Objectively, I have to admit I'm curious about what kind of research Brownback's panelists are citing when they suggest that pornography "had been shown to increase the risk of divorce" and "decrease marital intimacy."

Isn't it just as likely that people in marriages that are lacking intimacy or are headed down the path towards divorce for unrelated reasons, would be more likely to resort to using pornography?

This would hardly be the first time someone confused causation and correlation while trying to make a judgement about something they already had an agenda in mind for.

pornography is only one of a multi-headed monster that haunts our culture. if a porn opponent like the honorable senator from kansas shoots his whole load (sorry it was just too tempting) by trying to criminalize porn, then he's just as complicit as the edward wedelstedts of the world looking to capitalize on the allure of graphically depicted sex.

sen. brownback's efforts overlook the truth that every waking minute of every day an adult physically violates a child's dignity, which opens a threshold for pornography's influence to pass through and take hold in the imagination. without the crime of child abuse, pornography would be of no interest to anyone who has received the protection and nurturing that all children deserve.

simply put, as a community and a nation we continue to fail protecting children from abuse carried out by figures who are themselves victims. (do not mistake this as an appeal for pity for sexual predators; rather it is a wake up call that all must acknowledge: that incarceration and offender registries at best only cordon off the perpetrators.)

we refuse to confront and reflect the deeply wounded inner life of each violator. we prefer the fantasy that an abuser emerges ex nihilo, out of thin air or because of some "sinful nature".

both heaven and hell have their origins on earth. so should our approach to these social and emotional crises be "down to earth". pornography is but an emblem of a deeper disturbance within our culture; and i have yet to notice anyone asking why pornography holds such a powerful appeal.

Whilst I think it is sad that there is very little �porn� in which the participants actually enjoy the experience; I am shocked that supposedly faithful people are more offended by the depiction of consensual acts than of the gross depictions of violence that fill today�s media.