The Pink Cross Foundation

On a forum on Feminist Mormon Housewives, there was a man who wrote a post about how he wished that the women in the Church weren’t so quick to condemn their men about pornography. He said at a dinner party, everyone was clamoring to ask a newly appointed Bishop what his biggest surprise was. His answer was the number of men involved with pornography (he estimated 40% of the men in the ward). The outcry from the women was that it was grounds for divorce on the spot; that it was equal to adultery. This man believed their reaction only fueled the problem, and in a way I tend to agree.

I haven’t ever watched it but I know a majority of Americans do. And they see it as a harmless pleasure. 12 % of all websites are pornographic, and Utah has the highest amount of porn subscription users in the US. I don’t understand why this is, because the LDS Church has been among the most upfront to speak out against it. So it’s a strange irony that LDS men have such a problem with it…But so far, condemnation, hellfire and brimstone hasn’t seemed to cut down on it at all.

I’m not interested in condemning people who use pornography. However, I found this website and I think it would be enough to help people to lose interest in it real quickly:

http://www.shelleylubben.com/

This woman is a former porn star who started a non profit called The Pink Cross Foundation to help women leave the industry. You can read the stories of the women on the site, and all of them are heartbreaking.

Just about every one of the women were sexually molested at a young age.

Many of them had alcoholic fathers.

All of them experience brutal violence in the making of the film.

All of them abuse drugs and alcohol on the set of the movie to get through the pain and shame.

Many of them ran away from home and had no way to support themselves.

Most of them will become exposed to diseases like AIDS and STDs.

Many commit suicide.

All of them feel that prostitution is less degrading. And they return to prostitution where most of them got into the industry, only to come back to porn because they need the money.

It may be a harmless pleasure to watch for an non-addicted person— I’m not here to say. I’m no expert on the subject, though I did speak with a marriage counselor in an Israeli hostel one time who told me, in his experience, the greatest destroyer of marriage today is porn.

I just found this stat:

At the 2003 meeting of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a gathering of the nation’s divorce lawyers, attendees revealed that 58% of their divorces were a result of a spouse looking at excessive amounts of pornography online.

I just think people should be aware of what kind of industry they are supporting, and what a terrible place these women (and men) are in their lives to make money selling themselves.

Is it just me, or isn’t that enough for the average person to no longer derive sexual pleasure from watching pornography? And knowing this, can people really justify contributing money and time to an industry which destroys so many lives, even if they don’t feel it affects their own?

I’m “preaching to the choir”  I’m sure because  most people who read this will all agree with me, but I did think this was a new twist to the pornography dilemma that I had never considered.

"Pornography is modern day slavery for thousands of women and the millions of addicts who can't stop clicking.” ~Shelley Lubben (her before and after getting out of the industry pictures)