A 2008 survey by The Barna Group asked adults which, if any, of eight behaviors with moral overtones they had engaged in during the past week. The behaviors included looking at pornography, using profanity, gambling, gossiping, engaging in sexual intercourse with someone to whom they were not married, retaliating against someone, getting drunk, and lying. Of those surveyed:

• Twenty-eight percent had used profanity.
  
  

The Tuesday night prayer meeting at Brooklyn Tabernacle felt like skydiving into a tornado, exhausting and exhilarating all at once. I'd read about the meeting in Pastor Jim Cymbala's book Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, but nothing prepared me for the event itself: 3,500 God-hungry people storming heaven for two hours.

Afterward, my friend and I went out to dinner with the Cymbalas. In the course of the meal, ...

The 2009 economic crisis brought an interesting phrase into the headlines: toxic assets. Toxic assets are one of the factors contributing to the trouble that banks are in now. The assets are loans. Somebody owes the banks money. Normally banks want people to owe them money and pay them interest on the principal. But as the economy now stands, especially with the mortgage foreclosure crisis, many of ...

I had a friend some years ago who would simply not let Jesus in, at least not all the way. He was a good Christian by all outward appearances. He was a faithful elder in his church and a devout husband and father. He had a reputation for honesty, courage, and integrity. But he once confided in me that he was conflicted about his use of pornography.

He said he wasn't addicted, and there was no reason ...

In 2006, a Russian man named Vladimir Villisov specially designed his own coffin to accommodate his vast collection of pornography. "The girls in those magazines have been my companions for years," said Villisov, 66, "and I want them to accompany me to the next life."

"I'm of the opinion that busyness is a deeper threat to the soul than pornography ever was."

—Author and speaker Gordon MacDonald

The Justice Department estimates that 9 of 10 children between the ages of 8 and 16 have been exposed to pornography online. Software company Symantec found that 47 percent of school-age children receive pornographic spam on a daily basis. And representatives from the pornography industry told Congress's COPA (Child Online Protection Act) Commission that as much as 20 to 30 percent of the traffic ...

According to USA Today, the percentage of the following groups who use pornography is:

Married women: 11

Previously married women: 17

Women who have never been married: 22

Previously married men: 54

Married men: 44

Men who have never been married: 57

Hollywood publicist Michael Levine lives in what many consider the beauty capital of the world, surrounded on a daily basis by gorgeous women. But he isn't satisfied. "Although I'm a successful, red-blooded American male," he confesses, "it is beauty alone that is keeping me single and lonely." He subscribes wholeheartedly to what is commonly called the "contrast effect": "Men are barraged with images ...

Percentage of Americans describing themselves as sexually adventurous—42

Percentage who've had sex on a first date—29

Average number of sexual partners men have in a lifetime—20

Average number of sexual partners women have in a lifetime—6

Number of adults who visit adult-only websites in a typical week—11 million

Percentage of adults who view magazines, movies, or videos containing ...