Monthly Archives: September 2010

The upcoming 30-minute documentary following Sunday’s General Conference addresses the problem of pornography “consumption” by members of the LDS Church.  There is data to support this concern:  In a February 2009 analysis of anonymised credit card receipts, Utah ranked first in porn “consumers” in the nation, with 5.47 of every thousand homes with broadband access subscribing to porn.  This is more than double the number of users in the neighboring states of Idaho and Montana (1.98/1.92 subscribers per thousand), and in the same subscription neighborhood as Alaska (5.03/thousand) and Mississippi (4.30/thousand).

But why is porn consumption so high in Utah?  With its predominantly Mormon culture, one would expect that overall usage would be fairly benign, on par perhaps with Utah’s neighbors.  What is behind this high demand?  Certainly the Mormon Church itself is concerned, having addressed the use of pornography in most General Conferences over the past ten years, as well as numerous Priesthood and Relief Society lesson manuals.  Most discussions of pornography use by Church leaders refer to it as an “addiction”, used primarily by men, and Sunday’s upcoming documentary will frame it in similar terms. (more…)