Declaring War On Porn!

Standing in a long queue at a fast food chain outlet can tell you a lot about the society you live in. The four maintenance workers ahead of me were getting lunch and it was with a great sense of macho bravado that they enjoyed a joke, oblivious to other patrons. As they split up to order, one started thumbing through his phone—a naked woman in a sexual pose graced the phone’s background.

I wondered if this young man, or any young man for that matter, has any idea where they come from—from out of a mother; a woman who once perhaps looked a little like that skimpy, naked model.

The stunning truth of pornography is that many men think there’s nothing much wrong with it. But, if only men could connect the using of women this way, personally, with their mothers, their sisters, and most horrific of all, their daughters. These are the interpersonal ramifications.

What about those closer to home? Pornography is addictive:

“The shock of photographed atrocities wears off after repeated viewings, just as the surprise and bemusement felt the first time one sees a pornographic movie wear off after one sees a few more.”

— Susan Sontag (1933–2004).

Pornography – Just like Any Other Drug

Most men into porn may dismiss any comparisons that their interest of choice is like a drug addiction. The initial enchanting allure of porn is transformed just like the drug of choice, from ecstasy to more problematic agony as the problem takes hold.

Men will have one of at least two responses. Some men will be privately ashamed of their problem. Other less scrupulous men will brandish their disgusting use of women.

The first man, if he can be honest with himself and others, may be helped. The second man is beyond help if he can’t see the problem, and pity the poor women in his path.

Porn Has Infiltrated Our Society

Porn, like a lot of salacious concepts within life, infiltrates society. It’s found everywhere. We see pornographic images in advertising, on television, on magazine covers, etc. Our children are exposed to more porn these days than we ever were.

As a temptation, if we are weakened by porn, it presents a front we cannot, in our own strength, contend with. That’s why we must boldly declare war on it if it’s our problem. As we declare war on it God comes to our aid, and in our weakness we derive strength from the Lord. But we must be prepared to rid ourselves of every bit of it—no holds barred.

We must declare war on it—as the enemy—if we are to stand any chance against these wiles of Satan to manipulate our desires beyond morality and self-control.

The enemy is spiritual and the weapons of war the enemy uses manifest physically, observationally, and embarrassingly—we may quickly shelter in shame. And before some audiences, say with our mothers, sisters and daughters, we would die of shame.

The devil loves to shame God’s own; to make us feel guilty and worthless in the sight of God. But God never looks at us this way.

When we are trapped by this scourge, we must declare war on it, and turn from every stimulus to pornography as if we had an aversive or allergic reaction to it.

To run from our problems is often the wrong way, but to run the other way from pornography or any other addiction is wisdom.

© 2012 S. J. Wickham.