In my small circle of relatives and aquaintances, my first husband was addicted to pornography and that was the reason why after 17 years of marriage I left him.

It has become a problem in my 2nd marriage of 10 years.

My brother's wife left him after over 25 years of marriage (both professing Christians) because of HIS addiction to pornography. Which he never admitted to me until after his divorce.

An in-law has problems with it. He is also a professing Christian.

The Priest at the Catholic Church I used to attend admitted to me he has had problems with it since accidently seeing a picture someone left along side a road, when he was a child. He also said about 50% of the men at his Church have a problem with it.

My online friend, who's husband runs a Church radio station and is a fundamentalist Baptist has to have his wife change the password on their computer because he cannot contol his urges to look at internet porn.

The "reliable souce" is people like ME who have to fight this in their lives.

The best excuse I heard form a Professing Christian man who has this problem was: "Well, the Bible doesn't SPECIFICALLY say anything about NOT looking at porn, so it is OK".

I appreciate your reply, but I cannot credit you as a "reliable source".

I am not saying that you are not reliable, but you are not a reliable source supporting this allegation for two reasons.

First, your information does not support this claim. You mention 7 men that you claim to personally know to be addicted to pornography. I am not a Christian, but even I know more than 14 Christian men. Your information does not appear to support a claim of a 50% rate among men; you mention no women at all, therefore you fail as a reliable source supporting a claimed 20% addiction rate among women.

Additionally, among those whom you claim personal knowledge of their addiction, some are men as to whom you may have reason to have a less than unbiased view - an ex-husband you left and a current husband you have problems with.

Secondly, your example of the priest who claims 50% of his congregation are addicted is certainly invalid as hearsay. He has told you something about another claiming it to be true. This sort of 'he said that he said' is known as so unreliable that it may not even be heard, let alone credited as reliable, in a legal setting.

Anecdotal evidence has very little use. As an example, let me assure you that of all the smokers I personally know (some hundreds of people - yes, I know a lot of people) only one has ever died of lung cancer. Based on this, can we assume that there is only a very insignificant link between smoking and lung cancer?

I have to say - I think he has a point, Moonshadow.....

I can only claim what I know from my own experience. As someone who is dealing with and has dealt with that.

I can't really speak for "aquaintances" I know and do not spend 24/7 a week with.

As for the Priest, I don't know what reason he woul dhave had for lying to me about it.

50%, 10% or 25% what does it really matter? All I know is it causes alot of heartache for alot of people but those who claim to be Christian and have that problem must struggle with having to keep it secret, so I would think whatever number being reported is probably not the truth.

Exactly. Focusing on the numbers just takes away from the point of Diana's post. It causes heartache to many people Christian or not. It is a serious problem and one that is either ignored or sometimes even glorified or at least thought of a humorous.

I've studied statistics in two different graduate courses. I came to one conclusion. Statistics are only reliable for the population used to create those statistics. No survey except perhaps the US Census, ever contacts every person in the population that lives in the United States.

Actually, I am wondering how many of these surveys include the significant numbers of non-English speakers in the United States?

Lynne Chapman states my feelings exactly: Regardless of the numbers, pornography is causing a lot of heartache in Christian homes today.

Takes away from the point?

I'm sorry. When someone says: "What are your feelings about the statistics: 50% of Christian men and 20% of Christian women are addicted to porn." the numbers are the point.

This was the question asked in the initial post.

if the numbers are false, it changes the entire complexion of the argument concerning porn addiction.



Usually an argument such as "50%, 10% or 25% what does it really matter?" means that the alleged statistics cited are completely insupportable.

This ties inextricably to "it causes alot of heartache for alot of people", well, not so many people as you may think. Because If the numbers are actually 1% for men and so low as to be unmeasurable for women it's a whole different discussion. In this case, it's not really a lot of people at all is it?

As to the allure porn being so strong that merely seeing one picture causes addiction, I think if this were true, we would be talking numbers more like 100%, for I would guess, this is a guess not a statistic, that every man has seen a picture of a naked women, the intent of which picture was sexual.

Every person is different on how they handle temptation. I don't think it is a good idea to put percentages on it. Just to say there are alot of people that has a problem with it and what we should do as christians is pray for them. You will not be able to get rid of the problem because we live in a sinful world. But God tells us in his word that we should pray for the sinners, that they will know the truth and the truth will set them free.

Hello to all! I am new here and was reading some of the content about Christians and Pornography. I do not believe people who are porn seekers have a pure heart of Christ and it is satanic.I believe pornography comes from the minds of those who have extremely low self esteem and are burden with other self detructive issues. As a teenager my husband was introduced to pornograhpy by his dad! YES, that's what I said, and how sick is that?? His dad thought it would help to teach him manly acts. Why or how could he do that? We cannot even phathom the thought of introducing pornography to our children. We are doing everything possible to raise them on a Christ like path. We are born again, spirit filled Christians and have had much counseling due to this issue as the pornography addictin my husband had leaked over and over agian. I can tell you I am totally against pornography. I am here to tell you it nearly destroyed my marriage. I argued with my husband (now totally clean but had an addiction to it)for years that it was wrong. He would always use the ole "but I'm not doing it in the flesh" or "it's just adding spice to my mind so when I'm with you". I could not agree!! It was an excuse!! 10 years ago, finally he was broken with prayer. He prayed what ever it takes, God, to be freed from it. And it worked. But it was an enormous struggle we went thru to get over it. We have been married 20 years now, and a book was published about it and the details to all this, ironically the book is named after his prayer "What Ever It Takes,God" by John Oarc. If you are in need of real life story and help to overcome the obstacles in your marriage, ie: pornograhy, adultery, pain and the struggle of forgivenessgive...give his book a try.
Faith Up- No matter how long you stuggle!!

Thank you everyone who has responded so far. This issue needs to be addressed by writers and publishers. As one writer says, no one wants to hurt true Christian writers by giving Christian Novels a bad name.

Some secular publishers are pushing "Christian books" that don't match what I expect for a Christian book. Others apparently are self-published or done at those places that let ANYONE publish a book.