We need to talk about porn – but how?
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A 2023 Ofcom report revealed 49 per cent of respondents had viewed pornography in the month of its survey. With content becoming increasingly toxic and mainstream, the church needs to talk about porn. Ian Henderson from the Naked Truth Project explains how to get the conversation started.
“I will never forget the girl who told me about her first kiss with her boyfriend, aged 12, who strangled her. He had seen it in pornography and thought it was normal.”
So reads part of a 2023 report, “A lot of it is actually just abuse” – young people and pornography, by the Children’s Commissioner.
This is one of many reasons why we need to talk about porn.
But it’s not exactly a comfortable conversation – especially in church circles – so the question is, how? The Naked Truth Project has spent the last decade helping schools, parents, churches, politicians and people addicted to pornography to do just that, through a variety of education and recovery programmes.
With them having spoken at a Limitless leaders’ event recently, we turned to them for advice.
The charity’s founder and CEO, Ian Henderson (pictured above, inset), says the conversation should begin by understanding the reach and nature of porn; abandoning age-old images of old men in macs emerging from dark alley sex shops clutching top-shelf magazines.
“In 2007 the landscape of pornography changed forever – the iPhone launched and this marked the switch from the sex shop to the smartphone,” Ian says.
“Today, pornography isn’t something for a few people on the fringes. Porn websites have the highest traffic on the internet and with that has come a sense of normalcy and acceptability.”
THIS ISN'T THE END OF THE STORY!
Read the whole article in context in the June 2024 issue of Direction Magazine.
Direction Magazine
Direction is the official monthly publication of the Elim Pentecostal Churches in the UK, and is packed with all Elim's latest news, inspiration, vision and teaching. Find the latest edition and many back issues of Direction here.
