Pornography's Growing Technological Reach
March 21, 2009 by Patrick Madrid
Filed under Patrick's Blog
One week from today, the star of [some pornographic movies] will walk onto the campus of Truman State University in Kirksville to debate a pastor on the subject most dear to his heart: porn. It will fall to the Rev. Craig Gross to rebut actor Ron Jeremy’s arguments that pornography is a harmless activity that most people pursue in the privacy of their own homes. . .
The Truman State debate is just one upcoming anti-porn event organized by local Christians. Such events reflect mounting distress among Christians over pornography’s growing technological reach.
From individual congregations to large organizations like the St. Louis Archdiocese, the Missouri Baptist Convention and the local stakes of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, anxious religious leaders are confronting what some call an increasingly dangerous moral threat to children and marriages.
Rick Schatz is on the executive board of the Cincinnati-based Religious Alliance Against Pornography, representing about 50 faith groups and Christian denominations.
“We’ve been around for 23 years, and I have never seen the level of concern among faith leaders that I have in the last year,” Schatz said. “Because of the explosion in new, mobile technologies, there’s a new threat level.”
The AVN Media Network, which tracks the pornography industry, reported total retail sales of $13 billion in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available. . . (continue reading)
It isn’t a growing threat – it is and has been massive for years. As an executive at an Internet company, we were aware of what Internet users were dong. We also knew that porn was on the leading edge of video technology and purchasing on line. It is a shame, but this is not new – it predates high speed, but is amplified by it. It is already moving to cell phones. Technology is morality neutral, and the bad guys are better at it than the good guys.