No sooner had I finished writing about the connection between Christians supporting homosexuality and supporting other forms of immorality and I come across a new study showing the epidemic porn use among Christians. (See the charts below for study results)

A collaborative effort between Proven Men Ministries and the Barna Group has revealed the results of a new study showing just how addicted to porn many Christians really are. Proven Men Ministries founder Joel Hesch says this is an “epidemic” that may “spiral out of control” if left unchecked.

A recent article at The Blaze shares details about the study:

“Results were derived from a nationally representative sample of 1,000 adults across the U.S., with a sampling error of ±3.1 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. Read the complete results here.”

The survey seeks to determine the frequency of porn consumption among adults. What is shocking, looking at the results, is that in the categories of “several times a day,” “at least once a day,” “several times a month,” and “at least once a month,” Christian men scored higher than non-Christian men. This means that on average Christian men are viewing porn more regularly than non-Christian men.

The study reveals that 19% of Christian men are viewing porn at least once a day. As well, 27% of Christian men are viewing porn at least once a month. In total the study shows that 46% of Christian men are viewing porn at least once a month, on average. That statistic is both shocking and saddening.

What is becoming clearer is that as men frequently look at images of two men and a woman, or two women and a man, or even two women or two men, it becomes easier for them to support homosexuality, same-sex “marriage,” polygamy, and polyamory. The images become a normal part of the lives of these men and make it easier for them to support various forms of immorality the Bible clearly does not.

It’s troubling enough that the culture at large has misunderstood gender, sexuality, and marriage. The fact that Christian men and woman are contributing to the confusion is worse. By allowing themselves to feast on porn Christians are losing their understanding of the complimentary nature God designed between men and women. With pornographic images fueling their ideas of what it means to “love” or to be a man or woman the cultural influence is drowning biblical teaching.

When you couple this with a lack of clear, dedicated teaching on biblical gender roles and sexuality the obvious harm to society is hard to miss. Churches for too many years took for granted that people understood that God “created them male and female,” or that God intended marriage to be the union of one man and one woman. But as the church remained silent on these foundational issues the culture filled the information vacuum with ideas that stand in direct opposition to God’s design.

To make matters worse, a new study from the UK shows the detriments easy-to-access online porn are having on teenagers. The article states:

“In a survey of 18-year-olds, 72 per cent said that pornography leads to unrealistic attitudes about sex. Most of the young women asked, 66 per cent, agreed that growing up would be easier if pornography was harder to access. Almost half of those questioned for the survey said that sexting – sending sexual or naked photos or videos – is ‘part of everyday life for teenagers’.”

The article goes on to say that many students believe online porn should be much harder to access. They also agreed that starting sex-education in elementary school is too soon and should be postponed until high-school.

For years groups like Planned Parenthood and GLSEN have sought to get explicit sex-education into every elementary school in the country. Somehow they don’t believe it is dangerous to expose young children to sexually explicit images. And yet, online porn sites, by federal law, require all viewers to be 18 years old. Obviously common sense is not a strong point for these groups.

But the harms being perpetrated by them are very real. And many teens are being pressured (some are being bullied) into engaging in sexually dangerous activity as a result.

All this is a recipe for disaster. A culture awash in sex with ever increasing demands for harder, more explicit content at younger ages, and a church that is silent on the topics that directly impact how one views gender and sexuality. This is the only possible and logical outcome. How can we expect anything less when we our churches have abdicated their role in teaching “the whole counsel of God” to a godless culture that is all too eager to distort it?

If we (the church) aren’t willing to address issues that are critical in helping people develop a biblical worldview, we have no right to expect them to do so. We have a responsibility to instruct and teach in such a way that we develop mature disciples; failing to do so has consequences.