A new study was published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives showing that the more conservative and religious a state is, the more likely its residents are to purchase porn on-line. Of the 10 states where porn is most consumed, eight of them gave their electoral votes to John McCain. Out of the 10 states with the lowest consumption, only four did.
Guess which state consumes the most porn per capita? Mormon land, Utah. They don’t drink caffeine, but they sure like their porn. Basically, if you are selling on-line porn, be sure to target the people who profess religious or conservative values.
As I was reading the article, I was getting smug and angry at the hypocrisy revealed by the conservative and religious types. And then a few of Jesus’ words came to mind: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28).
In Matt 7:3-5, Jesus follows up with: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
I was being hypocritical about the hypocrites. Thankfully, Paul continues in Romans 5: “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
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5 responses to “Jesus is Coming Back, Hide Your Porn”
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Reminds me of a NYTimes article I read a few years back about how the states with the highest concern for “family values” were also the ones with the highest divorce rates…
I had the same initial reaction when I read about that study, but later learned that there is really more to it. I think this is a good opportunity to see how media/journalists/blogs can tend to focus on what they want to see in any given study.
The actual study can be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/agfcat
and ends by stating the following:
“On the whole, these adult entertainment subscription patterns show a remarkable
consistency: all but eleven states have between two and three subscribers to this service per thousand broadband households, and all but four have between 1.5 and
3.5. With interest in online adult entertainment relatively constant across regions, there’s little sign of a major divide.”
In other words, as a percentage, there is only 0.2% difference among all but 4 of the states.
Not that I don’t think you make some good points vis-a-vis law/response to/etc., but personally I have taken this story as a new example of a reason not to trust the average news story because they can often be found to be saying the exact opposite of the people who did the study they are referencing.
For more information you can look here too:
http://tinyurl.com/cr6fas
Daniel, the author does conclude that there isn’t a correlation between porn subscriptions and 2004 voting, but that’s not all he says. For instance, “Subscriptions are slightly more prevalent in states that have enacted conservative legislation on sexuality. In the 27 states where “defense of marriage” amendments have been adopted, subscriptions to this adult entertainment service are weakly more prevalent than in other states. In such states, there were 0.2 more subscribers to this adult web site per thousand broadband households, 11 percent more than in other states.”
Speaking on religious belief, those who believed in God also had more porn subscriptions. He says, “subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where surveys indicate conservative positions on religion, gender roles, and sexuality. In states where more people agree that “Even today miracles are performed by the power of God” and “I never doubt the existence of God,” there are more subscriptions to this service. Subscriptions are also more prevalent in states where more people agree that “I have old-fashioned values about family and marriage” and “AIDS might be God’s punishment for immoral sexual behavior.”
This is the MOST interesting part, by far…
“Where more people report regularly attending religious services, overall subscription
rates are not statistically significantly different from subscriptions elsewhere. However, in such regions, a statistically significantly smaller proportion of subscriptions begin on Sundays, compared with other regions. …This analysis suggests that, on the whole, those who attend religious services shift their consumption of adult entertainment to other days of the week, despite on average consuming the same amount of adult entertainment.”
Wow… So religious people consume just as much porn as everybody else, they just make sure to keep the Sabbath holy!
More than a handful of writers have pointed out the shoddy research in that study.
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
— Benjamin Disraeli