In the three minutes it takes you to read this, approximately US$554,000 would have been spent on pornography worldwide. A local currency perspective equates it to TT$3,700,000. About 28,258 persons view pornography globally per second; 4.2 million websites and 116,000 daily requests for child pornography.
What is the relevance of these statistics? The truth is that pornography and its effects are more than likely already in your home. The Catholic Church in Trinidad and Tobago is highlighting and combatting the influence of pornography on our families. It is crucial to focus on pornography and its devastating influence on parents and marriages, for these are the pillars of society.
In 2004 before the United States Senate, sociologist Dr Jill Manning revealed data indicating that 56 percent of divorce cases involved one party having an obsessive interest in pornographic websites. The key here is that in a man, porn actually changes the way the left side of our brains function; the side that gives us objectivity. It eventually erodes the brain's ability to differentiate between a person and an inanimate object.
The husband that has become addicted to pornography can no longer express genuine, non-sexual and sexual intimacy and affection with his wife. This is because the brain no longer registers his spouse as a human being and her ability to compete sexually with a pornographic fantasy is impossible. The effects of wives addicted to pornography on their husbands wreak equal havoc.
For the past 15 years Dr Kevin B. Skinner, a licensed marriage and family therapist, has worked with hundreds of individuals and couples whose lives have been changed by pornography. He conducted a survey of over 4,000 persons whose relationships were negatively affected by pornography.
The common symptoms were fear, anxiety, feeling emotionally on edge, inadequacy and depression. In Trinidad and Tobago even though actual statistics are lacking, it is clear that our society is likewise suffering from the destruction of marriages that the pornography plague has triggered.
At the heart of the Church's approach is the reorientation of parents addicted to pornography, to once again rediscover the beauty of intimacy and sexuality in their marriage relationship. St. Pope John Paul II said "In short, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much of the person, but that it shows far too little." In essence, the beauty of the human person combines our physical layout with our intrinsic value of being made in the image and likeness of God, who is Love!
Allan Julien
Catholic Voices