There’s a good chance that stay-at-home orders have changed up some of your daily habits. From washing your hands more frequently and hoarding sanitizer, to having groceries and meals delivered while staying on the couch all day, daily life in America has changed in a vast number of ways.
Being constantly stuck at home does have its downsides too. Some Americans are starved for social, face-to-face interactions and others are struggling with mental health issues. But according to a prominent Christian author, there is another consequence that you might not be thinking of: increased addiction to pornography.
Destruction from Porn
With so many people stuck inside their homes with little to do and easy internet access, Christian author Josh McDowell is afraid that many men will spend their time viewing porn and ultimately become addicted once our lives return to normal. For McDowell, this is nothing to take lightly.
"[Porn] is right at this moment destroying more churches, more pastors, more marriages, more people's lives, more relationships than any one thing has ever done simultaneously in history," said McDowell in a Christian Post interview. He is particularly worried that men who become addicted to porn will take “years to recover” and emphasizes that freeing them from their addiction will need the help of others to get there.
McDowell also lists pornography as “by far the greatest cancer ever to the church” and posits that there will be a greater need for professional counseling after this pandemic, not just a need for Jesus.
A Longtime Watchdog
McDowell may be a familiar name to some of you as he has been an active voice in the fight against pornography for years and has produced numerous blog articles on the dangers of pornography through his website. He gained attention in 2017 for urging parents to warn their children about the dangers of porn, starting when they’re the age of five. He also compared talking to your children to prepare them for “pervasive Internet pornography’ to warning them of the dangers and realities of drug abuse.
McDowell is not alone in the Christian fight against pornography. Just last month Dr. Michael Brown, an author as well as a Christian Post contributor, authored an article that condemned the company PornHub for offering premium memberships for free to those in countries hardest hit by the coronavirus. According to Dr. Brown, “porn leads to shame. To pollution. To degradation. To perversion. To death… It is prayer, not porn, to the rescue.”
Usage on the Rise
We can confirm one thing that McDowell is concerned about: stay-at-home orders are causing porn viewership to rise. PornHub, the industry leader in online pornography, saw a 25% increase in traffic from U.S. users since stay-at-home orders began. PornHub also released that as of April 14th, there have been more than 17 million searches on their website containing “Corona” or “Covid” and more than 1000 coronavirus related videos have been uploaded, some receiving over 1 million views.
When studying the effects of pornography on society at large though, early indications suggest there may be more positive effects than negative. Advocates argue that it leads to “increasing tolerance of other people's sexualities” and that it helps "sustaining sexual interest in long-term relationships" while studies have found correlative evidence that increased access to pornography leads to decreases in teenage pregnancy and forcible rape.
If pornography viewership is on the rise, is the moral and spiritual health of our communities at risk?
Let us know what you think! Should we be concerned about the threat of porn addiction during the coronavirus, or are certain Christians just trying to enforce their view of morality on everyone else?
