Anne Reed
AFA Journal staff writer
October 2015 – “Pornography is not only violence against women, it is promoting violence against women,” said Shelley Lubben, former porn worker who now rescues women and men out of the industry.
While the porn industry works to portray a world of glamour and pleasure, the adult film world consists of brutality, degradation, threats, manipulation, rape, trafficking, disease, drugs and alcohol abuse, depression, and suicide. The average life expectancy of a porn performer is 36.2 years. Lubben has revealed all in her book Truth Behind the Fantasy of Porn: the Greatest Illusion on Earth.
A team of researchers analyzed 50 of the top-selling pornographic films for violent content. Out of 304 scenes portrayed, 88% contained physical violence, and 49% contained verbal aggression. The typical scene averaged 12 physical or verbal attacks, while as many as 128 attacks were found in one scene. The violence was directed toward women 94% of the time. John Wood, a therapist who works with adolescents addicted to pornography explained in an article about the effects of porn, “A competitive market means that pornographers are trying to outdo each other to come up with the most extreme images.”
“I have hundreds of hours of footage they won’t show you … of girls being raped on the set, screaming and crying and begging them to please stop,” explained Lubben during a presentation before a church audience.
The church
Why is an ex-porn star talking about pornography in a church? Perhaps the better question is, “What is porn doing in the homes and heads of those who make up the church?”
After Lubben had left the porn industry, she became friends with a pastor’s wayward son. They began to journey toward Christ together and soon married. However, Lubben’s recovery didn’t come easy or fast. She would drag herself to the altar almost every Sunday and Wednesday asking for prayer. Over the years, she began to realize the immensity of God’s love for her.
With some Holy Spirit prodding, Lubben reluctantly posted her story on a website. She didn’t expect much in the way of feedback, so she was caught off guard when men began expressing their gratefulness for helping them turn away from porn.
Men and boys
Then one day, Morality in Media, now the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, asked her for an interview. During the conversation, she learned that 54% of pastors and five out of ten church-going men were viewing pornography. Although Lubben was well aware of the inner workings of the multi-billion dollar pornography business, she was shocked and brokenhearted to discover these Christian viewership statistics.
Lubben began to realize there was a porn pandemic, and that God had put a calling on her life. She sat down and wrote a desperate cry to the men who had become ensnared – believing women in pornographic films enjoyed it. She wrote:
We hate being touched by strangers who care nothing about us. We hate being degraded with their foul smells and sweaty bodies. Some women hate it so much you can hear them vomiting in the bathroom between scenes… [Porn producers] want you to think we enjoy being degraded by all kinds of repulsive acts…The truth is there is no fantasy in porn. It’s all a lie …
The real truth is we porn actresses want to end the shame and trauma of our lives, but we can’t do it alone. We need you men to fight for our freedom and give us back our honor. We need you to hold us in your strong arms while we sob tears over our deep wounds and begin to heal. We want you to throw out our movies and help piece together the shattered fragments of our lives. We need you to pray for us the next 15 years so God will hear and repair our ruined lives.
Lubben’s husband Garrett had literally done that for her. In 2007, the couple started the Pink Cross Foundation, a nonprofit that rescues adult film workers by offering emotional, financial, and transitional support. Pink Cross also reaches out to those addicted to pornography, educates the general public about pornography, and combats community deterioration by working to strengthen laws that protect women and children from modern-day slavery.
“[The pornography industry is] teaching a whole generation of boys and men that [women] want to be hit, gagged, choked, and kicked,” said Lubben. While porn is often called “adult material,” statistics show that online pornography is accessed by 12- to 17-year-olds more than any other age group. The majority of teens are being educated at least in part by an industry that provides a hideously distorted idea of God’s beautiful, sacred sexual union.
Cordelia Anderson of Sensibilities Prevention Services has studied the effects of widespread pornography use for years. At a packed symposium at the U.S. Capitol in July, she stressed the need for a comprehensive public strategy that includes education, law enforcement, business pressure, and a revitalized media culture. “No mass social disorder has ever come under control just by treating the individual,” she said.
But it is a start.
Get out now
Scripture addresses the dichotomy between pornography and life in Christ: “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never!” (1 Corinthians 6:13-15 ESV)
“You can’t be united to both at the same time,” said Lubben who earned a doctorate in theology in 2013. “This has very serious implications. Paul was very concerned about taking the members away from Christ and uniting them with prostitutes. Every time you view pornography, you are uniting yourself with a prostitute. You are uniting yourself with sexually diseased, mentally ill, demonized people, and you are bringing that into your home. And you are no longer united with Christ.”
Lubben believes God is going to heal the people working in porn and His church at the same time. “Satan is out to destroy families,” she said. “He is out to destroy men. He is out to destroy the church of Jesus Christ.”
If you struggle with temptation in this area, get rid of enabling devices. In other words, flee from sexual immorality. The more a person looks at porn, the more difficult it is to break free. Ongoing exposure physically changes the brain. But damage to the brain can be undone by turning away from the sin.
Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and run with endurance the race that is set before you, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of your faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” 
▶ 58% of divorces were due to a spouse viewing excessive amounts of online pornography.
▶ Child pornography is one of the fastest growing online businesses. And the content is becoming much worse. In 2008, Internet Watch Foundation found 1,536 child abuse domains.
Source: thepinkcross.org/porn-statistics
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Get educated, get help:
▶ Restoration Path restorationpath.org 877-320-5217 (See AFA Journal 10/14.)
▶ Fight the New Drug fightthenewdrug.org 385-313-8629
▶ National Center on Sexual Exploitation endsexualexploitation.org 202-393-7245
▶ The Pink Cross Foundation thepinkcross.org (Caution: site contains graphic content.)
