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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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To: balch3

I spoke often with chaplains on deployment last year. Not one mentioned a porn 'epidemic', esp. considering what the other poster said is absolutely true; they're buying maxim, FHM, etc. Sometimes relatives will send Playboy, penthouse, and the like, but it isn't like the service is awash in the perverted bizarre stuff.


41 posted on 01/08/2007 6:04:22 AM PST by jjm2111 (http://www.purveryors-of-truth.blogspot.com)
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To: balch3

OHMYGOD! You don't mean that military guys are actually looking at -- gasp -- GIRLIE pictures...!!!

OH NO... When did THIS start? This has NEVER happened before in the all the history of men going off to war!

/yeesh


42 posted on 01/08/2007 6:11:41 AM PST by Ramius ([sip])
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To: RedEyeJack

Stay safe RedEyeJack and thank you greatly for your service and for the info.


43 posted on 01/08/2007 6:14:37 AM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: RWR8189

is there such a thing as a western sexual politics burqua?

Their analysts like this who needs religious fanatics?


44 posted on 01/08/2007 6:16:52 AM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
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To: balch3
speaking of words you'll take, try 'they'. It's appropriate when speaking of more than one.
45 posted on 01/08/2007 6:19:12 AM PST by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: All
We aren’t no thin red ’eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints:
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints.

— Kipling, Tommy.


46 posted on 01/08/2007 6:22:45 AM PST by dighton
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To: darkwing104
Good thing we didn't have this problem in WWII...we'd have never won that war with pervasive images of scantily dressed women...


47 posted on 01/08/2007 6:27:57 AM PST by Joe 6-pack (Voted Free Republic's Most Eligible Bachelor: 2006. Love them Diebold machines.)
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To: Joe 6-pack


48 posted on 01/08/2007 6:53:22 AM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: balch3

Father Mark Reilly

49 posted on 01/08/2007 6:58:09 AM PST by TexKat (Just because you did not see it or read it, that does not mean it did or did not happen.)
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To: balch3

What a load of nanny state BS. The stateside Main Exchanges have been forced (years ago) to remove explicit material from their shelves and now only carry mag's like Playboy, Maxim, etc. If that causes someone to become addicted, they had bigger problems before and this sure as hell isn't going to solve it. If anything, the internet would be a bigger cause to this problem than something 12 year old kids get worked up about.

I'm going out on a limb here, if the INDIVIDUAL doesn't have the ability to resist the temptation then the INDIVIDUAL should seek help. Don't punish all the rest. What the hell ever happened to individual responsibility and accoutability? Of course the Chaplains want this off the base, talk about a vested interest.

Sheesh, the first go around was bad enough and as this article proves, only the first round in the battle to make our military a testing ground for the nanny state mentality.

It won't stop until someone makes these ass-clowns PROVE this BS.


SZ


50 posted on 01/08/2007 7:01:21 AM PST by SZonian (Fighting Caliphobia one detractor at a time)
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To: RedEyeJack

Thank you for your service, RedEyeJack! Stay safe and good luck! I'll pray for your safe return.


51 posted on 01/08/2007 7:04:25 AM PST by LibertyGrrrl (http://www.conservativepunk.com)
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To: RedEyeJack

Thank you for your service, RedEyeJack! Stay safe and good luck! I'll pray for your safe return.


52 posted on 01/08/2007 7:04:31 AM PST by LibertyGrrrl (http://www.conservativepunk.com)
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To: meyer
Who the heck invented "porn addiction"?

Hillary must have as Bill as the FIRST VICTIM of this terrible disease!!! /sarcasm still on.

53 posted on 01/08/2007 7:06:38 AM PST by RetiredArmy (I don't march to other people's opinion of me or my beliefs. I march to my beliefs and heart.)
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To: balch3

I see some hidden agenda here. After all, if people in the military are addicted to porn, then what's the big deal about letting gays in the military. Another example of gays trying to gain acceptance by tearing down straight institutions.


54 posted on 01/08/2007 7:09:51 AM PST by dfwgator
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To: generalhammond
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"


55 posted on 01/08/2007 7:10:14 AM PST by Lazamataz (Me a skeptic? I trust you have proof.)
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To: ChuteTheMall

Whatever that means....I have no idea what your point is. Since you just joined it does not matter much anyway.


56 posted on 01/08/2007 8:37:08 AM PST by napscoordinator
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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.

Excellent point.

I'm no expert--but it seems to me, how do people in the military, esp. those serving in war zones, have time to be "addicted" to porn? What is the line between looking at porn sites during down time, and "addiction"?

57 posted on 01/08/2007 8:44:35 AM PST by proud American in Canada (Thy Will Be Done.)
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To: balch3
Porn weakens our military. Not a victimelss crime

Busybody social reformers weaken our military. Not a victimless crime.

58 posted on 01/08/2007 8:51:21 AM PST by Physicist
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To: greedo

Have you ever noticed that Private Pyle is actor Vincent D'Onofrio, the cool detective star of LAw & Order: Criminal Intent?


59 posted on 01/08/2007 8:51:53 AM PST by ichabod1 (After the attacks of 9/11, profiling Muslims is more like profiling the Klan.)
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To: darkwing104
They should've been around during WWII! There was all kinds of Porn, on airplanes, in the barracks, bars, ships and such. What a bunch of crap.

Crap is right.
we send 19 year kids out to kill the enemy,but some sissy gets his panties in wad over pictures of naked women or the word Fu** on the side of a airplane

60 posted on 01/08/2007 8:55:06 AM PST by Charlespg (Peace= When we trod the ruins of Mecca and Medina under our infidel boots.)
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