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Military Porn Addictions Growing
Agape Press ^ | January 5, 2007 | AFA journal

Posted on 01/08/2007 1:22:51 AM PST by balch3

(AgapePress) - An increasing number of servicemen and women are confessing to pornography addictions and most government-run military base and post exchanges are only adding to the problem by selling it.

In 1996, Congress enacted the Military Honor and Decency Act, which bans military stores from selling sexually explicit material, but according to Elaine Donnelly, president of the Center for Military Readiness, the act is not being enforced.

"Congress is going to have to take a look at this," Donnelly said. "Certainly the Pentagon is going to have to enforce those rules. It's a matter of good order and discipline and not just a matter of religion or free speech. It's a matter that the military itself needs to be concerned about."

Such concern is apparent among military chaplains like Father Mark Reilly, who recently returned from a Marine Corps tour in Iraq.

"I don't think I've ever been confronted as much face-to-face with men and women -- in and out of confessional -- saying, 'I'm addicted to porn and I don't know how to get out of it,'" Reilly said. "They're looking for a life preserver. It's wrecking their marriages. Like any addiction, they lose control."

Reilly said it's the combination of war stress and being away from loved ones that ignite the lust for pornography. Lust turns to addiction and addiction results in imitative behavior as seen in the Abu Ghraib photos -- made for and by porn addicts.

In The New Republic, Rochelle Gurstein described the Abu Ghraib photos as ones that "speak to the coercive and brutalizing nature of the pornographic imaginations so prevalent in our world today."

Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who leads the U.S. military archdiocese, believes chaplains can play a big role in military porn sobriety by influencing "what is sold in the [exchanges], what's allowed in a public space, an office or a barracks, and I think a chaplain can have great leverage here."

The pornography that is sold at military exchanges is part of a $57 billion-a-year worldwide industry.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: airforce; army; coastguard; marines; military; navy; porn; pornography
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Porn weakens our military. Not a victimelss crime
1 posted on 01/08/2007 1:22:53 AM PST by balch3
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To: balch3
Military porn ....


2 posted on 01/08/2007 1:27:48 AM PST by ARE SOLE (I thought the Party was supposed to court the voters and not the other way around?)
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To: balch3

Who the heck invented "porn addiction"? Seems to me that there's an alterior motive to inventing a new disease. Inviting congress to look at is cannot be good for anybody.


3 posted on 01/08/2007 1:39:13 AM PST by meyer (Bring back the Contract with America and you'll bring back the Republican majority.)
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To: balch3

Can't find a picture but get Gunnery Sergeant Hartman to straighten them out with drills of "This is my rifle, this is my gun"


4 posted on 01/08/2007 1:39:38 AM PST by generalhammond
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To: balch3

What a bunch of BS.

By their standards, I'm sure 80% or more of America's young men suffer from a "porn addiction"


5 posted on 01/08/2007 1:43:25 AM PST by RWR8189 (Support the Republican Study Committee)
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To: balch3
"Reilly said it's the combination of war stress and being away from loved ones that ignite the lust for pornography."

I think there may be some underlying issues from childhood.

6 posted on 01/08/2007 1:43:46 AM PST by endthematrix (Both poverty and riches are the offspring of thought.)
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To: balch3
OK that might be true, but what do you expect servicemembers to do. Many commands don't allow people to date within the command, they can't go to the prostitution houses or they are in trouble. I am not advocating any of this, but as a realist, what do you expect these guys to do? I am totally leaving out morals out of the equation because my morals are must stricter in this regard than others.
7 posted on 01/08/2007 1:51:06 AM PST by napscoordinator
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To: generalhammond
There's a recruit here from TEXAS!!


8 posted on 01/08/2007 1:54:10 AM PST by greedo
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To: napscoordinator

"Archbishop Edwin O'Brien, who leads the U.S. military archdiocese, believes chaplains can play a big role in military porn sobriety by influencing "what is sold in the [exchanges], what's allowed in a public space, an office or a barracks, and I think a chaplain can have great leverage here."


9 posted on 01/08/2007 2:04:43 AM PST by balch3
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To: balch3

Well, at least they mention both men and women. Oftern feminists make it sound as though men use porn to subjugate women while conservative churches are often of the impression that women are too virtuous to use porn so articles you generally see in their publications are about sinful men failing in their duties as fathers and husbands while their wives tearfully reflect on the hurt.

While older adults males who use porn make up a substantial majority the figures for younger women reflect that it's almost equal -- if your measurement is how many have accessed a porn site in a given time.


10 posted on 01/08/2007 2:17:02 AM PST by Bushwacker777
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To: balch3
I have been in Iraq for 8 months. The only "porn" sold here in the exchange is Maxim magazine. Health and comfort inspections find some that has been mailed but not a lot. The Internet is closely monitored and violators are dealt with...

I don't feel comfortable with a Catholic Chaplin speaking outside the chain of command on what he hears in confession. If he hasn't brought this to the attention of commanders then he has no creditability. If he has and they found it to be true and took no action then there is a problem. Don't see it with the Marines I am working with every day.
11 posted on 01/08/2007 2:17:54 AM PST by RedEyeJack
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To: balch3
I have been in Iraq for 8 months. The only "porn" sold here in the exchange is Maxim magazine. Health and comfort inspections find some that has been mailed but not a lot. The Internet is closely monitored and violators are dealt with...

I don't feel comfortable with a Catholic Chaplin speaking outside the chain of command on what he hears in confession. If he hasn't brought this to the attention of commanders then he has no creditability. If he has and they found it to be true and took no action then there is a problem. Don't see it with the Marines I am working with every day.
12 posted on 01/08/2007 2:22:00 AM PST by RedEyeJack
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To: RedEyeJack
The only "porn" sold here in the exchange is Maxim magazine.

That's a damn shame.

13 posted on 01/08/2007 2:30:53 AM PST by Zeroisanumber (Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: balch3
This all-volunteer military attracts products of the pulik school system, where we are teaching "tolerance" and "diversity", and we expect the outcome to NOT encourage this pornography addiction?

Take a look at the TV Network shows, and explain why this is a surprise?????

14 posted on 01/08/2007 2:44:56 AM PST by traditional1
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To: ARE SOLE
Military porn ....

That gave me wood...

15 posted on 01/08/2007 2:45:19 AM PST by strange1 ("Show the enemy harm so he shall not advance" Sun Tzu The Art of War)
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To: balch3

This yokel trying to get Penthouse out of the Exchanges is probably the same yokel who won't allow a soldier/Marine/airman under 21 to have a beer.


16 posted on 01/08/2007 2:49:09 AM PST by JoeGar
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To: balch3

There is more of an agenda here than a problem. This is one of those issues that an organization, which has run out of fund raising hot issues, hypes into another "end of the world as we know it". Nothing new here, move along.


17 posted on 01/08/2007 3:31:52 AM PST by KeyWest (Help stamp out taglines!)
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To: traditional1

bingo.


18 posted on 01/08/2007 4:16:25 AM PST by balch3
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To: RedEyeJack
I don't feel comfortable with a Catholic Chaplin speaking outside the chain of command on what he hears in confession.

I noticed that in the article as well. And, the military "chain of command" is not the only chain the Chaplin is violating.

19 posted on 01/08/2007 4:30:06 AM PST by IamConservative (Any man who agrees with you on everything, will lie to anyone.)
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To: RWR8189
Not BS....

..This is very serious....a hidden addiction.

20 posted on 01/08/2007 4:32:40 AM PST by Guenevere (Duncan Hunter for President....2008!)
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