I found
it quite instructive the other day watching a debate on pornography on the BBC.
Here we have on one side, people who
proudly represent the debased industry struggle to justify why they must
continue to pollute society with their increasingly-burgeoning business. They euphemistically refer to themselves as
people involved in Adult Industry Trade (AIT).
Even
more instructive and saddening was the fact that the opposing speakers
perfectly complemented AITs proud pushfulness with their mellowed laid-back
approach. Everybody seemed to be afraid
to get labeled as prudish. Hence all the
arguments on the evil of porn on society were limited to such approved areas as
whether or not porns lead to addiction or sexual offences. And of course the whole debate became nothing
more than an academic pushing of figures one way or the other, citing studies
whose backgrounds remain unclarified.
Under
the circumstances, AIT practitioners easily justify their existence, saying
they are providing services for frigid people, and that in any case they are
only providing people with what they loved to watch! The actors and actresses also loved it (at
least the big income), so what’s the business of fringe religious bigots trying
to force their standards on everyone else?
On the issue of whether or not porn (especially the violent variant)
does actually make people want to go and practice it in their
neighbourhood, AIT appealed to the game
of boxing. Does the violence inspire the
millions of boxing fans to go into the street pummeling everyone they come
across? Rather, by “providing” people with alternative outlets for their
passion, AIT claim, porn is actually helping prevent possible sexual violences!
It is
thus clear that the whole exercise is nothing but an attempt to mainstream
pornography and make it look not too bad.
The single on-line soft porn provider that was interviewed on the issue
of whether or not people do get addicted to pornography conceded the obvious;
but was also frank when she added that it was not her place to warn her clients
of such possibilities!
In my
opinion, there is absolutely no point in trying to argue whether or not
pornography could be addictive. Even
lesser lusts have successfully thrown millions into strong emotional cages that
require special grace of God to escape from.
But the real issue here is that sex is not just another activity, like
boxing or footballing. Every sexual act
(excluding gays, of course) has the possibility of producing humans, just like every one of us is!
Sex should therefore be treated as sacred! Trifling with sex is simply immoral
and unbecoming of anyone who would claim to be a sane bona fide member of the human clan. That may be why the Maker of
heaven and earth holds it that a person lustfully contemplating sex with
another is deemed to have actually carried out the act, while the same does not
necessarily hold for the situation where he was thinking of beating up that
person. Certainly not if one were
contemplating devouring a bowl of pounded yam!
And if even we want to restrict ourselves to
effects on Society alone, the real effects of porn will have to be evaluated
beginning from the unquantifiable impact on the family, viz , infidelity in marriage and attending exponential increase in
number of children and youths without proper parental upbringing. This is the
foundation for so much evils and instability in Society. That people who promote and produce
pornographic films could actually put on nice ties and suits and come argue
their case on the BBC for a global
audience, tells us how late the hour is.
Where, for heavens sake, is the Church at such a time as this!
In the meantime,
following the public revelation of the fourth case of HIV among porn stars in
recent weeks, the filming industry in the US has announced a temporary
suspension of productions of pornographic (“blue”) films. It is the second moratorium on filming across the
industry in less than a month.( http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hiv-fourth-case-20130909,0,6230600.story
)
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