What's So Bad About Pornography?Roger Ellis - 18 Aug 2014

So Google has changed its policy and is now banning pornography ads - but why be concerned about pornography?

Surely Christians are just up tight sexually? Surely people should be free to choose what they look at and how they choose to conduct themselves sexually particularly in private? 

Here are a few reasons why Pornography damages humanity and human relationships. If I’m right then regardless of their motivation Google should be applauded for this decision. In our culture we often see things from a self-referenced angle. Here I’m looking at this issue more widely

In outlining these I’m aware that between 30-60% of our male readers may already be hooked on porn and the guilt that comes with this. If that’s you don’t take this as condemnation; it’s certainly not that. Take it as motivation and energy towards receiving God’s grace and choosing the path to freedom.

1.    Porn dehumanizes and objectifies another human being making them a commodity whose ‘image’ can be captured and used for the self-gratification of another human being. In this process they are reduced to a body or merely genitalia. Both sides of the transaction are damaged in this process making the possibility of future healthy and fulfilling sexual relationships less likely. This is virtually ‘blasphemy’ from a biblical angle where humanity is made in the image of God. The destruction and misuse of this image is a grievous sin from God’s perspective.

2.    Those used within Porn become ‘objects’ when really they are made in God’s image, someone’s daughter, son, brother or sister. Often they are driven into the industry by addiction, economic oppression or through controlling or manipulative situations. They may be the victims of human trafficking or they may be under age. The consumer has no way of knowing which of these they are ‘buying in to’ by using Porn. The personal damage to those exploited in this way is beyond definition.

3.    Those viewing Porn are being manipulated and controlled by the purveyors of the genre. They cynically trust that people cannot control their sexuality, will become addicted and so can be lured further into their web of deception. Consumers must first ask themselves - do they want to give up control of their sexuality in this way?

4.    Porn removes sexual arousal from the context of intimate and faithful relationships. The ‘objectified person’ becomes the property of potentially 1000’s of voyeurs who attach little or no value to their humanity. The user will:

•    Find that as time goes by more extreme types of porn will be required to maintain the ‘turn on’.
•    Continued exposure forms a habit that will programme ‘neural pathways’ changing the users sexuality and even affecting orientation. Once affected addictions are hard to break.
•    Find that it’s more difficult to become turned on ‘normally’ and this will often cause dysfunction in ‘real’ sexual relationships.
•    Porn will become a dividing feature in ‘real’ human relationships with their partner often feeling betrayed and devalued by the addiction.
•    Porn supports dangerous myths around the nature of masculinity, femininity and healthy sexuality and relationships. 
•    When it moves into areas of physical damage (SM) and non-consensual sex it opens the door to illegal activities and porn is sometimes a factor in cases of sexual abuse and rape.
5. Economically the link between porn, drug abuse, prostitution, human trafficking and sexual abuse are well documented. These are industries that cause untold damage worldwide and are at the heart of much of the injustice that blights our planet. 

  

With this in mind we need to be convinced that Porn is not merely a matter for personal or private morality, it is a global justice issue of mega proportions. 

The gospel of Jesus reaches out to those whose lives are blighted by porn. This is an issue that’s not ‘out there’; it’s within the Church. If you are struggling with Porn here’s five steps you can take:

- Pray. Remember that you are not alone in this, God is passionate about helping you get free. Try and find a trusted friend to pray with you through the process

- Talk to an addictions counsellor or psychosexual therapist

- Disrupt the routines you have built around when you use porn

- Identify the positive things your use of porn gives you and substitute other things that bring the same positive effect

- If you need to masturbate, teach yourself to do it without porn, focusing on your own body rather than external images

- Keep working at it: it takes 3-6 months to break an addiction so be kind and encouraging to yourself in the process

All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms: Feature image is a derivative of the images 'silhouette' by Sheila Tostes, 'Eye.' by Samuel Johnson and 'the body shop' by Bryan Ledgard