America's Full Measure

The following statistics will speak for themselves. And if you have not read the post on Full Measure you need to go back and do so. This post is a statistical overlay of the doctrinal foundation we laid in that post. If you have not read it then you will not be able to grasp the full purpose of this post. With that said......Where is America today with regards to the two main sins referred to in Leviticus 18: Sexual Immorality and Child Murder? Let's take a look.

Pornography

"But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:28

• U.S. porn revenue reached $13.3 billion in 2006.
• U.S. porn revenue exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, NBC and CBS ($6.2 Billion).
• The pornographic industry's worldwide revenue ($97 Billion) is larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink.
• The U.S. is the top porn-video producing country in the world followed by Brazil, Netherlands, Spain and Japan.
• America produces 90% of all internet-porn pages with 244 million. Germany follows at 10m (4%).  The U.K. is third at 8.5M (3%).
• Child porn generates $3 billion annually in the U.S.
• 55% of the Internet child porn industry is based in the U.S. with Russia coming in second at 23% according to U.K. based National Children's Homes.
• According to pastors, the 8 top sexual issues damaging to their congregation are: 57% pornography addiction, 34% sexually active never-married adults, 30% adultery of married adults, 28% sexually active teenagers, 16% sexual dissatisfaction, 14% unwed pregnancy, 13% sexually active previously married adults, and 9% sexual abuse. More Sex, Please. Christianity Today International, Winter 2005.
• Promise Keeper Men who viewed porn in the past week: 53%.
• Christians who said pornography is a major problem in the home: 47%.
• Hollywood releases 11,000 adult movies per year. That is 30 per day.

Pornography and Corporate America

"For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil." 1 Timothy 6:10

• Former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop condemned corporate involvement in the porn industry and it's relation to the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. He stated, "America's corporations are complicit in a public health hazard. They want profits from pornography but they don't want to get involved (otherwise)."
• Comcast reported earnings of $50 million from adult movies back in 2002. Now that they have purchased AT&T Broadband who had contracts with the Hot Network they are probably astronomically higher.
• General Motors at one time made more money from the sale of pornographic material than Larry Flynt of Hustler Magazine. DirectTV was owned by General Motors. When DirectTV had just under 9 million subscribers it is estimated that they were earning over $200 million per year in pay-per-view sex movies. They now have 18 million subscribers per Wikipedia.com. GM has since sold DirecTV to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation which has continued to offer the same material.
• 50% of the guests at hotel chains like Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Sheraton and Holiday Inn order in-room pay-per-view adult movies. 70% of their in-room profits come from the sale of these movies.
• Comcast, Time-Warner, DirectTV and all of the major hotel chains refuse to put their profits from porn into their financial statements.
• ATT Broadband had contractual agreements with the Hot Network, a hardcore pornographic website. In defense of their business agreements at the time, AT&T's official response was that they were like the U.S. Postal Service, delivering goods and services that people have ordered and want. Because of consistent public pressure from various religious organizations ATT Broadband was "technically sold" to Comcast, creating ATT Comcast.  
• "Mainstream companies legitimize what we are doing." Bill Asher, CEO of Vivid Videos, the largest porn movie producing company in America.

Pornography and Rape

 "Mine eye affecteth my heart...." Lamentations 3:51

• Based on U.S. Census estimates of the number of adult women in America, one out one every eight adult women, or at least 12.1 million American women, has been or will be the victim of forcible rape in her lifetime.
• 86% of rapists in the U.S. admit to regular use of pornography and 75% of rapists admit to simulating acts they viewed in porn.
• 82% of child molesters admit to imitating the sexual behavior they have seen in pornographic material.
• Rape has risen by 300% per capita in the U.S. since 1960. This increase directly parallels the increase in availability and severity of pornography in the country. Most surveys report that rape occurs in the U.S. every 90 seconds. That averages to 350,000 reported rapes each year. Some estimates have it as high as 683,000 rapes per year with two-thirds of all rapes in the U.S. going unreported.
• Chapter 18 of the Attorney General Pornography Commission's study noted that the eight major men's magazines (Playboy, Penthouse, Hustler, Chic, Club, Gallery, Genesis, and Oui) have a circulation rate five times higher in Alaska and Nevada than in North Dakota. It is very significant that the rape rates in Alaska and Nevada are eight times higher than in North Dakota!

Pornography and Children

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, ..." Luke 18:16

• Average age of first pornographic internet exposure: 11 years old.
• The largest consumers of pornography are boys from ages 12 to 17. One in five boys and one in ten girls have had their first exposure to porn by age 12.
• At least 27% of girls and 16% of boys will be sexually abused before the age of 18. That means one in four girls who graduate high school have been sexually abused. 
• 87% of molesters of girls and 77% of molesters of boys admitted to regular use of hard-core pornography. 
• U.S. Postal Inspectors have found that 80% of the child pornography collectors they investigate sexually abuse children. (NBC News, "Special Report: The Silent Shame," 1986.)
• The U.S. Customs Service estimates the number of child pornography websites at around 100,000.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases

"However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commandments and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you:.......The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess....The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured." Deuteronomy 28:15,21,27

• The U.S. has the highest rate of STD's in the industrialized world.
• In 2006 there were published reports by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) that estimated that in 1999 there were approximately 85 million Americans who were infected with an STD. These numbers have since been massaged downward to 68 million.
• The CDC estimated that there were at least 15 million new cases of STD infections in the U.S. in each of the years between 2000 and 2005.
• As of 2005 the CDC estimate for the number of new STD infections in the U.S. jumped to 19 million on an annual basis. That means that from 2005 to now there have been 95 million new infections.  
•  There are 2.8 million new cases of Chlamydia in the U.S. each year.
• 15% of Americans (45 million) are infected with genital herpes.
• More than 1 million Americans have HIV.
• 6.2 million Americans contract human papilloma virus (HPV) each year.
• The direct medical cost for STD treatment in the U.S. is estimated at over $13 billion annually. When indirect costs such as lost wages are factored in, the total is nearly $17 billion annually.

Sexually Transmitted Diseases: Teenagers and Young Adults

"Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng." Proverbs 8:25,26

• 25% of girls and 30% of boys have sex by age 15. 21% of 9^th graders have slept with four or more partners, 50% of 17 year olds have had sex, 80% of teens have sex by age 19, 55% of teens ages 13-19 have engaged in oral sex.
• As of 2000, 25% of all newly diagnosed STD cases occurred in persons between 13 and 19 years of age. At the rate of 19 million new infections a year in the U.S. (see previous), that means that 4.75 million teenagers a year are contracting at least one of the 25 known STD's.
• As of 2000, 25% of all newly diagnosed STD cases occurred in persons between 20 and 24 years of age. At the rate of 19m new infections per year in the U.S., 4.75m young adults are contracting STD's.
• Every 9 seconds a teenager or young adult (13-24) contracts a STD.
• 40% of all Chlamydia cases occur with kids between 15 to 19.
• Young women ages 15 to 19 have the highest rates of gonorrhea.
• One fourth of all new HIV infections in the U.S. are estimated to occur in people between ages 13 and 20.
• The rate of HIV infection among teenagers in the U.S. increased by over 1000% from 1994 to 1995.

Abortion

"Do not pollute the land where you are. Bloodshed pollutes the land, and atonement cannot be made for the land on which blood has been shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. Do not defile the land where you live..." Numbers 35:33,34

Note: National abortion statistics in the U.S. are available from two sources, privately from The Alan Guttmacher Institute (AGI) and federally from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

• U.S. based Planned Parenthood is the largest single abortion-provider in the world. PP performed 305,310 abortions in 2007 alone.
• Why isn't Abortion activity more noticeable to the general public? The United States is composed of 3,143 counties. 2,797 of them do not have abortions clinics in them. That is 89% of all U.S. counties that don't have abortion clinics. Conclusion: "Out of Sight, Out of Mind."
• Over 53 million abortions have been performed in the United States since 1973. To put that number in perspective, per the U.S. Census Bureau, the Top 50 Cities in the United States had a combined population of just over 48 million people in 2009. That is roughly 5 million people fewer than have been aborted in our country.
• For the past 37 years the U.S. has permitted 1.43 million abortions per year.
• One baby has been aborted every 23 seconds in the United States for 37 years.
• 52% of U.S. women who have abortions are under age 25. 32% are between the ages of 20 and 24. 20% are between the ages of 15 and 19.
• 18% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on women who identify themselves as born-again evangelical Christians.
• 37% of abortions in the U.S. are performed on women who identify themselves as Protestants.
• 1% of all abortions in the U.S. occur because of rape or incest. 6% of all abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or the unborn child.
• 93% of all abortions occur for "social reasons" (i.e. the child is unwanted or inconvenient.).
• 39% of all pregnancies in New York city ended in abortion in 2009.
• 1,110,563 U.S. servicemen were killed in all of the following wars combined: The Revolutionary War, Civil War, World War One, World War Two, Korean War, Vietnam War. Approximately 48 times as many children have been murdered through abortion.

Abortions from 1973 to 2008. Add 2.4M (2009-2010) to get 53Million.

"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Edmund Burke

Evil has triumphed in America. Look at the stats from start to finish. America is leading the way in the production of sexual immorality and the technology that delivers it. We produce and export the lusts of the flesh (1 John 2:15-17). That is what we are manufacturing these days, not electronics and steel based products. We export adultery and all manner of porn. We produce 90% of all internet porn and more than half of all child-porn. Unbelievable. And the porn industry can't do it without "corporate buy-in." AT&T, General Motors, Yahoo, Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Comcast....all either have been or are currently "delivering the mail" to put it in AT&T's words. Look at Barnes & Noble, Borders books, Amazon.....All of these companies are complicit in peddling smut. America was once a Christian-based culture in many aspects and because of it we have experienced an outpouring of Grace in so many ways. But not any more. Things have changed. Remember, the Lord left Samson but Samson was not aware of it. (Judges 16:20)

Pornography is helping to drive crime in America. Look at the rape statistics. The correlation between the two is hard to deny. The FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Division, many criminal psyschologists and the crime statistics themselves all support the argument. Look at the effects a porn culture has on children. It is both a direct exposure issue and an issue of direct victimization by adults. Children are suffering at all levels, both boys and girls. I found my dad's porn magazines just sitting under his bed when I was around 5 years old. Alot of my friends growing up had similar experiences. 

Growing up, STD's were not even a concern in the 80's and early 90's. Now it seems, per the CDC, that at least half of America has at least one of 25 STD's and many don't even know it, further contributing to the rapid spread in American society. In 2006 the CDC stated that over 70 million Americans had contracted an STD by the year 1999, right at the turn of the century. Since then, according to the CDC, 15 million new infections occurred per year from 2000-2004 and another 19 million infections occurred per year from 2005 to 2009. If their estimates are correct that means America has had 170 million new infections in the past 10 years for a whopping grand total of 240 million people. Really??? Apparently America leads the industrialized world in rate of infection for STD's. Even if they are off by 50% wouldn't you say that having 120 million of your citizens infected with diseases is alot? Our country only has 307 million citizens. At least 1/3 if not 2/3's of our citizenry are infected and most of that, per the CDC, is happening with teenagers and people in their 20's.

And God said that any time he had placed a nation in the cross-hairs of judgment this would happen prior to their destruction as a consequence of their sin. Read Deuteronomy 28. Spread of infections and diseases precedes total economic collapse and military invasion. Read it. None of us authored the book. Moses did.

The level of sexual promiscuity in teenagers (13-19) and young adults (20-24) in America today is off the charts. 50% of new STD infections occur in these two age groups. I and/or both my wife and I have been actively involved in youth ministry in 3 different churches since 1994. The level of sexual aggression in kids today is mind-boggling. American teenagers and young adults are swimming in a sea of Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HPV and HIV. It is estimated that one-fourth of all new HIV infections occur in kids from 13 to 20 years of age.

Americans today really don't understand the depth of defilement that has occurred in our land because of Abortion. The Land is actually spiritually defiled. Read Leviticus 18 and Numbers 35. American Christians generally don't understand this spiritual law nor the spiritual consequences of it. You can take almost any Christian today in America and sit down with Bible's in hand and say "show me the consequences of child sacrifice and murder through abortion" and they wouldn't be able to do it. Yet this is the greatest sin America has besides spiritual apathy. Christians in America are being destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). 100% of Christians in America would agree that these things are evil but most don't understand consequence. They don't understand where all of this leads. They don't understand Biblical history and the lessons it should teach us.

Did you know that there were over 1 million abortions conducted in America between 1970 and 1972, prior to Roe V. Wade? Add that to the 53 million we quoted above. Compare that to the combined population of America's 50 largest cities. And we think that God doesn't notice this stuff? Seriously? We think there won't be consequence for the nation? Really? Leviticus 18 says that if a nation defiled it's land this way that the inhabitants of the land would be "vomited out". It says that atonement can only be made for the land by shedding the blood of the perpetrators. I am not advocating murder on a personal level. I am talking about God-ordained judgment through what Ezekiel and Jeremiah referred to as the sword, famine and plague.

Yet some will try and pull out 2 Chronicles 7:14 and say that the number of abortions in America has somewhat declined over the past 20 years and it is a sign of repentance that will ensure God's future protection and blessing. Folks, God destroyed Jerusalem and Judah because of the sins of Manasseh (See 2 Kings 24). Manasseh filled Jerusalem with blood from end to end and the scriptures say that the Lord was not willing to forgive. After him came a succession of another 6 kings spanning over a period of 55 years. Yet the dye had already been cast. God had already made up his mind even though Josiah, Manasseh's grandson, rid the land of all outward signs of spiritual defilement. Judgment occurred because of the accumulation of land-defiling sin over a span of many years.

Now, if God were to bring judgment he would always bring a prophetic warning prior to doing so. The scriptures say the following:

"Surely the sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets." Amos 3:7

"Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." 2 Corinthians 13:1

The Lord always brings a prophetic warning way in advance. God spoke of the judgment of the Amorites to Abraham and Moses. God spoke about the judgment of Israel's ten northern tribes to Isaiah, Hosea, Micah and Amos. God spoke about the judgment of Jerusalem and all of Judah through Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Uriah. This is his way. He always warns us in advance. So the question is now, "Has God warned American of her impending judgment?" The answer is yes. In the next post I will discuss 4 different prophetic ministers and the messages that have been given to them. Stay tuned.

In Christ,
J.E. Blackshear
www.knowingthelord.blogspot.com

Sources Cited:
Pornography (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)
Pornography and Rape (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)
Sexually Transmitted Diseases (Here, Here, Here, Here,Here, Here, Here,) 
Abortion (Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here)