PORN NATION: Are we too sexualized?
by Nicholas Robinson
Speaker Michael Leahy from the Campus Crusade for Christ drew a large audience to hear his story about how pornography was ruining his life until God saved him.
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Porn Nation, a multimedia presentation at the MSU Auditorium, showed the pitfalls of living in a hypersexualized culture.
Michael Leahy, a recovering sex addict, shared his experiences of how his mind, body, and soul were affected by what he calls his “30 year relationship with pornography.”
Leahy said that Porn Nation is meant to make people question their views of how sex is affecting their lives. “Are we a porn nation? Is it good or bad?” he said. “We want to bring it down to a personal level.”
Leahy said that it is not just the porn industry, but all media are part of the hypersexualized culture. “Sex is on the network news, and used in advertisements,” he said. “It’s all around us.”
Jon Rodammer, the outreach team leader for the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC), a sponsor for Porn Nation, explained how the show was set up. “The first half [of the program] was Michael explaining the physical and emotional effects of a porn addiction,” he said.
After a brief break, “[Leahy] told his own story of how he asked for God’s help and overcame his problems.”
Leahy said that a sexual addiction is like any other addiction, except sex is the drug of choice.
After a friend confronted him, he said he realized that he had a problem and started going to counseling. But he said he felt the need to do more.
“I felt drawn to give back,” he said, “so I started Bravehearts,” a company that helped men find recovery resources, preferably spiritual. “We helped a dozen or so people the first year, but there were 10s of 1000s falling of the cliff.”
And so he began touring the country giving the Porn Nation presentation.
“MSU is the 99th campus we’ve been to,” Leahy said.
When Rodammer was informed of Porn Nation, he said he thought it would be a good thing to bring to MSU. “College is so much about finding who we really are,” he said. “We want to be as informed as we can.”
Rodammer said that one of the biggest things the CCC values is an open dialogue, and they knew they would get that with Porn Nation. “We knew people would be talking about it,” he said.
Leahy said that cosponsors were sought after last fall, and the advertising began at least a month in advance.
Nahid Husain, an elementary education junior, said the ads contributed to her decision to attend the program. “I saw flyers, posters, cafeteria [paper sleeves], and even writing on the sidewalk,” she said.
The extensive advertising seemed to work, because the auditorium was almost completely filled, and most people stayed until the end. “Only about 10 percent left during the break,” Rodammer said.
Husain said she believed Leahy proved his point. “I agree with the fact that porn is a big thing in our society, its everywhere and can cause addictions,” she said.
She said also that some her views were changed when she walked out of the presentation. “I now look at porn in a different way,” she said. “I now know that it truly is everywhere.”
Leahy said he just wants people to talk about what he presents for them, to walk away and be affected. “If a boyfriend and girlfriend walk out of here, get a cup of coffee, and talk about what they heard, then I have accomplished my goals,” he said.
Many students thought Porn Nation would have a “Christian agenda” after learning the CCC sponsored it, but Rodammer disagreed. “The point is to engage in an open dialogue on contemporary issues,” said Rodammer, “not to offend.”
“I’m not here to talk about right and wrong, not morality,” Leahy said. “I’m here to talk about an aspect of porn that’s not talked about.”
Leahy argues that recovering from a sexual addiction is a two-part process: behavioral and spiritual. Both need to be addressed, he said.
“But I don’t think of it in terms of religion,” he said, insisting that you don’t have to be Christian to be healed.
Rodammer said that if people didn’t want to listen to the spiritual aspect, they could have left during the break. However, Husain said she wanted to stay.
“There was an opportunity to leave, but I wanted to hear the rest of the story,” she said.
Leahy said that the point of Porn Nation is to educate people of the problems of a sexual addiction, and he said there needs to be better sexual education for America’s youth.
“My story demonstrated that I was educated by pornography [about sex],” he said, “and that needs to change.”
Regardless of what the critics say, Leahy said that his story is an important one that people should hear about. “You can argue with the morality, but you can’t disagree with my story,” Leahy said. “I will stand by my story. I know it’s true.”
