The Religious Right has won another round, with the Tennessee Senate passing a resolution declaring pornography a public health crisis. Once the governor signs it, the resolution will require education, policy changes, and prevention and research on pornography’s negative effects.

Specifically, the resolution says that more millennials are exposed to porn at a younger age, causing eating disorders, and that “children and youth are exposed to pornography that often times serves as their sex education and shapes their sexual templates.” The resolution now needs to pass the House before it’s sent to Gov. Bill Haslam’s desk. (Tennessean)

The Republican group behind the bill, The National Decency Coalition, states their mission on their website:

Prayer, personal relationships, and hard work are the foundation principles of our organization. We are a new organization but with years of individual experience. Most of our leadership came together on the issue of pornography in today’s culture, and it’s easy accessibility to children. In collaborating plans and strategy, we started National Decency Coalition. Goals: Fight and succeed on issues that protect or create a decent society for generations to come.

Encourage and assist policy makers and government authorities to enforce current obscenity laws, create new obscenity laws that reflect declining trends, and take real action toward the ‘health crisis’ of pornography.

One of the resources on their page compares watching porn to using drugs, specifically cocaine.

On the surface, cocaine and porn don’t seem to have a lot in common but studies are showing that viewing pornography tricks your brain into releasing the same pleasure chemicals that drugs do. What’s more is your brain actually begins to rewire itself because of this artificial stimulation. It may sound crazy, but it’s true.

Why yes, it does sound pretty crazy now that you mention it. Cocaine?







The Arkansas legislature passed a similar resolution in March, also with the backing of The National Decency Coalition. This brings the total to five states and the Southern Baptist Convention.

According to the group, exposure to pornography during youth can cause one to:

Have sex at a younger age

Engage in risky sexual behavior

Have negative attitudes toward using condoms

Have oral sex, anal sex, and sex with multiple partners, which increases their risk for sexually transmitted infections

View women as sex objects

Have attitudes that support violence against women

Believe “rape myths”—beliefs that justify or defend rape

Report decreased empathy for rape victims

Choose not to intervene when witnessing college sexual assault

Have increasingly aggressive behavioral tendencies

Report increased interest in coercing partners into unwanted sex acts

Experience increased difficulty in developing intimate relationships with partners

Report decreased sexual interest in their girlfriends or wives

Develop compulsive Internet use

The group claims obscenity laws have not been enforced during the last seven years (ahem…blame Obama!) by the Justice Department. They ask that you volunteer in campaigns, donate money, and pray…a lot. Or pray and donate a lot of money…if you can stay off Pornhub.com long enough.