Welcome to Hump Day. Um, kinda. (LOL)

So here’s the deal. Pretty much ever since I’ve been with this ministry, I have been sending Craig links to informaton that I’ve found out in media world that in some shape, form or fashion relates to our platform. And for the past several months, he’s been like “Shellie, my inbox count is ridiculous. We have got to find you an outlet for all of this stuff.” It appears that this would be the place.

It is my personal belief that sometimes we can be so inundated with stuff that we will read it, think “Wow, that’s crazy” and simply move on. What I’m hoping is that this can be a place where together we can explore some ways to be, not just solutions-oriented, but spiritually-insightful in our questions, comments and concerns about this kind of information. So, each Wednesday, I will post 3-5 blurbs and links about stories that have made me think “For real?” I hope you will feel comfortable sharing your insights on them.

That said, welcome to the first “What’s Up Wednesdays” installment.

1) Are you a straight man who watches porn? If so, it would appear that you are in support of same-sex marriage. That’s right. According to some research that was recently published by Communication Research, “the more heterosexual men, especially less educated heterosexual men, watch pornography, the more supportive they become of same-sex marriage.” The reason why makes sense “Exposure to porn may cause heterosexual men to be more accepting of ‘non-traditional sexual situations.'” Would like to hear your thoughts on this one, for sure.

2) How many of you really believe that masturbation before marriage is wrong? I’m asking because I read last week that a particular college was offering (eh hem) masturbation tutorials and in their campus chapel, no less. Now personally, while I do agree that the biblical story of Onan has nothing to do with masturbation (as they so clearly stated), I’ve still got plenty of questions. How do you give masturbation tutorials? Why are y’all in a chapel? And how do you masturbate without lusting (which is clearly a sin-I John 2:16)? Yeah. That’s…a lot going on over there.

3) While I don’t think this is something that is new information, there was a recently article published that how you are introduced to sex sets the tone for your sex life: “They found that positive first-time experiences were predictive of physical and emotional satisfaction.” OK. So, basically if you wait for your marriage partner until you engage, there’s a greater chance that you’ll have a healthier sex life. Sounds like “a remix” of Hebrews 13:4 to me. What y’all think?

4) I guess they don’t call it Iceland for nothing (LOL). It would appear that the people there have had enough of the porn images that are affecting their kids and so they are proposing a pornography ban in the effort to protect their children from certain (violent) images. I’m not sure how well that’s going to go over or how that can actually be done, but honestly…good for them.

5) Well looka here. There is a video that’s out that talks about the science of porn addiction. So now all of the people who keep telling us that you can’t really be addicted to porn, we can simply shoot them this link (and they can even watch it from work). Shoot, even I didn’t know a lot about how it has “neuroplastic effects on the brain”. Knowledge is power.