Sexual Addiction
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Sexual Addiction

Recently at Andrews University, we had a visit from the leading Christian writer and speaker on sexual addiction, Mark Laaser. Before his visit, I had no idea how pervasive sexual addictions are, not only within culture, but within the Christian community.

If sexual addiction is as bad as the statistics below suggest, this raises huge implications for discipleship training, because if we are not addressing sexual addictions and pornography at church, but at the same time trying to teach discipleship, we will probably make little impact.

Here are some of the statistics from the website of  http://www.freedombeginshere.org/

• Sex is the #1 thing people search for on the Internet
• There are over 420 million Pornographic Internet pages
• 12 to 17 year olds are the largest consumers of Internet pornography
• 42.7% of Internet users view pornography
• The pornography industry is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink
• 70% of women keep their cyber activities secret
• Women, more than men, are likely to act out their behaviors in real life, such as having multiple partners, casual sex, or affairs.
• 68 million porn search engine requests daily
• 2006 Worldwide Porn Revenues = $97.06 billion

Source: http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html

• 7 of 10 lay leaders in the church admitted to visiting adult Web sites at least once a week
• 4 out of 10 pastors said they did the same.

Source: http://www.thealabamabaptist.org/print-edition-article-detail.php?id_art=3316

• 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography.
• 60% of the women who answered the survey admitted to having significant struggles with lust;
• 40% admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year; and 20% of the church-going female participants struggle with looking at pornography on an ongoing basis.

Source: http://christiannews.christianet.com/1154951956.htm

If you would like to find resources to help with this problem and to raise awareness in your church, you can visit http://www.freedombeginshere.org/ and also Mark Laaser’s website, http://www.faithfulandtrueministries.com/

Best wishes for the Journey, Gavin.

Gavin Anthony
gavin.anthony@gmail.com