'We need to talk about porn': Norway Christians
Untold numbers of Christians are addicted to pornography but are too ashamed to admit it to their families and friends, according to a travelling Norwegian preacher who is urging people hooked on porn to speak out.
He says many stood up at the meeting and told of his partial dependence on porn. According to Larsen knew a lot of it is good to finally be allowed to talk about something they have largely kept completely to themselves.
At our meetings we have men low threshold and would like to get together to talk. We want to put people in freedom. So we took up this team. It turns out that many men feel the shame. They have become slaves of something they really do not want to have power over them. I think porn is something we have to talk much more about. It has negative consequences for many, says Larsen.
At the meeting on Monday attended a preacher living in Søgne. He travels the land and sea with a lecture on Christians and porn. He said he was totally dependent on porn and that it destroyed the marriage. For personal reasons he did not bear the name in the newspaper.
- Porn is a giant industry, and it creates dependency. For a Christian, this is sin. Thus, Christians might find enough major problems. They are addicted to porn, but can not tell anyone, because it is perceived as unsuccessful. It is the distance between the outer life and a secret life as experienced dirty. No people feel good, then, says the man.
He points to studies from the USA and Canada
13-year-olds
According to the man a third of 13-year-olds in Canada had seen porn
42 percent of American women said they felt less attractive because the man view so much porn.
41 percent of American women said they were uncertain about the man and himself and the entire relationship because of her husband's porn use.
- It's a male phenomenon, and it is just devastating. Sex is fine, but it belongs in a marriage and in the real world. Porn is a huge problem throughout society, but my focus is to help Christians out of dependency and self-condemnation, says the man.
- It's not just that Christian communities have taboos, then, and that when sex can not be talked about or practiced, some fleeing into porn instead?
- Some may have with it as well to do. Transparency is always important. But openness does not solve everything. Something is really wrong, and we have to deal with what is wrong. Porn is an industry that wants you become addicted. It is speculative. It will you not well, says the preacher in Søgne.
Porno-settlement
He thinks it is sad that women are far out on the left side is almost the only ones who fight against pornography.
- Porn is a huge problem. We're not talking about what is perhaps one of our greatest social evils. Christian congregations must deal with porn, but they must also help individuals to dare to speak out so that they can be helped, says the man from Søgne.
Although he believes all the Christian men who struggle with porn should find a friend, preferably another man to talk to.
- Then you can gradually get free. Porn destroys people and destroying marriages. It's like drug abuse. Before you had to the kiosk, now everything can be downloaded on the internet. Thus, young men sitting alone in front of the screen. They come all the way to run, he said.
The shame is dangerous
Professor of Sexology, Elsa Almaas, says porn generally do not create dependency, but that a smaller group will be dependent.
- Porn is not particularly dangerous. But what is dangerous is when you are sitting alone with it, and can not talk about it. Most people get horny porn. It's positive. However, when this positive feeling combined with feelings of shame and a sense of failure, one can get a mental problem, says Elsa Almaas.
She says Christian communities are so many things, and she believes most people have been open and modern.
- So you do not get me to say that the Christian community itself is the problem here. Porn is rightly a speculative industry. Most people who watch porn, get tired. Porn is mainly a teenage phenomenon. Most drop porn when they start having sex in real life, says Almaas.
- Should we be for or against porn?
- Both. Almost all porn is made speculative to stir up men. It is bad. Female sight is not good. On the other hand, I wish we made that porn cookbooks, movies that helped people to get a better sex life. It had only been positive, says Almaas.
