2007-02-21 - Staggering Numbers

Just to show you how big a deal sexual sin is, here are just some statistics I have seen.

• 20% of men admit to accessing pornography at work
• 22% of men were estimated to have had extramarital affairs as of 1996

Seventy-two percent of all visitors to pornography sites are male. For those who are quick at math, you'll notice that leaves females as 28% of the visitors. Other sources have placed the gender ration at 2 to 1. It's not just men; women struggle with this too.

• 13% of women admit to accessing pornography at work.
• 17% of all women struggle with pornography addiction.
• 14% of women were estimated to have had extramarital affairs as of 1996

Here are some broader statistics without regard to gender.

• 10% of all adults admit to Internet sexual addiction. These are just those that admit to being addicts. How many are still in denial?
• 40,000,000 American adults who regularly visit Internet pornography websites

Porn isn't just a an addiction that is battled by people far outside the walls of the church. The war is also within the walls.

• 53% of Promise Keeper men viewed pornography in the last week 53% according to a survey in 1996
• 47% of Christians surveyed said pornography is a major problem in the home
• 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography according to the results of a ChristiaNet poll reported by Marketwire.com
• 61% of married Christian men masturbate according to a survey of some 600 Christian men in Dr. Archibald Hart's book, "The Sexual Man". 82% of these have sex with themselves an average of once a week; 10% have sex with self 5-10 times per month, 6% more than 15 times per month, and 1% more than 20 times a month.

In a letter posted on blazinggrace.com, Chuck Swindoll writes, "The most recent studies available suggest that one out of every two people - that's 50% of the people sitting in our pews - are looking at and/or could be addicted to Internet pornography."

It goes all the way to those at the core of the church.

• 33% of clergy admitted to having visited a sexually explicit Web site in a 2000 Christianity Today survey. Of those who had visited a porn site, 53% had visited such sites "a few times" in the past year, and 18% visit sexually explicit sites between a couple of times a month and more than once a week.

Christianity Today conducted another survey in December 2001 revealing the following statistics:

• 51% of pastors surveyed say porn is a temptation.
• 37% of pastors surveyed say it's currently a struggle
• 53% of pastors have visited porn sites in the past year
• 18% of pastors look at porn a couple times a month.
• 54% of 1,351 pastors surveyed had viewed Internet pornography within the last year according to a 2002 survey conducted by Pastors.com and 30% of these had visited within the last 30 days.

These statistics came from familysafemedia.com, blazinggrace.org, xxxchurch.com, and 1wayout.org. It's just a sampling of the staggering statistics I found.

If you are counted in these numbers, I urge you to seek a way to break free of the sexual addictions and sin's strong hold on you. If you are suffering due to the addictions of others, I urge you to pray for God to reveal their sin to them and empower them to pull away from the siren's seductive call.

IHFHBOH
Adam

adam@cfdevotionals.org
http://www.cfdevotionals.org