One28, a Christian ministry on campus, put up a large wooden sign Tuesday asking students “What do you think about Porn?” Students scrawled their answers in sharpie:
“I don’t think about it, I live it.”
“Destroyed my parent’s marriage.”
“Only good with lots of hot guys.”
“I wish I would stop watching it.”
The sign was a promotion for One28’s Wednesday night service, where guest speaker Jonathan “JP” Pokluda talked about the dangers of pornography. It’s not uncommon for a Christian church or organization to take a stand against porn, but with topless women in almost every episode of “Game of Thrones” and books like “50 Shades of Grey” on the best-sellers list it’s unclear who agrees with them.
“Porn is whatever Google brings up,” joked sophomore Zack Fout. As for the nudity and sexual images used in shows like “Game of Thrones,” Fout, who considers himself nonreligious, called it “a positive move to openness because it’s less suppression of free will, doing what you want.”
“I don’t watch [porn] but I don’t have a problem with it,” said Katie Braden, who is nonreligious.
“I don’t think anything bad can come from it.”
First-year Emma Conlon thinks porn is “this bad thing that’s not really talked about.” However she doesn’t think what’s online or in the media contributes. “People can make their own choices,” she said. “They don’t have to be influenced.”
Chris Fish, a junior and member of Beta Upsilon Chi, agrees that everyone has a choice. “The reason is not that they’re ignorant college kids. It’s because they are still living under sin.”
Another attendee at One28, first-year Kaci Rood, said “the Bible talks about sex as a bond between a man and a woman, but people that don’t necessarily believe that don’t see it that way, they just see it as another activity.”
An activity that the event’s speaker Pokluda, believes has serious consequences. “I’ve used cocaine, ecstasy, I was an alcoholic. All those things I could leave behind but not pornography.”
Pokluda, the director of young adults at Watermark church, explained that, “porn is biologically powerful.” Claiming it is an addiction and that he has, “met men who cannot have sex with their wives without a magazine open or something on the TV.”
During his message Pokluda tossed things like X-rated DVDs, pornographic magazines and a laptop computer onto a bed that was set up on the stage. “This will be in your bed that night with your wife,” he said.
Near the end of the night Pokluda ripped off the comforter of the bed, throwing everything on the floor. “Jesus can make you a new person,” he said. “In running to Jesus you’re running away from porn.”
Ultimately Pokluda said he thinks porn is dangerous.
“This is the world your children will grow up in. This is why you have to fight this issue, because it’s rewiring America,” he said.
