Ok so the Barna Group, at the behest of Josh McDowell Ministries, has done a study on porn use and teens/young adults. It turns out that young people (big surprise) are more sexually liberated than the previous generation (just like with every generation before them):

When they talk about pornography with friends, 90% of teens, and 96% of young adults say they do so in an either neutral, accepting, or encouraging way

Only one in 20 young adults and one in 10 teens say their friends think viewing pornography is a bad thing

Less than one-third (32%) say viewing porn is “usually or always wrong” compared to the more than half (56%) who say not recycling is “usually or always wrong”

They’re even looking at each other’s naughty bits:

66% of teens and young adults have received a sexually explicit image and 41% have sent one (usually from/to their boy/girlfriend or friend)

Wait, young people post-puberty are experimenting with violating sexual taboos? How did this new, never-before-seen phenomenon develop?

Good for these kids. Their church leaders are trying to ensure they’ll have a clunky, awkward wedding night (should these kids elect to get married). Here’s a pro tip, young adults: you want to have an awesome wedding night? Know what you’re doing. Play on the basketball team? Remember the first time you tried to shoot the ball how shit you were at it? Now you can probably hit a fair number of your shots, right? Well, sex is the same way. Your first time you’re going to suck at it (phrasing). But the more you do it, the better you’re going to be (your partner or partners will thank you for this).

The study also hit on porn use within the Church:

21% of youth pastors and 14% of pastors admit they currently struggle with using porn.

• About 12% of Youth Pastors and 5% of Pastors say there are addicted to porn

• 87% of pastors who use porn feel a great sense of shame about it

• 55% of pastors who use porn say they live in constant fear of being discovered

Ok, porn addiction is bullshit. It’s not a clinical term, you can’t get diagnosed with porn addiction, it’s a bullshit term. It’s used by people who get turned on watching other mythically attractive people bone who have also been taught since birth to be ashamed of that harmless facet of their humanity. That’s it.

I actually pity the 87% who feel a great sense of shame for watching porn and the 55% who live in constant fear of being discovered. The price of having fun should never be that high. So let me show you what rocks about being an atheist, of being an open person with few, if any secrets (I can’t think of any):

I have watched porn. Don’t like it? Tough. I enjoyed the hell out of it and I fapped mightily. I don’t care if you’re a church, a priest, or my very best friend – this is who I am, and you can take it or leave it. I had fun and nobody got hurt (unless you count not being able to dictate how *I* enjoy *my* time and body as being “hurt”). Of course, churches most often wish to deny you that autonomy. Nietzsche was right when he said that no price is too high for the privilege of owning yourself. That’s one of the beauties of atheism: who you are is up to you to discover and to decide, not for the church to tell you.

Sex should be fun. If influences in your life are making it a “struggle” then they’re seriously impacting the amount of happiness in your life.

Of course, Josh McDowell has the solution: a conference to talk about how to overcome these findings. Yes, because the way to bring people who are watching orgies, S&M, anal sex (trust me, anal sex in porn is like cranberries in juice – it’s all over the place), etc. is to offer them monogamous sex, abstinence until marriage, and nothing in the butt. That’s going to go over great.

Better idea to all you religious people who feel shame watching porn: ditch the church and come hang out with people who love you for who are. Hell, we might pop up some popcorn and watch porn with you (or even make some of our own, who knows?).

(Via Tracey Moody at the Friendly Atheist)