An Obstacle in the Search for God?

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I’ve written about sexual subjects only a few times in the 12 years I’ve been writing this blog. Why? Shouldn’t every aspect of life be included among topics meant to help people searching for God?

Yes, but when it comes to religious teachings, I believe sexual values have traditionally been overemphasized. “Morality,” in fact, has often been used solely to refer to sex.

But current sexual mores – at least as portrayed on TV, in movies and streaming video – are, in my opinion, hard to sync with Christian or Jewish ideas of right and wrong and with the goals of people searching for God. Dramas, sitcoms, crime shows inevitably view sex as little more than recreation. Whenever romance is portrayed, it almost always includes one or more sex scenes, often on first encounters or dates.

Merely Reflecting Reality?

Producers of these shows will undoubtedly say they are merely reflecting contemporary reality. That’s partly true in so much as their shows portray a segment of society. But their productions also help form society’s values, and many of the values portrayed are antithetical to those of Judeo-Christianity.

Then, there’s porn, which of all the sexual deviations from Christian values is arguably the most difficult to defend, even by modern standards. “Is it really a problem?” you might ask. Look at these data from the web site Worldmetrics.

• Approximately 35 percent of all Internet downloads are adult content.
• The average age of first exposure to pornography is around 11 years.
• Eighty-seven percent of young men and 31 percent of young women report viewing pornography at least once a week.
• Porn consumption has increased by nearly 20 percent over the last decade.

Christine Emba
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You don’t hear or read much about the pervasiveness of porn or much about the subject at all. That’s why I believe Christine Emba was courageous to write about it recently in the New York Times.

“Criticizing porn goes against the norm of non-judgmentalism for people who like to consider themselves forward-thinking, thoughtful and open-minded. There’s a dread of seeming prudish, boring, uncool….

"But a lack of judgment sometimes comes at the expense of discernment. As a society, we are allowing our desires to continue to be molded in experimental ways, for profit, by an industry that does not have our best interests at heart. We want to prove that we’re chill and modern, skip the inevitable haggling over boundaries and regulation and avoid potentially placing limits on our behavior. But we aren’t paying attention to how we’re making things worse for ourselves.”

So, why is porn harmful to self and others?

First, because it exploits women in the most abusive way. Women viewed on porn sites are objects used for the gratification of men. (Same-sex porn is undoubtedly available, but I wager that the vast majority of porn sites feature women viewed by men.)

Disrespects Human Dignity

Secondly, because it causes harm to the person who, in viewing porn, disrespects his own dignity and that of others. Doesn’t that disrespect transfer to real, live encounters with others? Don’t we, in a sense, become what we view and think about, and isn’t that an obstacle in the search for God?

“You have heard that it was said,” says Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” And, in the same gospel, he includes adultery and fornication in a list of what “defiles” people, from what “comes out of the heart.”

Paul urges his readers to avoid porneia, from which the word pornography is derived, but the word is generally translated as “sexual immorality.”

Porn, it seems to me, is virtual adultery or fornication and sexual immorality, and is an obstacle in the search for God.