Pornography "One of the Most Pervasive and Destructive Problems in Our Society" – Philly Cardinal

LifeSiteNews ^ | 6/9/06 | Hilary White

[wagglebee]

Cardinal Justin Rigali, writing in the Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, said that the modern media’s obsession with pornography is “one of the most pervasive and destructive problems in our society.”
 
“Our society," the Cardinal wrote, “is inundated with sex and sensuality largely from the media. Films, television programs, and advertisements are loaded with sexual reference as well as the promotion of sexual promiscuity.”
 
The all-pervasiveness of sexual imagery in the media has led to the vast proliferation of pornography on the internet where it is accessible to anyone who can use a keyboard. It is also increasingly frustrating for law enforcement officials around the world that sexual predators have begun using the internet to target children.
 
In November, 2004, a US Senate hearing discussing the dangers of addiction heard evidence that addiction to pornography has ruined lives and destroyed families. Virginia Tech, professor James B. Weaver said studies show that extended exposure to pornography creates "sexual callousness, the erosion of family values and diminished sexual satisfaction."
 
Rigali called pornography “a cancer upon contemporary culture.” “Addictive in nature, many have been entangled in its lure and have caused great psychological and emotional harm to themselves and even to spouses and other family members.”
 
At the same senate committee hearing in 2004, US lawmakers heard evidence that corroborates the Cardinal’s assertion. University of Pennsylvania sexual trauma program co-director Mary Anne Layden said pornography addiction has similar effects on the brain as heroin or crack cocaine addiction.
 
The Cardinal writes, “Violence, sexual abuse, psychological trauma and ruptured relationships are the fruit of pornography, which, astonishingly, is a multi-billion dollar industry.”
 
Read Cardinal Rigali’s article:
http://www.cst-phl.com/main.html

[Caesar Soze]

In the old days, Playboy only showed bare breasts and bare buttocks. Then they moved on to some pubic hair. then full frontal nudity including close ups of genitals.

In Playboy? I don't think so. But then, it's been a a year or two since I've seen one; maybe they've made changes.

[Mr. Jeeves]

i'm kinda partial to gun-porn myself... but racing-porn and airplane-porn will do in a pinch. 8^)

For me it's guitar porn - I've long since outgrown any other kind...and nothing else compares, anyway. ;)

[RKBA Democrat]

"He who trades liberty for safety deserves neither."

I'm missing how the "right" to view sado-masochistic sexual imagery is a basic human liberty that should be defended. And try as I might, I just don't recall any of the treatises developed by the founders of this country discussing any "right" to view sexually provocative material.

[little jeremiah]

The priest "pedophile" problem was actually a Lavender Mafia problem, due to a high number of homosexuals joining the priesthood and keeping normal men out of the seminaries.

Also, a heckuva lot of teachers and others molest/seduce younguns at, believe it or not, a higher rate than priests have. The MSM loves to dump on the Catholic Church so they emphasize what crimes are committed by priests compared to child molestation by, for instance, homosexuals in general.

[little jeremiah]

There's a few truths about pornography that some people are either unwilling to see, or maybe some are just teenagers and haven't thought it through.

1. Pornography is prostitution. The people having sex so you can watch and get your jollies are getting paid, so you are watching prostitutes having at it. Of course, if prostitution doesn't bother you, this won't either.

2. Many prostitutes/porn "actresses" were molested when young, are drug addicts, are sexually abused as part of their trade, and so on. By contributing to the porn industry, you are helping more young women enter the seamy world of sex for money.

3. The only reason porn is everywhere is because Larry Flynt and other scum teamed up with the ACLU to force porn on every community in the nation. If the states still had any states' rights, local communities and states could define their own standards. So liber(al)tarians sqwaking about "nanny state" should shut up - it's the ultimate "Big Daddy" state forcing immorality on everyone, thanks to the ACLU and pornographers.

4. Since porn is so easily availabe, more and more kids are seeing it at younger and younger ages. Okay, so parents should control their kids. Practically speaking, the only way to completely protect your kids is getting harder and harder - can't even let them loose at the library or go to other peoples' houses. This argument is like saying that people can live at the town dump and have no rats or flies. You can keep your own house clean but if you live surrounded by filth the rats and flies will come in anyway.

5. Since porn is by nature not really satisfying, the bar has to be lowered more and more so people can get a "thrill". So porn gets weirder and weirder - S&M, tortures, animals, children, and so on. Now pornographers are recruiting kids via places like MySpace.

6. There is a connection between pornography and sex crimes, no matter how much porn supporters pretend there isn't.

7. Men who watch porn a lot have a more difficult time relating in a realistic and close way with the real women in their lives. Focusing on sex acts with strangers via media is a sickness, it is not healthy, and if anyone wants to say this is not true, ask any woman whose husband, boyfriend, or fiance has a porn fixation and ask her if she is fine with it.

8. Anything that helps undermines families undermines everyone.

[RunningWolf]

No one can disagree with those truths unless ignorant or dishonest of them.

W.

[FierceDraka]

So, you wish to invoke the Founders on the subject of sexuality? It's no secret that our Founders took great relish in "relations with the fair sex".

Two words, one RANDY name:

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN - Tha Plunderer of Paris.

[FierceDraka]

In a sexually healthy society, the more destructive forms of pornography would largely disappear.

I agree.

Passions that are hidden and repressed inevitably fester and become destructive and violent in their intensity.

[Antoninus]

Excellent article, Cardinal Rigali! Well done, good and faithful servant. Now if only some of your episcopal brethren would get off their duffs...

[Antoninus]

He who trades liberty for safety deserves neither.

So for you, liberty is the ability to buy a porno mag and masturbate. Is that it? Yeah, I'd lay down my life for that kind of "freedom."

[ItsForTheChildren]

...due to a high number of homosexuals joining the priesthood and keeping normal men out of the seminaries.

Last I heard the seminaries weren't exactly turning men away. They're having trouble turning out enough priests as it is.

[FierceDraka]

For discussion, women are most subjugated in societies that have the least “sex and sensuality from the media." Think of the middle East, Central Asia and Africa. In fact, I would say many of these societies are far more violent than ours.

You nailed it, sister. (No pun or innuendo intended)

The cultures of which you speak keep their women subjugated in ways that would shock and horrify even the most puritanical American fundamentalist. I'm talking about chattel slavery, ritual mutilation of reproductive organs, and casual butchery of any woman who dares to stand up for what we consider their basic human rights.

Also, note that when men from those cultures find themselves in the West, they think they can rape Western women with impunity, justifying their acts by saying that the victims were dressed like "whores" and deserved what they got.

(Having seen first hand the trauma a rape causes a woman, I'd gladly volunteer to personally execute the rapist, if given the opportunity.)

I'm honestly surprised at the positive response to my initial post on this thread. From the posts prior to my own, I was expecting to be flamed by the Fundie Crusade authoritarians who seem to have nearly taken over my beloved FR lately.

[Antoninus]

I believe you need both extremes.

And I, being more of an Aristotelian on the issue, believe that each extreme (outright license and total repression) is bad and that moderation is the key. However, following Aristotle, when navigating between two polar opposite vices, if you can't achieve the true mean, it's better to hew toward the one that is less harmful.

I am not in the camp that views unmitigated perversity as being less harmful than repressing sexual urges.

[Antoninus]

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN - Tha Plunderer of Paris.

Please cite for me one single quotation where Franklin extols a right to "casual sex" or anything like that.

Then, please cite for me a single reference which proved that Franklin actually had sexual intercourse with any woman while in Paris.

[Antoninus]

Passions that are hidden and repressed inevitably fester and become destructive and violent in their intensity.

Don't you know that Freud was discredited decades ago?

[Antoninus]

From the posts prior to my own, I was expecting to be flamed by the Fundie Crusade authoritarians who seem to have nearly taken over my beloved FR lately.

Your beloved FR? Compared to some of us, you're still a noob.

[Antoninus]

Last I heard the seminaries weren't exactly turning men away. They're having trouble turning out enough priests as it is.

You heard wrong. Do a Yahoo search for "Goodbye Good Men."

[FierceDraka]

So for you, liberty is the ability to buy a porno mag and masturbate. Is that it? Yeah, I'd lay down my life for that kind of "freedom."

Damn straight. My freedom to do what I want, when I want, so long as I harm or defraud no one, is EXACTLY the kind of freedom worth killing and dying for.

And my first-born son will be shipping out to Iraq in a few months to fight the barbarians on their home turf, to defend my right (and yours, by the way) to do just that!

It's LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, not "Freedom for me, but not for thee".

Is it just me, or are you and yours advocating the imposition of a theocratic state in America? If so, then the Culture War is about to have a second front opened up.

We libertarian Republicans sided with the Christian Right to form a coalition to defeat the totalitarian, America-hating Socialists. Do not push us. Make no mistake - we will leave you out to dry if it appears that you are pushing for authoritarian rule.

[Melas]

If the states still had any states' rights, local communities and states could define their own standards.

LJ, I can't help but notice that you're only in favor of states rights when the state is telling the individual how to live. How come we never see you defending the rights of the individual over the collective, ever?

[Zechariah_8_13]

In a sexually healthy society, the more destructive forms of pornography would largely disappear.
I agree.
Passions that are hidden and repressed inevitably fester and become destructive and violent in their intensity.

I think that is, bar none, the stupidest thing I have EVER heard on FR. Have you even given that 2 seconds of thought?

While we're following your logic, I guess we ought to stop "repressing" all the child molesters and murderers too. We're just making it worse, after all! What we really need to do is FEED their fantasies to molest and murder!!!

I seriously cannot believe what I'm seeing on this thread.