Part of the Christian Kyriarchy Project
Christian whoreantagonism
various | anti-porn attitudes and activism
Last updated 3/23/2025
This is for Christian attitudes towards porn that encourage censorship, stigma against sex workers, and dysfunctional sexuality.
It's worth noting that many anti-porn activists such as sex-work-exclusionary feminists distinguish between porn and erotica, with the latter covering prurient works they see as non-exploitative or as having value beyond arousing its audience. In my experience, most Christians involved in purity culture have no such distinction. If a work intends to arouse its audience, expect these sort of Christians to condemn it regardless of context.
1. Many Christians, even progressive ones, have a blanket “porn is inherently harmful” policy. As with other forms of sex work, porn is viewed as inherently exploitative, rather than something that can be degrading to women but is not always so.
Uncritical examples
Is There Such a Thing as Ethical Porn? Male and Female Perspectives by William B. Bowes and Alejandra Fontecha-Bowes | Christians for Biblical Equality (September 2022)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Coping with Sexual Anorexia and Aversion by Rob Jackson, MS, LPC, LMHC, NCC | Pure Intimacy (dated 2004, suggests that sexual abuse survivors who are sex averse are obligated to get over it for the sake of their marriage and speaks negatively of spouses who choose masturbation and porn over potentially pressuring their traumatized partner)
Archived on Wayback Machine
4 Ways Porn Will Ruin Your Sex Life by Shellie R. Warren | XXX Church (September 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
How to Slay the Dragon of Pornography by Ed Welch | The Gospel Coalition (February 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
How We Dishonor God in Our Sex Lives by Glenn T. Stanton | Pure Intimacy (dated 2004)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive (latter archives still work but have pornographic ads, which is hilarious))
Pornography: The Spice that Destroys Sexual Taste Buds | Christian Nymphos (December 2007)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Why Porn is a Problem | The Marriage Bed (earliest archive is from August 2005)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
Permitted or Prohibited: Christian Perspective on Sex Practices | The Pure Bed (earliest archive is from June 2007)
Archived on Wayback Machine
I'm a Duke freshman. Here's why I refused to read 'Fun Home.' by Brian Grasso | The Washington Post (August 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
A Pornographic Style of Relating | Andrew J. Bauman (October 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
8 Sins You Commit Whenever You Look at Porn | Tim Challies (April 2017)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
How the Marshmallow Test Can Help You Flee Porn by Zach Carter | The Gospel Coalition (June 2024)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Bombshell Study: Young People Care More About Recycling Than Porn by Craig Gross | XXX Church (April 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Protestant bodies, Protestant bedrooms, & our furious need for a theology thereof | Beth Felker Jones (March 2023, the section "1. Pornography and the Christian imagination" comments on sex work.)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Deevers Introduces Slate of Legislation to Restore Moral Sanity in Oklahoma | Oklahoma Senate (January 2025)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Ala. Megachurch Pastor David Platt: Sex Trafficking Opponents Need to Stop Watching Porn, Which Fuels Prostitution by Stephanie Samuel | Christian Post (February 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
Demand No More Sex | Faith Alliance Against Slavery and Trafficking
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
Commentary
“Real Marriage” review: 139-155, “The Porn Path” by Samantha Field (November 2014)
Preserved on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
2. You may see some Christians talk about the “false pleasures” of porn, or frame it as perverse because it doesn't treat sex as something you do with a person you love.
Uncritical examples
Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke on the Catholic “Man-crisis” and what to do about it | The New Emangelization (January 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Archive.today
L.B.: Explicit Content | slacktivist (June 2005)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Christian and Sexually Empowered | Revolutionary Faith (February 2016)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
The Effects of Porn on the Male Brain by William M. Struthers, Ph.D | Christian Research Institute (March 2020)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Protestant bodies, Protestant bedrooms, & our furious need for a theology thereof | Beth Felker Jones (March 2023, the section "1. Pornography and the Christian imagination" comments on sex work.)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
None yet
3. Some anti-porn Christians treat it like a hard drug. They may claim viewing porn on a regular basis constitutes an addiction or that viewing “hardcore” porn will make you likely to commit violence.
Uncritical examples
The Stages of Pornography Addiction by Gene McConnell and Keith Campbell | Focus On The Family (dated 1996)
Archived on Wayback Machine
I'm a Christian Addicted to Porn by Shaun Groves | Christianity Today (earliest archive is from 2014)
Archived on Wayback Machine
The Effects of Pornography/6 Problems with Porn | Ed Stetzer (December 2009)
The original version from the author's website is archived on Wayback Machine.
The republished version from Church Leaders is archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive.
Porn's Complicity in Abuse by Mimi Haddad | Christians for Biblical Equality (September 2022)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Pornography does destroy. How can anyone deny that? by Bill Johnson | American Decency Association (published in January or February 2012)
Archived on Wayback Machine
8 Ways Porn Changes You. by Shellie R. Warren | XXX Church (May 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Pornography by Fritz Chery | Bible Reasons (April 2023)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
The Progression of Pornography Addiction by Gene McConnell | Focus On The Family (January 2020)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Fighting the War on Pornography: Q&A with Dawn E. Hawkins by Sean Salai | America Magazine (July 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
[video] Pornography is a Public Health CATASTROPHE. Here's Why. | CatholicVote Education (September 2022, claims porn causes brain damage and abuse without citing sources)
Archived on Wayback Machine and Ghost Archive
Slave Master
How Pornography Drugs & Changes Your Brain by Donald L. Hilton, Jr. | Pink Cross Foundation (dated “summer 2010”)
Archived on Wayback Machine
Pornography—Road to Hell by Michael Pearl | No Greater Joy Ministries (June 2000)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
Op-ed: Utah students need real sex ed, not 'Fight the New Drug' by Natasha Helfer Parker, Kristin Hodson, Kristin Marie Bennion And Shannon Hickman | The Salt Lake Tribune (October 2016)
Religious People More Likely To Feel They're Addicted To Porn, New Study Shows | Huff Post (February 2014)
4. When anti-porn sentiments overlap with Christian purity culture, it adds an extra layer of dysfunction and stigma. Christians in purity culture often believe just having sexual fantasies is wrong, supposedly because you'll set a standard your spouse can't live up to.
Uncritical examples
9 Reasons Men Should Stay Away from Porn by Tyler Ward | XXX Church (August 2015)
Archived on Wayback Machine, Archive.today, and Ghost Archive
Commentary
None yet
Additional commentary on anti-porn crap in Christian spaces
Homophobia and Religiosity Drive Struggles with Porn by David J. Ley Ph.D. | Psychology Today (July 2023, discusses conversion therapy and other homoantagonism)
Oklahoma Sen. Dusty Deevers proposes bill to ban all pornography: What to know about SB593 by Josh Kelly | The Oklahoman (January 2025)
Further information
Researchers: pornography addiction isn't real by Jennifer Abel | Consumer Affairs (February 2014)
The Harm of 12-Step “Sex Addiction” Programs by Silva Neves | Psychology Today (May 2021, brings up conversion therapy)
Inside the Movement to Declare Pornography a 'Health Crisis' by James Hamblin | The Atlantic (April 2016)
Sex Addiction: Fact or Fiction? Part 1 of 3 by Michael Castleman M.A. | Psychology Today (June 2018)
The Problem With “Sex Addiction” Therapy by Silva Neves | Psychology Today (May 2023)
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