The number of men and women coming forward and admitting they have a problem with pornography or another form of sexual sin is rapidly rising. While it is encouraging to see people finally reaching out for help, it is very discouraging to know that people have been secretly wrestling with this sin for decades but since society has not looked at pornography as being a problem, nobody ever thought about how dangerous it could be to the person viewing it and also what destructive behaviors it could lead to. Another serious problem is that the Church has not chosen to address sexual sin as the true problem that it is. Whenever someone has been bold enough to ask for help in the Church, it is swept under the rug and kept very quiet resulting in other people feeling they cannot talk about that issue in the one place that they should feel safe enough to confess it and find help and restoration.

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There were 2.56 billion visits to PornHub in May of 2018 alone. Also in May of 2018, 25% of the top 12 most visited websites were porn sites and the numbers show that porn sites received more daily visitors that Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined. A study by Free Republic in 2013 stated that 77% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 years old visit pornographic websites on a monthly basis. A more recent study from 2016, The Porn Phenomenon from The Barna Group in conjunction with Josh McDowell Ministries, shows the following statistics (based on 3,000 people surveyed):

• More than one quarter (27%) of young adults ages 25-30 first viewed pornography before puberty.

• The average age of exposure to pornography is 9 years old

• 93% of boys and 62% of girls are exposed to Internet pornography before the age of 18

• 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”

• 33% of women, ages 13-24 seek out porn at least once a month

• 70% of Christian youth pastors have had at least one teen come to them for help in dealing with porn in the past 12 months (high school boys- 92%, middle school boys- 57%, high school girls- 23%, middle school girls- 10%)

• 57% of pastors and 64% of youth pastors admitted they are currently struggling with or have struggled with pornography in the past

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

• 67% of males and 33% of females seek out pornography daily, weekly and monthly

 

In a study done by the National Online Resource Center on Violence Against Women, they talk about the relationship between pornography and sexual abuse/violent sexual crimes and they included the following statement from a 24-year-old man who was accused of sexually abusing children as a bus driver; “…just [self-stimulating] to the thought (of what was in the pornographic videos) wasn’t getting it for me anymore. I actually had to be a part of it, or actually had to do something about it”. So even though we cannot say that pornography is the direct cause of people committing sexual crimes, the research shows a striking correlation between the viewing of pornography and people who do commit sexual crimes. TurnBacks founders' own story bears truth to that statement; he was watching pornography for decades before he abused his step-daughter.

 

The mission of TurnBack Ministries is really two-fold; to help people break free from sexual bondage and addictions for their own good but also to prevent one more man or woman from becoming a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of someone who was not able to break free from their addiction.