Porn unhealthy, violent

Pornography equals brutality, violence, sexual deviation, financial loss, unhealthy relationships, broken marriages, disease and death.\nGene McConnell, president and founder of Authentic Relationships International, encountered them all as a result of his addiction to pornographic materials. McConnell, who is based in Cincinnati, shared his experiences with students Wednesday night at Alumni Hall as part of a Campus Crusade for Christ lecture series.\nAfter years of pornographic use, McConnell said, his mind became altered to a state that he could no longer view women in a healthy manner. It got to be so bad that one night in a parking lot, he pulled a woman into a car and attempted to rape her.\n"When I saw the utter fear in that woman's eyes, it jolted me out of this state I was in," McConnell said. "I knew what I was doing was wrong and I was instantly ashamed."\nAs a result of the attempted rape, McConnell served jail time and had to undergo counseling. But for him, the worst was not yet over.\n"When all this came out, my wife and daughter were devastated," McConnell said. "By viewing these images of 'ideal' women, I had basically told them that they don't measure up."\nAs a result, both his wife and daughter developed severe eating disorders and experienced depression, all thanks to McConnell's pornography use.\nMcConnell spreads his message to college campuses because he feels that society is completely unaware that sexual images make any type of impact, much less one as devastating as what he has\n experienced.\n"A lot of students say that they can look at whatever they want and it will have no affect on them," McConnell said. "If that were true, then there would be no advertising business in the world." \nMcConnell flashed image after image of Calvin Klein and Victoria's Secret ads as examples of the sex-saturated world.\nTo illustrate the effect that images have on society, he cited the example that after the Disney movie "Bambi" came out, deer hunting industry revenue fell from $9.7 billion to $3.2 billion.\n"And this is from a cartoon that we even know is not real," McConnell said. "Imagine what these porn images are doing to us."\nWhat surprised many students is that McConnell, after all he has experienced, opposes censorship.\n"Censorship doesn't solve any problems," he said. "It takes personal responsibility."\nThat is why McConnell tours college campuses. Over the next three months he will visit nine more colleges including Kansas State and the University of Colorado at Boulder.\nCampus Crusade for Christ was pleased with the turnout the program received.\n"I think it's not an issue people just came to the lecture for and then forgot about," said freshman Lindsay Templeton, a member of CCC's Outreach Committee. "I hope they took away a lot of meaningful ideas that Gene spoke about and will continue to think about them."\nAmong those that attended McConnell's lecture were students, faculty and Sigma Phi Epsilon's 2001 pledge class.\n"I had heard a lot about it from my friends and I wanted to learn about the impact that porn has on society," senior Jason Charlesworth said. "I was very impressed."\nThere were close to 400 students in attendance.\n"I knew a lot of people would come," Templeton said. "It's such an important issue in our society, not just some passing thing"