Pornography

Sexuality is a gift from God. When used the way He prescribes, it can draw two people closer together in a bond of intimacy. Sexual energy can be used to create stable families and provide children with a strong foundation to become decent adults. Like Gods other gifts to us, sexuality can also be misused and perverted. When that happens it destroys the very things it was given to us to create.

Just like other things we human beings need and desire, our desire for sex is often exploited for darker purposes. The beauty of women has long been manipulated and exploited.
Men have manipulated women for their beauty and women themselves have used their beauty to manipulate men since there’ve been men and women. They don’t call prostitution the ‘oldest profession’ for nothing. Societies moral standards have usually held those desires in some kind of check. They have helped us to focus our sexual energies into positive, uplifting pursuits and provided some balance in helping us to rise above our desires. Today even that balance is disappearing, and with it the stability of our society. We’ve thrown out the very moral code that has served to uplift us and help us rise above our basest desires.

Now, I love women. Just like most men, it’s written into my genetic code to respond to them in a chemical way. Their eyes, their hair, their figures, the way they smell…something about all of those attributes pushes buttons in me that make me want to, at least, be closer to some women. That’s perfectly natural. If it weren’t that way our species would have died out long ago. Like most men, I feel the desire to look at women. No big surprise there. Unlike some men though, I have no desire to debase them or see them perform sexual acts with others. I believe God made them, and me, to be better than that.

At one time most men had access only to paintings or pictures of naked women. Whether those constituted pornography or not may be debatable, but that’s all changed, especially with the Internet. The pornographic industry has exploded in recent years. The quality of pornography has declined over the decades to include images of intercourse, homosexuality and lesbianism, group sex, sadomasochism and vile displays of oral sex to name a only few of the more common types. The lowest, and most destructive forms of this phenomenon involve rape, physical violence and even sexual acts with children and animals.

What pornography has served to do is demean and debase women and even innocent children to little more than toilets to be used by men. Pornography has turned what was meant to give us intimate, loving relationships into one of the most destructive forces in our society. It’s ironic that so many people these days realize the need to watch what they put into their bodies, because their physical health depends on it, but then fail to realize the need to watch what they put into their minds...because their spiritual health depends on it. When it comes to sexuality the rule seems to be ignore any ‘outdated’ moral codes based in Biblical principles; practice ‘safe’ sex, and if it feels good do it. Pornography has fueled that attitude.

Pornography can be addictive for those who provide it and for those who consume it. The nature of any addiction is to seek stronger and stronger forms of the thing that satisfies the desire. Those desires can easily cross over from fantasy to reality. Countless men who are addicted to porn have been known to act out their fantasies after having fueled them on porn. (If you don’t believe that seeing images in a photograph or on a screen can alter behavior, just ask yourself why sponsors spend billions on advertising for thirty-second spots during the Super Bowl.) We are a society that’s beginning to drown in our own lusts. Nothing could be more destructive to personal relationships, marriages and families!

Though it's often asserted, it is by no means true that only women with low self esteem work in the porn industry. It is a fact, however, that many, if not most of the women in the industry do suffer from low self-esteem. It’s not uncommon for the victims of sexual abuse, as well as other forms of abuse and neglect, to find employment in the porn industry. Some part of them may believe that’s all they’re worth. That we could use each other so… That a fellow human being could believe that their only value is in being used as little more than a toilet is a shame on us as a species. It diminishes us all. And, it only serves to perpetuate the culture that is pulling us down.

One of the greatest shames is that this is all being done in the name of freedom of expression. I wonder sometimes if our founding fathers aren’t turning over in their graves for how we have twisted the meaning of the rights they secured for us.

Pornography destroys lives and it destroys families. When healthy families cease to be the building blocks for a society…that societies days are numbered. Because we are being led only by our own unchecked desires, and not by our Creators instruction manual for His creation, we are on a self-destructive path. It's time we stop letting others manipulate and exploit our natural desires. It's time we take control of ourselves, and what we allow into our minds. We need to learn to redirect our energies into positive and uplifting pursuits instead of fueling our own self-destructive lusts.

It's time we learn to see the value in each other as unique Children of God to be prayed for... not just objects to be used and preyed on. Let's bring back the concept of shame. Let's bring back decency…