This talk was given by Cardinal George Pell at the Legatus Summit in Florida, in 2006. It appears on the Endeavour Forum website and is used here by permission. The Endeavour Forum is an Australian organisation, who describes itself thus: 

Endeavour Forum started out as Women Who Want to be Women. That explains the four Ws on the ship Endeavour above. [ - on their emblem.] It was set up in response the militant feminism which first came around in the early 1970s and which became increasingly influential in the Whitlam and even Fraser Governments. While militant feminism did address some legitimate grievances it went too far getting into issues like abortion, equal opportunity and affirmative action. There was a need for women to defend the legitimate rights of traditional women in families and the rights of male breadwinners to get jobs. We believe that men and women are equal but different not equal and the same.

Addiction to pornography isn't just a problem for men; many women are finding they have the same problem, especially in this digital age where porn is so easy to access. This article was written by a woman ('Jacquie') who overcame her addiction and received God's healing into her life. Her faith should inspire each of us to seek His healing for addictions and other weaknesses in our own lives.

My story of freedom from pornography and much much more.

From the moment of conception to the time when we die there are expectations placed upon each one of us to look a certain way, to behave in a certain way or to be what others want us to be.

The world's idea of self worth is very different to God's idea.

The world says, "I am who others say I am - based on what I can do, how I look and how much I contribute to society - that equals my worth."

Whereas the Christian Creator God has a different set of rules: "What I am plus WHO I AM  says I am, equals my worth."

This was most definitely the case with me. From a young age I was always trying to be loveable, to be noticed, trying to scramble for love. My parents tried but they were pretty screwed-up human beings who were desperate for love and acceptance themselves. Both my mother and father were angry, and so discord, violence and a sense of threat were also a part of my unravelling family life. Since my parents were not able to provide me with my basic needs, I decided I was going to get my attention and affection from outside sources.

I was sexually abused in some rather strange and sadistic ways by a family member and and as a result, started acting out sexually with my peers from a very young age. My sexuality was awakened way too early and I also masturbated chronically as a child. I felt afraid, unaccepted, unloved and like a plaything for adults. I was filled with shame and always so scared people would find out about my home life and my young sexual addictions.

To add insult to injury, I also had learning disabilities and acted out in class in frustration,   annoying the teachers no end; I now think I was just desperately crying out for help.

At around the age of 12, I tried to start getting the attention of boys, as girls my own age were either jealous of my looks or just thought I was a plain dummy or a weirdo.  In about year 7, I was exposed to pornography through the boys in my street. The boys were looking at pictures of Samantha Fox and they were virtually drooling on the page.

I think it was then I realised the power I could hold over young men with my sexuality. I started to think about what I looked like, how tan I was, how my hair looked, how my bottom and breasts and legs looked, and as soon as I started to become aware, even walked differently. I finally had the attention I had desired for so long. Although this went on from my teens into my early 20's, my nominally Christian background stopped me from sleeping around.

When I was 19, I moved in with a bloke as my flatmate. This bloke was very much into pornography; he was something of a voyeur. For me with my issues of loving to be watched, it was a perfect match. He was very shy and gentlemanly and after a few months of this I ended up seducing him. That 'bloke' and I have now been together for 21 years and married for almost 14 years.

Release from Bondage

Once the initial honeymoon was over his perving and porn used to drive me crazy; I was incredibly insecure and jealous. So in the end I became his porn star, dressing the way he wanted me to, having sex with him however he wanted to, adding sex toys and pornography to our sex life. I was extremely depressed, suicidal, unemployed and going nowhere.

That day, I was having my morning shower and I heard an almost audible voice say "Come back to church, I want to clean you up."

So I listened to that voice and told my counsellor, who recommended a church to me; since that day I have never looked back and the Lord has been 'cleaning me up' ever since.

The Holy Bonfire

One night at church we had a holy bonfire and I took in the pornography, clothing, sex toys etc and put them on the fire. I committed myself to God and I have never watched another pornographic movie or dressed up, or engaged in unsafe sex practices since.

My husband is not a Christian and still engages in all the old behaviours and it is a miracle of the Most High God that we are still together and even that I love him. I pray that he, too, will let the Lord clean him up one day.

For anyone reading this who is still in bondage to this kind of thing, I just want to say God can release you just as He did me.

I, too, was a very messed-up sex-addict who got my worth from how I looked and how much others appreciated that, but bit by bit God has set me free. I believe he can set you free and I believe that one day he will set my husband free and heal our marriage.

May the living God bless you on your journey out of sexual bondage.

In Jesus' name. Amen. "Jacquie." This story first appeared on my other website, Light up the Darkness, and is used here with the author's permission.

here are two sorts of perverts. Those that are villified and those that are lauded.  OK, a third too: those that are simply ignored.  The past year and the past week has shown what the media can do to perverts. Priests and pederasts, paedophiles and poofters are all treated quite differently.  Child abusers come under particular scrutiny, depending on which other non-pervert factors get taken into decisive consideration. Really nasty - nay wicked - ones have been consistently ignored.  

Those who know me know that I have never considered myself a feminist. I've always held on to the radical idea that men and women were put on the earth to help each other out, and not to compete with each other. Before I had my family, I worked in a male-dominated industry, but never felt excluded, passed over or discriminated against. (However, I was once asked to help out in a recording studio when an all-female band wanted an all-female crew. They weren't interested in my qualifications, just my gender. Isn't that discrimination?)

Maybe my favourable experience within a male-dominated workplace was coincidence - or maybe, just maybe - this was the fruit of an attitude which sees my femininity as one of my God-given attributes, something to be grateful for and not rebelled against, something which marks us with special features that complement those of our counterparts.

After a week of engaging in some ugly online discussions, I've begun to wonder if I should be defending marriage so vehemently. After all, I'm a single mother - another victim of the sexual revolution and its poison. So who's to say that my household is something less than it could be? Here are some issues related to same-sex marriage applied to a single-parent marriage: 1. My family and I feel hurt Yes, my children and I do feel hurt when we see the topic of marriage being discussed so openly on television, in print and on social media. We hurt when we see articles about Christian marriage, about Catholic marriage, and about the damage done by divorce. I hurt when I have to explain that I have an annulment and what that means. I spend my time defending traditional marriage and am called a bigot or pedophile-enabler for my trouble. I feel very hurt, sometimes to the point of tears, when my opposition throws up the divorce-rate of heterosexuals - and I'm part of that statistic.

There's really no such thing as friends and family when it comes to freedom of speech... at least not when you are a conservative Christian. (Dedicated to Pops) It's almost the three year anniversary, to the month, since I met my good friend, and now mentor Bill Muehlenberg via Facebook and found the mass of resources contained on his website Culture Watch .It was through these channels, and many others, that I was exposed to the Christian conservative, political and public discourse on the issues of the day, in what I now know to be 'the culture wars'. This was to be the beginning of a new path for me, as a spark was lit in my soul, and I have been on a steep learning curve ever since.

We should relish the freedom of expression that a Christian culture established and particularly that it was not founded on the moral vacuum of atheism, given the tragic outcomes of secular humanistic governments of the past (such as Communist Russia, Romania, Cambodia, China, Nazi Germany, etc.). But ancient history fares no better, it is replete with the continual narrative of ‘blood feuds’, that is, the perpetual generational ‘right’ to avenge the spilling of blood or the threat of imperialist expansionism from Greek, Ming, Khan, Persian or Roman Empires. Here the ‘peace’ of millions was dependent on the submission of subjugated nations, such as the Roman Empire’s “Pax Romana”, or the Islamic Empire’s dhimmi status for conquered people. Against this brutal backdrop comes what some historians have called the “softening effect” of Christianity.

I have a friend who has worked assiduously for many years to expose the dangers of pursuing a harm minimisation approach in regard to illicit drugs. I am sure he has been greatly motivated by the experience of losing a son to this evil.

Imagine my surprise when reading the latest issue of The Economist magazine to see that the concept of harm minimisation has been applied by that journal to the subject of female genital mutilation (FGM). If you don’t believe me, click here:

In a Leader article they argue “It is therefore time to consider a new approach. Instead of trying to stamp FGM out entirely, governments should ban the worst forms, permit those that cause no lasting harm and try to persuade parents to choose the least nasty version, or none at all.”

Not only does a pregnant mother have a right to choose, as a moral being she has a duty to choose: to choose life over death for her baby.....another human being.