That which people project is not necessarily an expression of that which remains inside.
This simple truth is one that has saved me even more often than relative sobriety in the early hours of many mornings.
It's a truth that's apparently confirmed by figures emerging from a famous hub of pornography. For they suggest that even in the most outwardly saintly parts of America, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
I am grateful to PandoDaily for turning me (on) to an analysis by PornHub, which -- so several priest friends tell me -- is an extremely popular haven for the naked and the nubile.
PornHub took it upon itself as a civil and moral duty to discover whether cities that officially revere religion are more prone to pornographic abstinence than places where mammon, mammaries, and man-love hold sway.
To judge the religiousness of cities, the site used Gallup Healthways Well-Being Index.
It might be hard for some to swallow, but PornHub found that centers of rectitude such as Montgomery, Huntsville, and Birmingham, Ala., are watching more online porn than the heathen hedonists in San Francisco.
The algorithmically minded might posit that the hedonists are too busy performing acts of depravity to watch and fantasize. They might suggest that, in the more devout places, the sins of the mind take the place of the sins of the body.
There are, indeed, religious quarters where porn watching is relatively low: Provo, Utah, for example. But even there, its score of 5.7 videos per capita is higher than overly liberal Boston's 4.5.
It might well be that these figures are perverted by a small number of inhabitants who watch a disproportionately large number of videos of the disproportionate.
Troublingly, PornHub Vice President Corey Price told PandoDaily that those in more holy cities watch 47 more seconds per video than those in godless areas. (Perhaps they're not as used to the formulaic scripts.)
The godly might discover some salvation in the data that shows its porn-watchers are more into categories such as "teen," "amateur," "college," and something called "squirt" (which I don't believe has anything to do with performances by really short people).
(The godless are, allegedly, far more moved by "gay," "lesbian," and "compilation.")
Regional and even international trends in porn-watching are being researched more and more.One recent study mused on the idea that Texas, Wyoming, Missouri, and Colorado are all into "teens," while Iran allegedly has a vast predilection for "gays."
Church and porn, though, can meet in perfect harmony. I have embedded footage of the XXXChurch, which seeks to save even porn stars from a life of carnal iniquity.
I fear, though, that we are all simply tortured beings, looking for true love, temporary love, or even mere minutes of pleasure in order to get us through the thrashings of everyday life. LINK
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