Long before the Internet, evangelical church leaders were warning that pornography was corrupting the faithful. With the rise of social media and online platforms, access has exploded, making the fight against pornography one of the longest-running but least prioritized planks of the Christian conservative agenda, often overshadowed by battles over abortion, same-sex marriage, transgender rights, and, more recently, unwavering support for Donald Trump. However, for all the energy conservative Christians have poured into fighting pornography, from the Meese Commission of the 1980s to Project 2025 today, the battle has largely been waged in vain.
For decades, pornography has been a staple issue in the evangelical culture war, addressed through counseling, conferences, men’s groups, and endless books and videos. Yet the movement’s credibility has been undercut by high-profile scandals — from Jimmy Swaggart to Jerry Falwell Jr. to Jim Bakker — that have only heightened the sense of hypocrisy and, paradoxically, may have fueled fascination with the very illicit acts they condemned.
Even evangelical commentators acknowledge the scope of the problem. In a piece headlined “Professing Christians are more addicted to porn than ever,” Greg Cooper, an Op-ed contributor to the Christian Post, noted that the global pornography industry generates an estimated $97 billion annually — more than “the combined revenues of music, sports, fashion, and gaming in the U.S.” alone. Studies suggest over a third of all internet traffic is pornographic, not counting the flood of soft-core material circulating on platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
Cooper pointed out that “Today, millions of professing Christians around the world are living double lives, trapped in the destructive cycle of sex addiction and porn use, hiding their struggles in secrecy alongside unbelievers and often unnoticed by their families and churches. The number of believers compromising in this area is truly astonishing.”
A 2024 survey by Pure Desire Ministries found that 54% of practicing Christians in the U.S. admit to consuming pornography at least occasionally, and nearly half say they are “comfortable” with it. While often framed as a male issue, the data show otherwise: 54% of men and 25% of women engage in semi-regular porn use. Experts suggest the real numbers may be far higher.
“The contradiction is poised to get sharper. Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation’s sweeping blueprint for a hard-right takeover of government, proposes criminalizing pornography. Though clearly aimed at cracking down on LGBTQ communities, drag performers, and even librarians, such measures could boomerang on evangelical allies, many of whose congregants are themselves caught in what church leaders call a porn ‘doom loop.’ A 2016 Barna study, The Porn Phenomenon, underscored just how widespread porn use is among churchgoing Christians.”
From Project 2025:
Pornography, manifested today in the omnipresent propagation of transgender ideology and sexualization of children, for instance, is not a political Gordian knot inextricably binding up disparate claims about free speech, property rights, sexual liberation, and child welfare. It has no claim to First Amendment protection. Its purveyors are child predators and misogynistic exploiters of women. Their product is as addictive as any illicit drug and as psychologically destructive as any crime. Pornography should be outlawed. The people who produce and distribute it should be imprisoned. Educators and public librarians who purvey it should be classed as registered sex offenders. And telecommunications and technology firms that facilitate its spread should be shuttered.
Thus far, the Trump administration has not issued any executive orders or proclamations regarding pornography. Project 2025’s advocacy of criminalizing pornography has not yet moved forward.
A Little History: In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed a commission to study obscenity and pornography. The Attorney General’s Commission on Pornography, also known as The Meese Commission — named after the then-Attorney General Edwin Meese — was staffed by primarily by social conservatives, including the late James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family.
The commission’s report was lengthy, coming in at almost 2000 pages, and unsurprising in its finding. According to Wikipedia it “document[ed] what the committee found to be the harmful effects of pornography and connections between pornographers and organized crime. The report was criticized by many inside and outside the pornography industry, calling it biased, not credible, and inaccurate.”
[Side Note: In 1988 Meese was forced to resign due to the Wedtech scandal.]
At the time of The Meese Commission, porn hunters might find themselves in a back room at an adult bookstore or at some sleazy movie house. Little did commission members anticipate that thanks in large part to the Internet, pornography would become a multi-billion-dollar industry. Perhaps even more surprising is that evangelical Christians would become keen users.
Project 2025 may attempt to revive the Meese Commission’s crusade against pornography, but the reality is that pornography is more accessible, more profitable, and more normalized than ever. Evangelical leaders may continue to denounce it from the pulpit, but their congregations’ private lives tell a different story: the war on porn is one their own flock shows little interest in winning.