Pornography--Victimless Crime?
Below is a little talk I gave at the Religious Education class I help teach for teenagers. The topic is pornography and was inspired when one of my students claimed that nobody was hurt by viewing pornography in any medium.
What did Jesus say about pornography? Who ever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It doesn’t say ‘pornography’ but what’s the sole purpose of looking at pornography? It’s to look at someone with lust. It’s not in a loving way, is it? It’s a detached and impersonal way to feel the tingles without actually having to know that person. See, Jesus says it’s not enough to avoid pregnancy or STD’s. It’s not enough to avoid impure sexual contact; we must also resist impure sexual thoughts and looks. Why do you think He says this? EVERYTHING, and I mean everything that Jesus taught humans springs from one thing—can you tell me what that is? The dignity of human life. Jesus always expects more from us because we’re created in God’s image. We have a certain something special in us that separates us from dogs, cats, and pigs—a rational soul and something in our heart that makes us search for God. Remember the commandments we discussed—the first 3 dealing with our relationship with God and the next 7 with our relationship with other people? This was always the test for Jesus with regard to sin—does it negatively affect the dignity of humans? Does pornography affect the dignity of a person? What does it do to guys? Ask yourself if Jesus or your dad saw you looking at pornography. How would you feel? Embarrassed. Shameful. That means your guilt-o-meter is working properly. See, Christ says that looking at a woman like we do in porn is beneath the dignity He himself gave us. Ask yourself how you’d feel if a man looked at a woman you loved—your mom or sister—the way he looks at porn. The second thing it does to us guys is that it teaches us to live in a world in which sexuality offers one thing—pleasure. When I hear people say that porn doesn’t hurt anyone because nobody gets pregnant, or sick, or anything else, I tell them that’s the whole problem. After a certain amount of time, guys begin to look at real women only for what they can give them. We badly twist or eliminate the possibility of love entirely because we now equate women with nothing more than our own pleasure.
In other words, selfishness. Porn is all about catering to ourselves and nobody else and selfishness is the opposite of love. Think about what you do when you look at porn. First, you affect yourself by looking at it—remember what Jesus said. You also create a market for porn, facilitating the greed of the industry who will look for men and women to exploit who will make them money. You contribute to an industry that will push the envelope to the point of kiddie porn. I don’t know if you’re aware of all the stuff available online but think of the worst thing you can think of and it’s available. Anyone know who Ted Bundy was? He was one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation who was executed in 1989. He strangled and raped over 50 women in Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Mr. Bundy was interviewed before he went to the electric chair and do you know what he said? He began looking at soft-core porn when he was 12 or 13. He kept looking for something more graphic and fell into a hard core porn addiction. Soon, that addiction could only be addressed by acting out these scenes in real life which led to the rapes and killings. The numbers say that the states with the highest readership of porn have the highest rape and murder rates. Half of all rapists in one study used porn directly before they committed rapes. Do you know what the internet sites with the most hits on them are today? Porn sites. Do you know what the issue that is breaking the most marriages today is? Adultery. See, people are becoming slaves. Ted Bundy became a slave. Slavery doesn’t mean we murder 50 people. Slavery means that we align our actions, beliefs, and faith around something destructive and something imaginary. When this ‘something’ guides us and not vice versa, we hand over our dignity, our intelligence, and our relationship with God.
What did Jesus say about pornography? Who ever looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. It doesn’t say ‘pornography’ but what’s the sole purpose of looking at pornography? It’s to look at someone with lust. It’s not in a loving way, is it? It’s a detached and impersonal way to feel the tingles without actually having to know that person. See, Jesus says it’s not enough to avoid pregnancy or STD’s. It’s not enough to avoid impure sexual contact; we must also resist impure sexual thoughts and looks. Why do you think He says this? EVERYTHING, and I mean everything that Jesus taught humans springs from one thing—can you tell me what that is? The dignity of human life. Jesus always expects more from us because we’re created in God’s image. We have a certain something special in us that separates us from dogs, cats, and pigs—a rational soul and something in our heart that makes us search for God. Remember the commandments we discussed—the first 3 dealing with our relationship with God and the next 7 with our relationship with other people? This was always the test for Jesus with regard to sin—does it negatively affect the dignity of humans? Does pornography affect the dignity of a person? What does it do to guys? Ask yourself if Jesus or your dad saw you looking at pornography. How would you feel? Embarrassed. Shameful. That means your guilt-o-meter is working properly. See, Christ says that looking at a woman like we do in porn is beneath the dignity He himself gave us. Ask yourself how you’d feel if a man looked at a woman you loved—your mom or sister—the way he looks at porn. The second thing it does to us guys is that it teaches us to live in a world in which sexuality offers one thing—pleasure. When I hear people say that porn doesn’t hurt anyone because nobody gets pregnant, or sick, or anything else, I tell them that’s the whole problem. After a certain amount of time, guys begin to look at real women only for what they can give them. We badly twist or eliminate the possibility of love entirely because we now equate women with nothing more than our own pleasure.
In other words, selfishness. Porn is all about catering to ourselves and nobody else and selfishness is the opposite of love. Think about what you do when you look at porn. First, you affect yourself by looking at it—remember what Jesus said. You also create a market for porn, facilitating the greed of the industry who will look for men and women to exploit who will make them money. You contribute to an industry that will push the envelope to the point of kiddie porn. I don’t know if you’re aware of all the stuff available online but think of the worst thing you can think of and it’s available. Anyone know who Ted Bundy was? He was one of the most notorious mass murderers of our generation who was executed in 1989. He strangled and raped over 50 women in Utah, Colorado, and Florida. Mr. Bundy was interviewed before he went to the electric chair and do you know what he said? He began looking at soft-core porn when he was 12 or 13. He kept looking for something more graphic and fell into a hard core porn addiction. Soon, that addiction could only be addressed by acting out these scenes in real life which led to the rapes and killings. The numbers say that the states with the highest readership of porn have the highest rape and murder rates. Half of all rapists in one study used porn directly before they committed rapes. Do you know what the internet sites with the most hits on them are today? Porn sites. Do you know what the issue that is breaking the most marriages today is? Adultery. See, people are becoming slaves. Ted Bundy became a slave. Slavery doesn’t mean we murder 50 people. Slavery means that we align our actions, beliefs, and faith around something destructive and something imaginary. When this ‘something’ guides us and not vice versa, we hand over our dignity, our intelligence, and our relationship with God.
posted by Ron at 3:52 PM
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