Day 19 - The Porn Industry
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." -Matthew 5:8
OVERVIEW
Sex
sells. Particularly when it’s glorified in a manner that dehumanizes
its participants and attracts both men and women of all ages. The
pornography industry in the United States has increased in
unprecedented ways
over the last two decades, which can be largely accredited to
technological advances (such as the creation of the internet).
In Day 2 of
this prayer guide we gave some statistics of pornography use on a
personal level; however, the porn industry’s effect on society as a
whole and its corrupt practices are more than eye-opening.
AREAS TO CONSIDER
- The pornography industry abuses people for its own gain.
Although porn actors willingly engage in creating porn, the abuse and
trauma that they go through is horrific. Men and women are subject to
not only psychological and emotional abuse, but physical abuse as well.
Many times in hardcore porn scenes, women are choked, slapped, pushed
and called obscenities of all sorts. And this is apart from the already
brutal and unnatural sexual acts they have to perform. To cope with
this, many become addicted to drugs and/or alcohol. Unfortunately, some
of them commit suicide or die from sexually transmitted diseases. (1)
- Some adult websites steal from their consumers. According
to researchers who presented at a 2010 Harvard symposium on information
security, 3.23 percent of 269,000 pornographic websites were laden with
viruses, spyware and adware which puts the personal information of
consumers at risk. (2)
- Pornography fuels and acts as a platform for human trafficking. Many times criminal human trafficking organizations use pornographic websites to advertise to their clients or make money from videos where trafficking victims were forced to film themselves having sex. (3) Click here to read a more in-depth article on the link between porn and human trafficking from our Freedom 21 anti-trafficking prayer initiative in 2013.
PERSONAL REPENTANCE
Father
God, I ask that You would forgive me if I, in any way, have
participated in consuming pornographic material which aids corruption in
the porn industry. I repent for my ungodly actions, and ask that You
would strengthen me to remain pure; when tempted, open my eyes to the personal and societal consequences of consuming pornography.
CORPORATE REPENTANCE
Lord,
we repent on behalf of the nation for allowing pornography to enter
into our homes and churches. Forgive us for the objectifying women, the
abuse of individuals for profit and the idolatry of sexual sin. As the
biggest producer and exporter of pornography in the world, we also
repent for causing other nations to sin because of our unbridled
appetites. Expose the pornography industry for what it is, and end its corruption of our society.
PRAY
- Pray for the porn industry to lose its
foothold in American society. Declare that our nation is a purified
nation under the blood of Jesus! (Psalm 33:12)
- Pray that corruption in the industry
would be exposed. This includes the mistreatment of men and women, the
abuse of consumers and their personal information and its ties with
human trafficking. (Mark 4:22)
- Pray for men in our nation to not be controlled by their lustful desires that lead to the degradation and objectifying of women and the breakdown of their families. (Psalm 119:37)
ACT
- Monitor your children’s time on the internet as well as the
content that they are viewing. It would also be good to discuss the
dangers of pornography with them. A great resource for this is Josh
McDowell’s book, Just 1 Click Away.
- Protect yourself and your family by installing online accountability programs such as X3Watch or Covenant Eyes.
SOURCES
- Bancroft, Caitlin. “Porn Stars Can’t Leave the Industry, and Here’s Why.” Mic.com. 1 October 2013. http://mic.com/articles/66025/
porn-stars-can-t-leave-the- industry-and-here-s-why
- Morran, Chris. “Science Confirms Porn Sites Are Shockingly Corrupt.” Consumerist.com. 16 June 2010. http://consumerist.com/2010/
06/16/science-confirms-porn- sites-are-shockingly-corrupt/
- McNall, Marney. “The Justice Side of Porn.” Relevant Magazine. http://www.relevantmagazine.
com/reject-apathy/loss- innocents/justice-side-porn/
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