Posted on 05/12/2011 8:17:19 PM PDT by TheDingoAteMyBaby
Crystal Renaud's eight-year addiction to pornography began at the age of 10, when she inadvertently found a titillating magazine in her brother's bathroom. Later, masturbation, phone sex and cyber sex insidiously escalated out of the loneliness in her life and continued a cycle of social isolation and shame.
"Pornography became my closest friend. My only friend. Consistent, reliable," she said.
Renaud, now 26, had heard sermons at her Kansas City megachurch condemning pornography, but none had ever mentioned women. It wasn't until she met another Christian woman with the same addiction that she realized she was not alone and began a ministry to help others.
Now, Renaud has written about her journey in a new book, "Dirty Girls Come Clean," which she hopes will help others find the compassion and resources she didn't get until she was nearly 19.
When she arranged a dangerous encounter in a hotel room with a man, Renaud knew she had hit rock bottom. At the last minute, she backed out of the liaison and turned to God for inspiration.
In 2009, she launched a website, DirtyGirlMinistries, choosing the name to capture the attention of women searching for pornography online. In less than a week, she received more than 300 responses to her surveys and countless emails from women.
"When you have the church and their nearly silent stance on pornography even as it affects men, paired with women in the congregation being the ones who are addicted, you have a hot soup of silence, isolation and shame," said Renaud. "Who are they going to turn to when the world says it's okay, and the church is silent?"
She said the church eventually did address the issue in 2000 and today, Renaud counsels other women at the Westside Family Church in Lenexa, Kan.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
where were these women 20 yrs ago?
Wait! Didn’t N.O.W. say that only men used pornography?
Nah. Too easy.
If that’s the way you choose to read it.
I was suprised to find this out, too. Though romance novels have always been popular with women.
So, wait. She heard sermons condemning the use of pornography, but because they only mentioned men, she didn’t listen? The number of women who get heavily involved in looking at porn is probably much lower than the number of men, so it would make sense to hit the bigger target first. She couldn’t “translate” the lesson to her own situation?
“Gosh, porn is so destructive. I should think about stopping. Oh, wait, the pastor only mentioned men; I’m still ok. Phew”
I’m sadly embarrassed to say I was thinking the same thing.
Good grief, I have known a few women who had a ton of these books. They’re soft core porn in words.
Huh? Why pick on Christians I wonder? It’s not just Christians... but pretty much ~everybody~ has ignored the rising popularity of porn among women. Nobody suspects women being into porn.
Everybody but their I.T. guy, anyway.
Having plumbed the nether regions of thousands of corporate computers over the last 20+ years, I can safely say that porn is not only not just a male problem... but the gals are catching up in spades— and they’re often into far weirder stuff.
It’s a CRISIS!!!!!!!! We’re all too free!!!!!! What about the CHILDREN??????
She was...fun.
Men are visual, women are audio.
Yep..sonci eyes for men...sonic ears for woman.
Unless it’s male gay porn, there are always women involved, sometimes more than one..... Or so I’ve heard.
Men target, women get pleasure out of being targeted. Hence porn usualy does not do it for them. However, lately, feminism has “empowered” women to seek and molest men the way “men do it”. This has resulted in strange sexual behavioral changes such as lesbian, bisexual and pedophilia amongst women.
Once that drug is in the system of folkes, it’s like any other happy pill while doing a horrible act, in the heart at least.
Do not ask Obama, he is so relative, a cop killer in the whitehouse doing murder poetry inuendos is ok by his crew.
Think I’m gonna like you.
I hate it when I’m molested by Women.
Just makes me feel so cheap.
And used.
And... oh... I’ll be back later.
What is she talking about? The Church has consistently warned about this and preached against it, as well as contraception, abortion, divorce and other evils that are spiraling out of control
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