Republican Rep. Ross Spano sponsored the bill which was passed in Tallahassee, Florida, on Tuesday morning calling for research, education and policy changes to protect Florida citizens from pornography.
There is a “… correlation between pornography use and mental and physical illnesses, difficulty forming and maintaining intimate relationships, unhealthy brain development and cognitive function, and deviant, problematic or dangerous sexual behavior,” said Spano.
Utah, the state with the highest consumption of porn per person, was the first state to pass a resolution declaring pornography as a public health crisis back in 2016. Utah has since been joined by South Dakota, Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania and this week, Florida. Even the Canadian Parliament has passed a motion to study the public health impacts of pornography.
President Trump also signed a pledge during his election campaign to defend the innocence and dignity of America’s children by enforcing the existing federal laws and advancing public policies designed to, “prevent the sexual exploitation of children online and to make the Internet safer for all.”
So why the movement to declare porn a public health crisis?
Because it is!
Jeremy Wiles, who directed a film series that helps men break free from porn, had the opportunity to interview several brain experts in the making of the Conquer Series. “I interviewed a neuroscientist who showed me brain SPECT scans of a normal brain, a heroin addicted brain and a porn-addicted brain. The porn-addicted brain had the greatest deterioration in brain activity” says Wiles.
When a mother is breastfeeding her child, her brain releases neurochemicals that bond her to her child. When you watch porn, these same powerful neurochemicals such as dopamine are released, which bond you to those images. This is why Satan attacks our sexuality so much, because in attacking human sexuality it actually interferes with human bonding. According to neuropsychologist, Dr. Tim Jennings from the Conquer Series, “Any type of repetitive behavior will create trails in our brain that are going to fire on an automatic sequence.” The result is years of bondage.
Churches should be the hospitals in this health crisis, but only 7 percent of pastors say they have a program for those struggling with porn.
In a 2016 Barna Group research study commissioned by Josh McDowell Ministry, church leadership indicated that this problem is much bigger than it was 20 years ago, yet only 7 percent of pastors said they have a ministry program for those struggling with porn.
Thankfully, there is a solution!
Thousands of churches in over 70 countries are beginning to run the Conquer Series, a cinematic study to help men conquer porn and walk in freedom.
Dr. Ted Roberts, host of the Conquer Series, who has counseled thousands of men to freedom from pornography, discusses why so many people in the church can’t stop viewing porn. Churches often treat this issue as a moral one, but fail to recognize it’s mainly a brain problem, “We tell men to try harder, pray harder, love Jesus more.” Dr. Roberts adds, “But, what starts off as a moral problem, quickly becomes a brain problem. Telling a man to try harder is only tightening the ‘noose’ of bondage.”
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