CALGARY, Canada – According to a new study published in the Journal of Adolescence and a separate survey conducted by a faith-based polling group, people who regularly attend church are more or less likely to watch porn.
Researchers from the University of Calgary found consumption of porn is “weaker at higher levels of religious attendance, particularly among boys, and religious attendance also weakens age-based increases in pornography consumption for both boys and girls” and while overall pornography use “increases across adolescence into young adulthood, immersion in a religious community can help weaken these increases.”
In describing the results of a survey recently conducted by the Barna Group, meanwhile, evangelical apologist Josh McDowell said “At least 78.8 percent of all men that attend evangelical churches watch pornography” as well as “probably 80% percent of all evangelical youth pastors.”
Taken together, the research and data shows churchgoers are “more or less” likely to watch porn, said veteran media analyst Frederick Frost.
“If you’re wondering whether churchgoers watch porn in large numbers, the most precise and intellectually honest answer is ‘pretty much, yeah’ based on both statistical data and anecdotal evidence from field interviews,” Frost said. “It’s not as definitive as the ‘uh-huh’ or ‘darn tootin’ results researchers arrived at when investigating whether Islamic jihadists or federal government workers watch porn, but it’s still a pretty reliable conclusion.”
Walter Ayes, a Southern Baptist from Holly Springs, Miss., said he’s not sure what to make of the claim he and his fellow parishioners “may or may not” watch more porn than heathens.
“I’m not saying I’ve never watched porn, but it’s not like I watch it every day,” Aye said. “More like every other day — skipping Sundays for sure, though…usually.”
Rev. Billy Joe Crouch, an evangelical preacher who hails from Bell Buckle, Tenn., said while he’d like to believe none of his flock indulges in watching porn, if these studies and his own observations are any indication, their browser histories probably say otherwise.
“Every so often, I’ll catch Jeffrey Spivey staring at the screen of his phone in the middle of a sermon,” Crouch said. “When I’ve confronted him about it, he always claims he was reading from the same scripture I was talking about in my sermon — but if that’s so, he’s the first man I’ve ever met who gets an erection reading II Timothy.”
Sunset Fawkes, the executive director of the National Center on Blaming Porn for Everything (NCBPE) said she’s heartened to hear churchgoers are less likely to watch porn, yet troubled to hear they are also more likely to watch porn.
“While religion often teaches about respecting the inherent dignity of people who aren’t homosexuals or foreigners, pornography infringes on that dignity by suggesting it’s OK to have sex with anybody, regardless of their nationality or political orientation, without even using a condom,” Fawkes said. “It makes sense to me that religious young adults are less likely to fantasize about having sex with their step-sister — even if they’re undeniably more likely to have actual sex with their blood-relative sister.”
Despite the conclusions of the Calgary study, Fawkes cautioned people to temper their relief with “desperate, unrelenting fear” concerning the impact of porn on churchgoers who do watch it.
“While it’s nice to know many young Christian men don’t indulge in the sin of pornography, we must still be wary of the soon-to-be rapists, serial killers and congressmen which 100-percent of porn addicts inevitably become,” Fawkes said. “Let’s face it: No matter how often he goes to church, the sincerity of a serial killer’s Christian beliefs are going to be cold comfort to the people he kills, dismembers and/or eats.”
