This was like reading about my own life and the 28 years of porn addiction that I lived through.
If you have never seen this before, I urge you to print it off and keep it handy for the next time someone asks you ,"Why is porn so bad?"
This article was sent to me by a friend at another forum, and I thought the truths within hit me so close to home that I wanted to share it with y'all. Let me know what you think.


THE LIES PORNOGRAPHY TAUGHT ME

Last week I was asked to do a presentation at a large secular university in San Salvador, El Salvador. The topic was to be the harmful effects of pornography. Using my own life as an example, I made ther case that pornography took my hand as a somewhat innocent 12 year old boy and perverted and warped my mind as it taught me these 7 lies.

1. A woman's value is in her body. Porn dehumanizes women and reduces them to a sex toy, a play thing, something to be enjoyed and then discarded. Before I knew it, I began looking at the girls in my junior high classes this way. Pornography never once exalted the true worth of a woman.

2. All women sexually desired me, whether they acted like it or not. This may sound egotistical, but I tell you the truth. At twelve years of age I began looking at soft core porn magazines. The women in those magazines all wanted me - at least they sure looked like it in the pictures. Porn subtely convinced me that the women around me secretly desired me; that any expression to the contrary wasx their attempt to supress their "true" desires. It is not uncommon in a porn movie for a woman to resist the man's initial sexual advances. However, by the time the movie is over, she is shown to have enjoyed the sex more than him. The porn producers may say that it is all just acting, but at a young age I was convinced this was true of the girls around me.

3. Sex was the most important thing worth living for. In the world of pornography, there is one thing worth living for that stands head and shoulders above everything else: sex. If you don't have sex, no matter what you do have, you're not experiencing life's zenith, its pinnacle, the very reason for which you were created. Forget making the world a better
place, raising a family, making a difference in our communities or the lives of others...certainly forget about loving and pleasing God.

4. Sex has no pricetag and no consequences. I never saw anyone get an STD, never saw a porn star have an abortion, never saw one die of HIV, never saw one cry over the emotional pain of a person using her body and then discarding her, never saw the pain inside her heart as she secretly longed for a better life... As far as I knew, sex was something to be enjoyed and would never leave any scars or cause me (or anyone else) pain, let alone mar a person for life or even be the cause for their death. Today I look back on my life and have to see two girls who had abortions partially because of me... not to mention the emotional pain my promiscuous lifestlye wrought on many others. Porn didn't tell me anything about that, and so warped my mind that I never gave it a thought.

5. The more sex I have the happier I'll be. Sex and happiness. You can't have the one without the other: you can't be happy without sex and you can't have sex without being happy. One big lie. What porn didn't tell me was how hollowed out I'd become after baseing my on this lie. By 26 years of age I had a failed marriage and lost a good job... all to porn. I was anything but happy - although I had had my share of sex. I was miserable, empty and hopeless.

6. There is nothing sacred or special about sex. Sex was created by God to be a tremendous blessing to mankind. In the context of marriage it is a place where a man and his wife can physically and emotionally express their deep love for one another. It was the first blessing God pronounced on man. He created it to be a sacred, beautiful and holy thing, pleasing in His eyes and for married couples to enjoy without shame. Pornography taught me the exact opposite... that there is nothing noble or virtuous about sex, nothing sacred, and that God wants to keep us from enjoying its fullness by confining it to marriage.

7. Living the lifestyle portrayed in pornography would liberate my moral conscience. Pornography promised me freedom but enslaved me in the end. It reduced my life to my libido,all the while promising me liberty. I cannot put into words the slavery I lived in. Suffice it to say, the wages of sin truly are death. I lived with death working out its corrupting influences inside of me.

Of course, there is another side of my story. Above is the stark reality of what pornography's lies produced in my life. Yet, at my lowest point in life, when I truly did not think there was freedom for me, Jesus Christ stepped in an revealed the Cross and His Blood to me in a fresh and liberating way. Today, 9 years later, I am not only free from sexual sin, but I live in the power of the life Christ purchased for every one of God's children on Calvary.

I finished my presentation by testifying to the reality of Christ and His power to redeem the worst of sinners - and not just redeem, but to transform from children of darkness to children of light by fashioning His very nature within them.

What about you? Can you relate? Are there other lies porn has taught you?