Pornography is full of lies-lies about women, sex, intimacy and marriage. Once internalized, these lies prevent and even destroy healthy heterosexual relating. The following is a list of these lies adapted from the writings of Reverend Gene McConnell, National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families.

1. Women are less than human. Porn often refers to women as animals, playthings, or body parts. The idea that women are real human beings with thoughts and emotions is played down. Some pornography shows only the body or the genitals and doesn't show the face at all. As Gary Anderson, place kicker of the Philadelphia Eagles, said, "You don't need a scientist to tell you that if you continually look at women being treated like objects that it's going to negatively affect your attitudes and behavior. You are what you dwell on. It's as simple as that."

2. Women are a sport.
Some sports magazines have a "swimsuit" issue. This suggests that women are just some kind of sport. Porn views sex as a game and in a game, you have to "win," conquer," or "score." The man who buys into this view likes to talk about "scoring" with women. Each woman he "scores" with is another trophy on his shelf, another "notch" in his belt to validate his masculinity.

3. Women are property.
We've all seen pictures of the slick car with the sexy girl draped over it. The unspoken message, "Buy one and you get them both." Hard-core porn carries this even further. It displays women like merchandise in a catalogue, exposing them as openly as possible for the customer to look at. It's not surprising that many young men think that if they have spent some money taking a girl out, they have a right to have sex with her. Porn tells us that women can be bought.

4. A woman's value depends on the attractiveness of her body.
Overweight or less attractive women are ridiculed in porn . . .Porn doesn't care about a woman's mind or personality, only her body.

5. Women like rape.
"When she says no, she means yes," is a typical porn scenario. Women are shown being raped, fighting and kicking at first, and then starting to like it. Porn eroticizes rape and makes it arousing. Women are shown being tied up, beaten and humiliated in hundreds of sick ways and finally begging for more. Porn teaches men to enjoy hurting and abusing women for entertainment.

6. Women should be degraded.
Porn is full of hate-speech against women. Imagine, if any other minority group in America were shown being stripped, bound, abused and humiliated for entertainment, we would be outraged . . . Does this kind of treatment show any respect for [women]? Any love? Or is it hatred and contempt that porn is showing toward women?

7. Little kids should have sex.
One of the biggest sellers in pornography is imitation "child porn." The women are "made-up" to look like little girls by wearing pony tails, little girl shoes, holding a teddy bear and by having body hair shaved. Some of the cartoons in porn magazines show kids sometimes asking or being asked for sex. The message of the pictures and cartoons is that adults having sex with kids is normal.

8. Illegal sex is fun.
Porn often has illegal or dangerous elements thrown in to make sex more "interesting," for instance, drugs, prostitution, voyeurism and exhibitionism. It suggests that you can't enjoy sex if it isn't weird, illegal or dangerous.

9. Prostitution is glamorous.
Porn paints an exciting picture of prostitution. But, many prostitutes are runaways, girls trapped in a life of slavery, many having been sexually abused. Some of them are infected with incurable sexually transmitted diseases that are highly contagious, and they often die very young. Pornography makes a profit from the ruined lives of young women.

10. Sex has no consequences.
In porn, people go from one sex partner to the next, with no hygiene or safe guards. They may have sex with a whole group at once with no consequences. People in porn don't get pregnant . . .They don't get sexually transmitted diseases and will never contract AIDS. This is not reality!