“Is it having an effect on us?” the poster asks. Maybe you’ve seen it around campus. That orange background. Those sharp, midnight-black letters that spell out that oh-so risque word:

Porn.

Pretty groovy, you may be thinking. Or disgusting, you may think. But what’s this word below it? Nation? Porn Nation?

Tonight, in a lecture sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ, author Michael Leahy will give insight, advice and firsthand accounts of his experience in dealing with our “hypersexual culture.” The culture of the U.S. porn nation extraordinaire.

Whether you love porn or hate porn, Leahy’s lecture is sure to entice and engage, and while this Editorial Board is careful not to tell others what their morals should be regarding pornography and its use, we are completely in favor of fostering a discussion around such a controversial topic.

Pornography itself is defined as “creative activity (writing or pictures or films, etc.) of no literary or artistic value other than to stimulate sexual desire” by Princeton University. So, while some may argue that pornography has existed since ancient times, including the infamous Kama Sutra, we’re going to go with a slightly more contemporary history and hopefully explain our thoughts on why porn has, as Leahy describes on his Web site, the potential to be a “crack cocaine of sexual addiction.”

Leahy is referring to Internet pornography in that description, and we think he’s right. While the questionable contents contained within the pages of Playboy, founded in 1953, or the raunchier Penthouse, founded in 1965, are more or less the same as the images one could find on the Web, the sheer plenitude and availability of pornography on the Internet is the tipping factor.

Consequences of addiction are varied, and depending on whom you talk to, certain symptoms and consequences may not be indicative of an addiction. However, some of the more commonly agreed upon “symptoms,” compiled in 2001 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, include compulsive masturbation, promiscuity, unsafe sexual practices, premature ejaculation and even mental changes such as depression, loneliness, irritability, indifference and obsessive-compulsive behavior.

In other words, there are risks.

We are not here to make moral judgments, to tell people what they should do or not do, or say what one enjoys or doesn’t enjoy in one’s private life is wrong or right. But we are here to talk to you, the ISU campus, and encourage your life to be the best and healthiest it can be.

So, that being said, we encourage everyone to at least discuss the matter in an honest way. Keeping pornography’s status as the forbidden fruit only tantalizes and idealizes the reality, airbrushing the very real and very possible consequences (much like the all too perfect women and men objectified by so much pornography are themselves unrealistic and airbrushed to minimize flaws).

Go to Leahy’s lecture. Agree or disagree, it’ll provide information pivotal to the beginnings of a mature discussion.

Sexuality in general, and pornography in particular, is a huge can of worms that touches on everything from objectification of human beings to faith and the economy. We didn’t plan to answer all those questions via one editorial, one discussion with you.

But maybe, if you continue the conversation, we can really address this topic.