It was a dirty little secret, but not anymore. Pornography is rotting too many minds. Such is the outcome when a nation no longer believes in right and wrong, where moral truth depends on the circumstances. Phrases like, “What’s true for you may not be true for me. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One person’s art is another person’s pornography,” are all popularized outlooks by our decaying culture awash in moral relativism.
It isn’t as if we weren’t warned. For starters, the Bible is filled with warnings about rejecting truth and the corruptible nature of sin. It pervades the whole person for the very heart of the sinner is corrupt (Ps. 51:5, Jer. 17:9, Rom. 8:7). Evil resides in the heart of the crown jewel of God’s creation and the ones appointed to rule the world for God – us. Sin is proud, so it resists God and offers counterfeit answers to life’s most vexing issues (2 Thess. 2:2-4).
Even secular man has seen his inability to hold firm to absolute truth. In 1948 the esteemed English professor and conservative author/philosopher Richard Weaver wrote his profound treatise, Ideas Have Consequences, in which he declared, “There is ground for declaring that modern man has become a moral idiot. For four centuries every man has been not only his own priest, but his own professor of ethics, and the consequence is an anarchy which threatens even that minimum consensus of value necessary to the political state.” Weaver could tell 60 years ago that modern society was morally imploding.
More recently in 1987, Allan Bloom, yet another English professor and author warned us again in his bestselling book, The Closing of the American Mind. “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes or says he believes, that truth is relative.” Mind you, Bloom was no conservative, but a liberal homosexual. Those students are now entering positions of leadership in our society. Many are now teaching a new generation what they were taught. If they have not been graced with the transforming power that comes through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, well, we have reason to weep.
Little wonder a sin like pornography seems to be on the rise. For example:
• A 2006 ChristiaNet poll revealed that 50 percent of Christian men and 20 percent of women are addicted to pornography.
• Focus on the Family’s Pastoral Ministries reports that about 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography.
• A 1996 Promise Keepers survey at one of their stadium events revealed that more than 50 percent of the men in attendance were involved with pornography within one week of attending the event.
• A Family Safe Media study in 2007 revealed that 47 percent of Christians stated that porn is a problem in their homes.
• The Barna Group produced a study in 2003 which showed that 50 percent of people ages 18-38 believe that looking at pornography is not immoral.
Lest we believe porn is strictly for adults, think again. Just earlier this month the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that one in 20 cell-phone-using teens have sent sexually suggestive images of themselves through their phones. It’s called “sexting” and it may be coming to a cell phone near you soon. Nearly one in ten 17-year-olds admitted to have sent a “sext” message, while 30 percent of them have received such messages.
“Sexting” is far from being the only problem when it comes to children and pornography. A 2002 study by the London School of Economics found nine of 10 children between ages eight and 16 had viewed internet pornography – most of which were unintentional. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released the findings of a 2000 study showing that 25 percent of the nation’s youth had received “unwanted exposure to pictorial images of naked people or people having sex.” The study estimated the number of children impacted to be about six million. There are more than 300,000 pornographic web sites for teenagers. It has been said that teens now absorb about 15,000 sexual references each year, with less than 170 of them referring to abstinence outside the marriage covenant.
All this is taking a toll on our society. A 2007 study published by the Christian Century said 57 percent of pastors called pornography the most sexually damaging issue for their congregations. One only has to survey the carnage to see why. Porn dehumanizes by distorting how one views relationships, particularly with the opposite sex. It never edifies, but tears down people. A study in Los Angeles in the 1980s showed of the child sexual abuse cases, pornography was linked to 62 percent of those investigated. Another study showed that 86 percent of adult sex offenders were regular users of pornography. In 1979 a government study found that neighborhoods with a pornography business experienced 40 percent more property crime and 500 percent more sexual offenses than similar neighborhoods without a pornography store. Sadly, there is much more evidence showing the destructive nature of pornography, but I’ll spare you further.
As Christians we are bound by the authority of Scripture. So does the Bible address a sin like pornography? Yes it does.
Genesis 1:27 details how God made us sexual beings – male and female. However, because of the fall and sin entering the world (Rom. 3:23), sex has been corrupted from its original intent and is misused (Rom. 1:24-25). Pornography destroys the dignity of people created in the image of God. It distorts God’s reason for sex by encouraging sex outside the marriage covenant (1 Cor. 7:2-3). The Bible specifically condemns behaviors triggered by pornography like adultery (Lev. 18:20), sexual exposure (Gen. 9:21-23), incest (Lev. 18:6-18), prostitution (Deut. 23:17-18, bestiality (Lev. 18:23) and homosexuality (Lev. 18:22 and 20:13). Premarital and extramarital sex is condemned as well (1 Cor. 6:13-18 and 1 Thess. 4:3). Even thoughts of sexual immorality are sinful (Matt. 5:27-28).
We must stress to our young people that a Biblical view of human sexuality must include the fact that sexual intercourse is reserved only for marriage. It establishes the one-flesh union, provides that sexual intercourse is for the mutual pleasure of husband and wife and that it is procreative. Pornagraphy and its messages is producing generations wrought with dysfunctional relationships, violence and death.