girlie' website: Do you know your friend has a highly-addictive personality and after just one 'quick-peek' will find himself in the strongholds of sexual addiction and/or pornography addictions? To the guy who sits on the stool/chair (or whatever it is) and watches for his self-pleasure the girl dancing before him, which one of you will feel worse at the end of the night?

Sadly, I know of teens who are taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them over their cell phones. I know someone whose husband took nude pics of her and sold them to a magazine. I know a young girl who struggles with her sexual identity and often finds herself in strip clubs just looking for someone or something to get her through the night. To each of these women and to others like them, I am sorry. I am sorry you have been hurt and I am sorry that I haven't done more.

I know that pornography is found in "adult magazines" and "adult websites" and "adult clubs" and in "adult videos". So if that's the case, then why are kids exposed to it, addicted to it and often times abused and hurt by it? Adults use the word 'adult' to say it isn't their fault. The kids shouldn't have been looking or the kids shouldn't have been doing something else. Well here's the deal, it isn't just an 'adult' problem. It is a problem for teens, pre-teens and for young adults who got caught in a web that they don't know how to get out of.

I haven't figured out yet what God wants me to do with this burden. I also know that sometimes our greatest ministries come from our greatest hurts. So I guess I will just see where God leads. This isn't my greatest hurt, but I figure I will see what God does with the burden He gave me.