| Adam and Eve newly created |
G. K. Chesterton wrote somewhere that a man knocking on a brothel door is searching for heaven. But surely that man is looking in the wrong place?
Evil has been defined as the mis-use of good. Food is good. It nourishes the body, adds pleasure to life and can be shared with others in celebration. But too much food results in obesity or other illnesses. Knives are good. They're very useful for cutting food or wood or even for legitimate self defense. But putting a knife through another's heart in order to take his property or in a fit of jealously is a mis-use of a good knife.
But surely if consenting adults want to perform sexual acts for other consenting adults to watch, that's nobody else's business. There are no victims.
Pornography, as defined in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 2354, consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others.
According to one study I read about, the number of men aged to 18-25 who have viewed pornagraphy is practically 100%. No big deal, boys will be boys. We've all peeped once or twice, eh? Surely a large number of those men have looked at porn only a couple of times, then grown up and moved on with their lives. And yet, it's reported that the porn industry is the largest grossing industry in the United States, as well as this country's biggest export. Porn addiction is now a widely recognised psychological problem. In my opening paragraph I purposely repeated the syntax "sex serves." The problem with porn is that the viewer becomes enslaved to the sexual imagery. Countless men have travelled the road from "mainstream" porn to ever more bizarre and perverted displays of sex in a soul corroding search for sexual thrill and novelty. But the law of diminishing returns rules there.
Furthermore, I would argue that porn and its effects go beyond the hard core yuck most of us associate with the word. Is anyone bothered by the picture displays in Target's underclothes for girls section? Aren't the poses of those young girl models rather provocative? Or how about walking through the mall past the Frederick's of Hollywood or Victoria's Secret shops with their soft porn window displays? And finally, what is with the plague of stories of schoolgirls circulating photos of themselves nude or in lingerie via their cell phones? What motivates them to do this?
It doesn't take a leap of the imagination to understand that frequent viewing of pornography colors the view boys and men have of women.
There is a mass of literature ranging from formal studies to anecdotal evidence that portrays college-aged men and woman as living in a sexual jungle. Women view porn at lower rates than men and when woman do view porn it's typically at the instigation of a male; go along to get along - don't want to be seen as a sexual prude - rather this than the terrible fate of being alone. There is now a prevalent "hook up" culture of one night stands on college campuses. Like sexual wolves, male students prey on female students. The incidences of rape, unplanned pregnancy and STDs have soared among this age group. No doubt related, so has the rate of attempted suicide. There seems to often be a moral hangover as well an alcohol hangover "the morning after." Obviously pornography isn't the only thing contributing to this state of affairs, but it pollutes our cultural atmosphere and does NOT lead to loving thoughts and actions.
This is the kind (of demon) that can only be driven out by prayer. Mark 9:29
So, what do we do about the "pornographication of culture?" There are parental controls for internet and television. We can notify Target of our discomfort with their display of young girls or choose not to shop there. We can avoid the mall. One of my sisters managed a drug store years ago where she was required to stock certain pornographic magazines. Since these magazines were offensive to her to decided she wouldn't display them but keep them under the counter; if anybody asked for one she would retrieve one from its hiding place. In the film Fireproof, the main character Caleb Holt, who is in danger of losing his wife because of his internet porn addiction, eventually hauls his computer to the yard and takes a ball bat to it. Rather drastic, isn't it? And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out and throw it away: it is better for you to enter into life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into the hell of fire. Matthew 18:9
An admission: I am one who struggled with porn. Thank God I didn't become enslaved to it. But the potential was clearly there. The images became seared into my memory and the sin of lust is a constant temptation. On two different occasions in the confessional, two different priests - one young and one old - gave me as penance the praying of two thousand Hail Mary's. I thought, How am I supposed to pray so many Hail Mary's? I can't do that in one sitting. It'll take me many, many days.
Ah! Those priests are very wise. For those of you unfamiliar with it, the Hail Mary, particularly in the context of the rosary, is a prayer where we meditate on various aspects of the life of Jesus or his mother, Mary, while also reciting the Our Father and Glory Be. It's a very effective prayer when approached the right way. Those priests know it's necessary to remain focused on our Lord Jesus Christ and our Lady, the Virgin Mary in order to attain a pure heart. And by setting 2,000 prayers as penance they knew full well I couldn't do it in one sitting and then quickly forget about it. No normal person is going to try to count out 2,000 Hail Mary's. The idea is to get into the habit of daily, meditative prayer; to remain focused on God and not let Satan get a foothold in your heart.
God, create in me a clean heart, renew within me a resolute spirit. Psalm 51:10
No comments:
Post a Comment