'Tsunami of pornography' debases human dignity, archbishop says
By Dan Morris-Young and Barbara Lee5/14/2007
Catholic News Service (www.catholicnews.com)
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (CNS) – Describing what he sees as an "electronic tsunami of pornography," Archbishop George H. Niederauer of San Francisco told a Utah-based anti-pornography organization that pornography "debases the priceless worth and dignity of each human being and (God's) gift of human sexuality."
While pornography "is not a new challenge," the archbishop told members of the Lighted Candle Society at its annual awards dinner in Salt Lake City May 8, "the explosive increase in the accessibility and availability of pornography is new and deeply troubling."
"Every computer terminal is its pipeline, and cell phones and other hand-held devices, many of them marketed to children and young people, literally deliver pornography everywhere, to anyone," he said in his keynote address.
Archbishop Niederauer was presented the Lighted Candle Society's Guardian of the Light Award two years ago for his work as president of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography, a position he held for five years as bishop of Salt Lake City before being named archbishop of San Francisco.
The archbishop, who headed the Salt Lake City Diocese from 1994 to 2005, reminded his listeners that pornography "now generates more annual income than all three major professional sports combined, and causes as well the world's fastest growing addiction."
"We have all heard the discouraging numbers," he said, noting research shows there are 68 million Internet "search engine requests for porn sites" every day, that 70 percent of men ages 18 to 24 visit porn sites each month, that "90 percent of 8- to 16-year-olds have viewed porn online," and that "the average age of a child's first exposure to pornography on the Internet is 11."
However, he said, "what should motivate us most profoundly is not the amount of pornography there is but the kind of harm it does. Pornography assaults human dignity and commodifies people and human sexuality. Porn starves the human soul in its spiritual dimension. ... The human person, an irreplaceable gift, becomes a throwaway toy."
The archbishop, who chairs the U.S. bishops' Committee on Communications and is a member of the Pontifical Council on Social Communications, cautioned that pornography opponents "need constantly to explore and articulate what we are for, not merely what we are against. Deploring and pointing with alarm are valid and effective only in light of what we value and defend."
Much of the archbishop's talk also addressed the motion picture industry which, he said, "is capable of so much beauty and so much trash."
Admitting he has had "a lifelong love affair with the movies," Archbishop Niederauer criticized "the nihilism that reigns in many quarters of moviemaking" today as well as "excessive violence" and dark portrayals of life.
He called on his listeners, film critics and moviemakers themselves to be wary of being cowed by a desire to seem "supersophisticated."
"The one thing we will not be called is prudes, so we laugh nervously at the vilest sexual aberrations, nod knowingly at the blackest, sickest kind of humor, even relish a bit of violence well carried off," the archbishop said. "Some of us want to come off as so worldly-wise that we defend any evil flashed on-screen by saying, 'Face it, the world is like that!'
"Moviegoers can't be sponges," he added. "Just as in our experiences of other media, in watching films we need to become our own best filters."
At the awards dinner, the Lighted Candle Society presented Guardian of the Light Awards to nationally syndicated radio talk-show host Michael Reagan, the adopted son of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, and Pamela Atkinson, who succeeded Archbishop Niederauer as president of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography.
The society was founded in 2001 by John Harmer, a former California state senator and California lieutenant governor during Ronald Reagan's term as governor. Harmer and researcher James B. Smith recently co-wrote "The Sex Industrial Complex," subtitled "America's Secret Combination: Pornographic Culture, Addiction and the Human Brain."
In an interview with the Intermountain Catholic, Salt Lake City diocesan newspaper, Harmer said it is through the efforts of people such as Michael Reagan and Atkinson that the Lighted Candle Society is ready to achieve a much broader base.
"When I created the society, I was aware of many similar organizations doing the same work," he said.
But Harmer said he found a void in research and the training of law enforcement officials and prosecutors to effectively fight pornography in the courts on behalf of individuals who have suffered because of the use of pornography.
"It is much like the court battles that have tackled tobacco marketing," he said. "People have no idea how powerful and dangerous these images are and how pervasive they become to a person addicted to pornography." - - -
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Saturday, May 5, 2007
Cho lapped up our sadosexual culture
Posted: May 3, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Judith Reisman
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2007
Based on some Internet bloggers' hysteria, my WND column guessing the Virginia Tech killer had a pornography addiction traumatized scores of heavy users out there.
Well, that is to be anticipated after decades of universities and colleges pandering pornography in their bookstores and at their "we're so cool" pornography film fests.
Now it turns out that this "loner" graduated from looking to paying. The local WSLS News Channel 10 reported that the killer hired a female "escort service" a month before he massacred unarmed and defenseless students and faculty.
Cho paid "Chastity" for an hour of private "dancing" in his motel room. When the little tough guy wanted more than dancing, Chastity says she left him flat.
All of the reports about this fantasy-fueled, frustrated egomaniac confirm Cho's anger, fear and hatred of women.
Although Cho was certainly a porn addict, we don't yet know (if we ever will) exactly what kind of Internet cruising he had descended into: sadistic, "barely legal," children, macho/military men or Playboy's fairytale female lovers.
All allegedly "heterosexual" pornography of course fuels disgust and anger at those provocative women who don't really "do it" but who just "tease" their lusting lotharios.
Naturally, since seething Internet seductresses don't "put out," millions of libidinous men go livid. Unable to admit that pornography robs them of their manhood, these poor Internet patsies tell themselves that their desperate excitement is "sex."
Naturally, statistically, some such confused, angry men will turn from these (um, deceitful) women to guys. Even The Advocate admitted back in 1994 that 21 percent of their largely affluent, educated male readers reported molestation by an adult before age 15. Cho's writing suggests he was one of those.
So another coward belligerently stalked women and took illegal under-the-desk crotch photos of co-eds; the ones that the university seems to think were not criminal.
Of course, the man's hate-filled and medically altered brain has been fueled by the same, dare we say it, immoral refuse culture that taints us all; the coarsened, sadosexual television and film fare, the killer-simulating video games and Victoria Secret public spaces that have come to define our ignorant and barbaric age.
Even the Washington Post reported that Korean youths who knew Cho in high school "said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns."
Right, let's hear it for Bill Gates' gaming bottom line. Now we'll be told it's Christian inhibitions and guns that cause mass murder. Of course, at most high school gun clubs, even in my day, kids practiced shooting at targets, not at people.
Blogger "CLS" pointed out that proposed Virginia legislation in 2005 would have allowed students and faculty with a valid concealed handgun permit to carry firearms at Virginia Tech and other universities. Since the legislation was defeated, Virginia Tech became another "gun free zone" in our erototoxically crazed society.
Firearms for self-defense are verboten. Only firearms for massacres are allowed.
In several prior attacks, would-be killers were stopped by gun-totting faculty and students who had to first retrieve their firearms from their cars. Of course, these heroes don't appear above the fold in the New York Times. That honor is reserved for the latest glaring, copycat killer in pseudo military gear.
Blogger James Lewis raised another question about who taught Cho to hate.
Lewis asks what Cho learned in school. Although his answer is well worth reading in full, here is a glimpse:
"English studies at VT are a post-modern Disney World in which nihilism, moral and sexual boundary breaking, and fantasies of Marxist revolutionary violence are celebrated. They show up in a lot of faculty writing. Not by all the faculty, but probably by more than half. Just check out their websites."
I did. He's right. And talk about learning: After God got kicked out of American schools from kindergarten to university, the Ten Commandments came down and AIDS posters went up.
Kind friends, we are reaping the results of "The Marketing of Evil." As is the case in any war, it is the innocent, especially the children, who pay the price for our arrogant, egotistical sexual license and our ignorance of real American history and tradition.
Dr. Judith Reisman is president of the Institute for Media Education and is the author of "Kinsey, Crimes & Consequences."
Posted: May 3, 20071:00 a.m. Eastern
By Judith Reisman
© 2000 WorldNetDaily.com-->© 2007
Based on some Internet bloggers' hysteria, my WND column guessing the Virginia Tech killer had a pornography addiction traumatized scores of heavy users out there.
Well, that is to be anticipated after decades of universities and colleges pandering pornography in their bookstores and at their "we're so cool" pornography film fests.
Now it turns out that this "loner" graduated from looking to paying. The local WSLS News Channel 10 reported that the killer hired a female "escort service" a month before he massacred unarmed and defenseless students and faculty.
Cho paid "Chastity" for an hour of private "dancing" in his motel room. When the little tough guy wanted more than dancing, Chastity says she left him flat.
All of the reports about this fantasy-fueled, frustrated egomaniac confirm Cho's anger, fear and hatred of women.
Although Cho was certainly a porn addict, we don't yet know (if we ever will) exactly what kind of Internet cruising he had descended into: sadistic, "barely legal," children, macho/military men or Playboy's fairytale female lovers.
All allegedly "heterosexual" pornography of course fuels disgust and anger at those provocative women who don't really "do it" but who just "tease" their lusting lotharios.
Naturally, since seething Internet seductresses don't "put out," millions of libidinous men go livid. Unable to admit that pornography robs them of their manhood, these poor Internet patsies tell themselves that their desperate excitement is "sex."
Naturally, statistically, some such confused, angry men will turn from these (um, deceitful) women to guys. Even The Advocate admitted back in 1994 that 21 percent of their largely affluent, educated male readers reported molestation by an adult before age 15. Cho's writing suggests he was one of those.
So another coward belligerently stalked women and took illegal under-the-desk crotch photos of co-eds; the ones that the university seems to think were not criminal.
Of course, the man's hate-filled and medically altered brain has been fueled by the same, dare we say it, immoral refuse culture that taints us all; the coarsened, sadosexual television and film fare, the killer-simulating video games and Victoria Secret public spaces that have come to define our ignorant and barbaric age.
Even the Washington Post reported that Korean youths who knew Cho in high school "said he was a fan of violent video games, particularly Counterstrike, a hugely popular online game published by Microsoft, in which players join terrorism or counterterrorism groups and try to shoot each other using all types of guns."
Right, let's hear it for Bill Gates' gaming bottom line. Now we'll be told it's Christian inhibitions and guns that cause mass murder. Of course, at most high school gun clubs, even in my day, kids practiced shooting at targets, not at people.
Blogger "CLS" pointed out that proposed Virginia legislation in 2005 would have allowed students and faculty with a valid concealed handgun permit to carry firearms at Virginia Tech and other universities. Since the legislation was defeated, Virginia Tech became another "gun free zone" in our erototoxically crazed society.
Firearms for self-defense are verboten. Only firearms for massacres are allowed.
In several prior attacks, would-be killers were stopped by gun-totting faculty and students who had to first retrieve their firearms from their cars. Of course, these heroes don't appear above the fold in the New York Times. That honor is reserved for the latest glaring, copycat killer in pseudo military gear.
Blogger James Lewis raised another question about who taught Cho to hate.
Lewis asks what Cho learned in school. Although his answer is well worth reading in full, here is a glimpse:
"English studies at VT are a post-modern Disney World in which nihilism, moral and sexual boundary breaking, and fantasies of Marxist revolutionary violence are celebrated. They show up in a lot of faculty writing. Not by all the faculty, but probably by more than half. Just check out their websites."
I did. He's right. And talk about learning: After God got kicked out of American schools from kindergarten to university, the Ten Commandments came down and AIDS posters went up.
Kind friends, we are reaping the results of "The Marketing of Evil." As is the case in any war, it is the innocent, especially the children, who pay the price for our arrogant, egotistical sexual license and our ignorance of real American history and tradition.
Dr. Judith Reisman is president of the Institute for Media Education and is the author of "Kinsey, Crimes & Consequences."
Thursday, May 3, 2007
An Open Letter to My Wife By The Webmaster at No-Porn.com
An open letter to my wife:
Thank you for everything you are in my life. Thank you for the tremendous sacrifices you make on a daily basis. Thank you for setting such a remarkable example for our children. Your commitment to your studies since you returned to college has shown the kids far better than we could ever teach them otherwise the importance of an education. They see everything you do, and I am impressed at how well they do in school because they simply follow your example. It isn’t just a one-time example; it has been persistent over the past three years. Perhaps there are things I should be doing persistently by way of example for our children as well.
The children also feel of your love in our home. When you take time to teach them values that will last throughout their lives, when you insist on good manners, when you limit their television and video game privileges, and when you tuck them in and sing them songs, they feel of that love. When you give them hugs and kisses, they feel of that love.
Thank you for limiting the number of sports events and other extra curricular activities the kids are involved in. Thank you for taking care of yourself and recognizing that the kids don’t have to do everything. Thank you for giving them some activities and driving them there, but how nice those nights are when we’re all together and relaxed. Sometimes we feel like our house is too cluttered, but I’d rather have a cluttered house than a cluttered calendar.
Thank you for supporting me by managing the passwords on all our devices. I’d like to think that if the passwords weren’t there I’d be okay, but when you say, “I’d prefer to keep the computer filter running. I prefer that Covenant Eyes stay installed,” I know that you love me. As you say, you do trust me, but you don’t want me to have to endure constant temptation. Thank you for loving me enough to insist on some basic safety practices.
There are things I have done that I pray I will never do again. I can’t understand how I ever did some of those things. Was I a different person then? Not really, I suppose. I just had a secret part of me that I have said good-bye to; now the real me is a lot more comfortable with my day-to-day activities. No new secrets. I don’t think I can ever forgive myself for my old ways, and that’s okay with me. Forgiveness isn’t my priority; abstinence is. Forgiveness may come – it seems to come much easier from you – but what I really want is to live without porn for the rest of my life.
I will never forget when we sought counseling for our child, and the therapist turned her attention toward our relationship. Eventually, my “limited” use of porn (every few months at that time) was brought up. I thought I was doing pretty well compared to how things used to be. She asked you how you felt when I looked at porn. You sat in silence. She asked again, and a tear dripped down your cheek. You said, “I feel badly. I feel like he doesn’t love me.” That moment took me into real recovery. Your honesty and love is what led me to search for a way to break through my binge cycle.
Honey, I never use porn or masturbate now. I’m sorry that my childhood took me there. It stunted my emotional development in ways that still manifest themselves. Although I do not believe I will ever go back, I promise to be diligent and cautious and to do my best to avoid it, so that I never end up back in that compulsive cycle again.
Thank you for letting me know how much my acting out was hurting you. Thank you for supporting me through all of this darkness. I’ve always felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and now I am close enough to see that the light is you.
Love,
Wes
Wes is the webmaster at http://www.no-porn.com/ and the author of the e-book “Ten Keys to Breaking Pornography Addiction.” He can be contacted at http://us.f376.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=contact@no-porn.com. His wife does not participate at MAPA, but she has read this letter.
Thank you for everything you are in my life. Thank you for the tremendous sacrifices you make on a daily basis. Thank you for setting such a remarkable example for our children. Your commitment to your studies since you returned to college has shown the kids far better than we could ever teach them otherwise the importance of an education. They see everything you do, and I am impressed at how well they do in school because they simply follow your example. It isn’t just a one-time example; it has been persistent over the past three years. Perhaps there are things I should be doing persistently by way of example for our children as well.
The children also feel of your love in our home. When you take time to teach them values that will last throughout their lives, when you insist on good manners, when you limit their television and video game privileges, and when you tuck them in and sing them songs, they feel of that love. When you give them hugs and kisses, they feel of that love.
Thank you for limiting the number of sports events and other extra curricular activities the kids are involved in. Thank you for taking care of yourself and recognizing that the kids don’t have to do everything. Thank you for giving them some activities and driving them there, but how nice those nights are when we’re all together and relaxed. Sometimes we feel like our house is too cluttered, but I’d rather have a cluttered house than a cluttered calendar.
Thank you for supporting me by managing the passwords on all our devices. I’d like to think that if the passwords weren’t there I’d be okay, but when you say, “I’d prefer to keep the computer filter running. I prefer that Covenant Eyes stay installed,” I know that you love me. As you say, you do trust me, but you don’t want me to have to endure constant temptation. Thank you for loving me enough to insist on some basic safety practices.
There are things I have done that I pray I will never do again. I can’t understand how I ever did some of those things. Was I a different person then? Not really, I suppose. I just had a secret part of me that I have said good-bye to; now the real me is a lot more comfortable with my day-to-day activities. No new secrets. I don’t think I can ever forgive myself for my old ways, and that’s okay with me. Forgiveness isn’t my priority; abstinence is. Forgiveness may come – it seems to come much easier from you – but what I really want is to live without porn for the rest of my life.
I will never forget when we sought counseling for our child, and the therapist turned her attention toward our relationship. Eventually, my “limited” use of porn (every few months at that time) was brought up. I thought I was doing pretty well compared to how things used to be. She asked you how you felt when I looked at porn. You sat in silence. She asked again, and a tear dripped down your cheek. You said, “I feel badly. I feel like he doesn’t love me.” That moment took me into real recovery. Your honesty and love is what led me to search for a way to break through my binge cycle.
Honey, I never use porn or masturbate now. I’m sorry that my childhood took me there. It stunted my emotional development in ways that still manifest themselves. Although I do not believe I will ever go back, I promise to be diligent and cautious and to do my best to avoid it, so that I never end up back in that compulsive cycle again.
Thank you for letting me know how much my acting out was hurting you. Thank you for supporting me through all of this darkness. I’ve always felt there was a light at the end of the tunnel, and now I am close enough to see that the light is you.
Love,
Wes
Wes is the webmaster at http://www.no-porn.com/ and the author of the e-book “Ten Keys to Breaking Pornography Addiction.” He can be contacted at http://us.f376.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=contact@no-porn.com. His wife does not participate at MAPA, but she has read this letter.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
The Robbery of the Soul
The Robbery of the Soul
By: toomuchenergy
For the past year and a half I have struggled to explain the co-addict side of pornography addiction, both to my spouse and to my one friend who knows about the situation. It has been futile and indescribable until a few days ago.
The revelation occurred when we got on our boat. My husband went down below and immediately asked me if I had been out on the boat. I said, “no, why?” Then the look of despair came over him and he said we’ve been robbed. They broke the latch and went into the front window. Anything that could fit through it was taken.
Immediately he went to the marina computer system to watch the videos of the surveillance cameras. He watched for a while and finally saw the perpetrators making their 1:45 thieving spree by water. He pointed out every detail. See the waves, they came by boat. There are three of them. Finally in frustration, he realized that the resolution was so fuzzy that their true identity would never show up on film.
It was reported and we went back to the boat. Despite the loss being under the deductible, bringing the crime into light was a must – a way to stop them from doing it again perhaps.Then, he goes under to take inventory of what all was taken. “I feel so violated” he said.
He searched every nook and cranny of storage for clues and missing items. Then the “I should have …” statements started. I should have taken the DVD player off. I should always park it close to the camera or put it in dry storage. I’m going to get a motion sensor alarm so if anyone else does this (this is the 2nd boat robbery) an alarm will sound and make them leave.
It spoiled the care-free day we had planned on the lake. It costs us hard earned money. It raised distrust for night outings after the marina closes. It violated our comfortable space.
For a moment I saw the clarity of living with this addiction. Through a robbery.
It was like a strobe light and whistles blowing: “Pornography addiction is a “robbery of the soul””.
It starts with a violation of something dear to us – fidelity. The lies to hide the violation erode and destroy trust. It makes us doubt ourselves and second guess our every move (and our worth as humans). We devise ways to catch the perp. We devise ways to stop the violation. We suffer losses of magnitudes far greater than objects. It clouds every special occasion we plan. It taps into our financial and emotional bank accounts. It robs the soul.
Calmly after assimilating the two “violations” I verbalized this to the ears of my perp. He didn’t want to linger there. He knows the damage and saw the similarities (magnified one million times, often daily in the absence of true recovery). Finally, I can describe this world I’ve been living in. Although the damage to the soul is far greater than any worldly object we hold dear.
By: toomuchenergy
For the past year and a half I have struggled to explain the co-addict side of pornography addiction, both to my spouse and to my one friend who knows about the situation. It has been futile and indescribable until a few days ago.
The revelation occurred when we got on our boat. My husband went down below and immediately asked me if I had been out on the boat. I said, “no, why?” Then the look of despair came over him and he said we’ve been robbed. They broke the latch and went into the front window. Anything that could fit through it was taken.
Immediately he went to the marina computer system to watch the videos of the surveillance cameras. He watched for a while and finally saw the perpetrators making their 1:45 thieving spree by water. He pointed out every detail. See the waves, they came by boat. There are three of them. Finally in frustration, he realized that the resolution was so fuzzy that their true identity would never show up on film.
It was reported and we went back to the boat. Despite the loss being under the deductible, bringing the crime into light was a must – a way to stop them from doing it again perhaps.Then, he goes under to take inventory of what all was taken. “I feel so violated” he said.
He searched every nook and cranny of storage for clues and missing items. Then the “I should have …” statements started. I should have taken the DVD player off. I should always park it close to the camera or put it in dry storage. I’m going to get a motion sensor alarm so if anyone else does this (this is the 2nd boat robbery) an alarm will sound and make them leave.
It spoiled the care-free day we had planned on the lake. It costs us hard earned money. It raised distrust for night outings after the marina closes. It violated our comfortable space.
For a moment I saw the clarity of living with this addiction. Through a robbery.
It was like a strobe light and whistles blowing: “Pornography addiction is a “robbery of the soul””.
It starts with a violation of something dear to us – fidelity. The lies to hide the violation erode and destroy trust. It makes us doubt ourselves and second guess our every move (and our worth as humans). We devise ways to catch the perp. We devise ways to stop the violation. We suffer losses of magnitudes far greater than objects. It clouds every special occasion we plan. It taps into our financial and emotional bank accounts. It robs the soul.
Calmly after assimilating the two “violations” I verbalized this to the ears of my perp. He didn’t want to linger there. He knows the damage and saw the similarities (magnified one million times, often daily in the absence of true recovery). Finally, I can describe this world I’ve been living in. Although the damage to the soul is far greater than any worldly object we hold dear.
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