Posted on 11/19/2011 5:02:31 AM PST by IbJensen
Note: This article originally appeared in Columbia magazine, the magazine of the Knights of Columbus, and is reprinted here with permission
November 18, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a conversation with a priest in my diocese, I shared my spiritual director’s report that every other confession he hears from men involves the sin of pornography. The pastor’s response was shocking: “Oh, it’s much worse than that!” Since then, this sad reality has been confirmed by many others: The sin of pornography is overwhelming Catholic men.
Pornography is now more popular than baseball. In fact, it has become America’s pastime, and we are awash in it. Porn is on our computers, our smartphones, and our cable or satellite TV. It’s common in our hotels and even in many retail stores and gas stations. For many men — and, increasingly, women — it is part of their daily lives.
Yet, Catholic teaching on the subject is clear. Use of pornography is a “grave offense.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church states, “Pornography … offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others” (2354).
In Life of Christ, Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen wrote, “The penalty of those who live too close to the flesh is to never understand the spiritual.” Hardcore pornography on the Internet offers an ocean of perversion. It takes the mind where it should never go, loosening its moral moorings and leaving it adrift in a treacherous sea of sin. That is the fate of those who give themselves over to pornography: They find themselves alone with their images and an insatiable appetite for more.
While astounding to many, users of pornography eventually put religion, marriage, family, work and friendships secondary to their desire for pornography. They may want to change, to go back to life as it was before porn, but most will return and descend further. Dr. Mary Anne Layden, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the Center for Cognitive Therapy, likens pornography to crack cocaine. In a testimony to the U.S. Senate in November 2004, she noted, “This material is potent, addictive and permanently implanted in the brain.”
Sadly, for the regular consumer of pornography, confession and contrition are normally not sufficient to break from pornography because, like drug abuse, pornography is not just a bad habit — it is often an addiction.
A DESIRE THAT DOES NOT SATISFY
Addiction to pornography is now commonplace among adults and is even a growing problem for children and teenagers. Few who are addicted will get help, and the consequences can be lifelong and severe.
Pornography’s addictive strength is a result of long-term, sometimes lifelong, neuroplastic changes in the brain. Psychiatrist Norman Doidge, author of the best-selling book The Brain That Changes Itself (Penguin, 2007), writes, “Pornography, by offering an endless harem of sexual objects, hyperactivates the appetitive system. Porn viewers develop new maps in their brains, based on the photos and videos they see. Because it is a use-it-or-lose-it brain, when we develop a map area, we long to keep it activated. Just as our muscles become impatient for exercise if we’ve been sitting all day, so too do our senses hunger to be stimulated” (108).
With pornography, in other words, our brain’s pleasure system that excites our desires is activated, but there is no real satisfaction. This explains why users can spend endless hours searching for pornography on the Internet.
Doidge further notes that porn viewers develop tolerances so that they need higher and higher levels of stimulation. Thus, they often move to harder, more deviant pornography. More than a decade ago, Margaret A. Healy, adjunct professor at Fordham University School of Law, and Muireann O’Brian, former head of End Child Pornography, Prostitution and Trafficking (ECPAT), observed a link between adult and child pornography. Since that time, scores of current and former law enforcement authorities have noted that many adult porn consumers will eventually move to child pornography, even if they are not pedophiles and had no interest is such material at first. These findings account, in part, for the prevalence of child pornography in the world today.
Viewing porn changes the user’s attitude toward sex, his or her spouse and society. He or she uses sexual fantasies to get aroused, tries to get partners to act out pornographic scenes, is more likely to engage in sexual harassment and sexual aggression, and views sex as a casual, non-intimate, recreational privilege. Laydon and other clinical psychologists have reported that, ironically, erectile dysfunction is commonly associated with constant porn use among men. One reason for this is that the constant search for sexual images and often-accompanying masturbation lead to dissatisfaction with one’s spouse. After all, a man’s wife cannot possibly maintain an image that competes with the women in the fantasy world of pornographic videos and images. The regular porn consumer sets himself up for disappointment and the almost-certain disintegration of his marriage.
Marital love is meant to be a total giving of oneself to a lifelong, faithful partner. It is a trusting, selfless giving. By contrast, pornographic sex is selfish, demeaning and mechanical. In his catechesis on the theology of the body, Pope John Paul II emphasized that there is a “moral goodness” in marriage, which is faithfulness. That goodness can be adequately achieved only in the exclusive relationship of both parties. Too many people miss out on that unique goodness of marriage and settle for the temporary, perverted and unfulfilling excitement of pornography.
PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN
A father has a duty to keep his children from pornography and a sacred obligation to set an example of purity for his family. What greater authority could a father have about the harms of pornography than the words of Christ?: “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt 5:28).
If you have become a porn consumer, ask yourself this: Am I the same man who professed fidelity to my wife on my wedding day? Fidelity cannot be maintained if one consumes pornography. Wives of porn consumers feel as though their husbands are committing adultery. Affairs of the mind are every bit as destructive as affairs of the heart.
Divorce lawyers report a high correspondence between pornography consumption and divorces. One 2004 study in Social Science Quarterly titled “Adult Social Bonds and Use of Internet Pornography” revealed that persons having an extramarital affair were more than three times more likely to have accessed Internet porn than those who did not have affairs. Further, those ever having engaged in paid sex were 3.7 times more apt to be using Internet porn than those who had not.
If you have a porn habit, your children may follow. Many pornography addicts report that their first exposure to porn was the discovery of their parent’s porn collection, which started them on a life of sexual confusion and exploitation. A 2006 survey of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children revealed that 79 percent of youth gain unwanted exposure to pornography in the home.
To a child, pornography normalizes sexual harm, according to Dr. Sharon Cooper, a pediatrician at the University of North Carolina. “Research has shown that the prefrontal cortex — the home of good judgment, common sense, impulse control and emotions — is not completely mature until children are 20-22 years of age,” she explained. The introduction of pornography to the brain’s prefrontal cortex is therefore devastating to key areas of a child’s development and may be life-altering. “When a child sees adult pornography … their brains will convince them that they are actually experiencing what they are seeing,” Cooper added. In other words, what a child sees in porn is what they believe is reality.
Some children will actually emulate what they see in pornography and experiment on siblings, relatives and friends. Many studies show that children exposed to pornography initiate sexual activity at an earlier age, have more sex partners, and have multiple partners in a short period of time. A 2001 study in the journal Pediatrics also found that teenage girls exposed to pornographic movies have sex more frequently and have a strong desire to become pregnant.
THERE IS HELP AND HOPE
Thankfully, there are organizations, counselors and resources that provide hope for those suffering from the destructive effects of pornography on children, marriages, relationships and society. Many who have been addicted — adults and children alike — have been helped through counseling or online exercises offered by recovery services.
It is critical, however, that each person and each family does a reality check. Ask yourselves whether you and your family are protected from the scourge of pornography. Do you have adequate parental control or filtering software on your home computer? Is the computer in an open area of the home? If you have children, have you talked to them about the spiritual and social cost of pornography? Do you have premium cable or satellite channels on your TV that offer pornography as regular fare?
If you are viewing pornography or indecent material, you are harming your very soul and perhaps those of your children and your spouse. The biblical warning is severe: “If your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out” (Mk 9:47). At a minimum, make sure that your computer both at home and in the office is filtered and that you have an “accountability partner” — perhaps your wife or a good friend — who has access to your computer and the sites you visit. Finally, get involved in the war on pornography. It is worth the fight for you, your family and your nation.
To answer your point, I feel that when all is said and done that if the charges are true - and I believe they are - that Penn State be tossed out of any post-season games for quite some time and that ll defendants be put on trial.
The defending of JoePa has been pathetic, in my opinion. Funny that he is immediately diagnosed with lung cancer. Assume it’s true, but funny timing.
And I always pay attention to what that great philosopher, Janet Reno, has to say.
Pray tell, does the author of the study have an explanation for the existence of rape before today's easy availability of porn? Correlation is not causation. It's more likely that somebody whose sex life is all screwed up will seek out porn. Perhaps porn provides some satisfaction that reduces the desire to rape real women.
Analogies are not your strong suit.
In both cases we have adult males being left alone with young boys. In both cases, abuse occurred. In both cases, the people above them protected the abusers.
I want the perps at Penn State prosecuted. Now they probably will be. I want the same for the priests, not monetary payoffs.
You wrote:
“Please point to an organized religion that has a hierarchy that in any way resembles Catholicism.”
Already did. Learn to read.
“You said it exists. Is there anything like a Pope somewhere that I am unaware of?”
You seem unaware of much.
“Is there anything like a Vatican City for another religion?”
Yes, but smaller. That makes sense when one considers how much smaller most religions are compared to the Catholic faith.
“They are an organization and because of that, they naturally have a vested interest in protecting their organization.”
Celibacy in no way protects or endangers the Vatican.
“Catholicism teaches the right things. Most of the followers are good people. Most of those teaching are good people, but as an organization they have placed more emphasis on protecting themselves than on protecting their own flock.”
False. What a few bishops - and they are a comparative few - have done is not the action of the Church.
“As to your contention that this is a by product of a few bad bishops, that is pure nonsense. Why were so many priests transferred after they molested?”
There weren’t so many who were transferred. There were over 40,000 priests and the number who were transferred can’t possibly be more than in the hundreds spread out over a nation now numbering 300 million and in a Church numbering now about 65 million.
“The Church is supposed to have a higher standard than college football.”
It does. Some men - including bishops - don’t do their jobs very well.
“This whole thing reminds me of the thin blue line for policemen.Most are good people, but when a cop goes bad, most of the good ones ignore it because they are more afraid of being called a rat than doing the right thing. At that moment, they become bad cops, because they are servants of their citizens, not each other. The same applies to people in organized religion. When they protect a bad apple, they become one.”
And we’re still talking about a comparatively small number of people and not the Vatican either.
“Catholicism is in steep decline in America.”
Actually, no. You really don’t seem to have a clue: http://religion.lohudblogs.com/2011/02/28/catholic-church-still-growing-mainlines-still-not/
“A history of protecting child molestation is part of the reason.”
Except what you’re claiming isn’t happening. Why don’t you go back to the drawing board and come up with some other canard.
“If they are finally cleaning it up, bravo, but as of now, people keep stepping forward with tales of horrific abuse.”
And they always will. There will always be abusers - in every group.
“All religions have bad people. All atheits have bad people. Every group on the planet has bad people. This is not about people. This is about honesty and dishonesty to the people who follow you and pay your salaries.”
The real problem is that you don’t seem to know the facts.
It always amuses me to read threads like this. Not so much for the subject matter, but for the responses to it.
Used to, it was the self-righteous indignation of the religious Church-going folks that created the humor and irritation to me.
Now, it’s the self-righteous indignation of the spiritual NON-church-goers that makes me laugh out loud. How pious they are, decrying the sins of the Church, despising “organized religion,” and thereby justifying themselves — and their own spiritual superiority.
As though life is a game, and God is a referee....
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
did you read the article?
If you didn’t, I’m not going to bother anymore.
no one is calling for a ban of anything.
Has anyone dragged you against your will into any church where you are forced to listen to their preaching?
Did someone force you to click on the thread and force you to unwillingly view a catholic view about morality?
do you think catholics should be banned from teaching catholicism to catholics?
bttt thanks for the ping Jeremiah!
excellent post
This is where things get muddy and various churches have stepped in to attempt to clarify with localized policies. Of course the scope of the Roman Catholic church is a geographically vast locale. My gut sense on this, Agent, is that laxer Roman Catholic policies but still following biblical recommendations, might result in a Lutheran like situation where you get married bisexuals where the Catholics have single gays — and both, when granted unguarded access to children, molest in roughly equal proportions (exact data is almost impossible to pin down, but that’s what I hear from Christian psychologists). An improved ecumenical effort to address homosexuality or bisexuality habits, and to heal the hurts behind them through the power of Jesus Christ, would do as much good as any policy on ministerial marriage. IMHO.
NARTH (http://www.narth.com) — not to be confused with the filthy NAMBLA! has been a great source to show that Jesus Christ is not idle in this world when it comes to those hurting in homosexuality, regardless of how much of the fault is their own. God gives wisdom without finding fault and that is one beauty of His grace. He comes to make all things new.
Gun ownership, concealed carry, and the return to a semblance of sanity in criminal sentences can be credited for that.
Forty years ago you could let your kids walk to school. Today, not so much.
Hey sakic,
when you take the plank out of your own eye...
Lurking’
“Basing your rules on something that goes against biology makes zero sense”
your right makes no sense when you learn that 9 out of 10 priest were pederasts (abused boys) not pedophiles..
so would they really be married their being homosexual?
Lurking’
I was commenting on your assertion that there was a high correlation between availability of porn and a rise in sex crimes. There is actually a negative correlation between the two.
I agree. Paterno is given a pass by just about everyone, yet he should have reported the child rape to the police. I don’t buy what they say about how he couldn’t stand Sandusky. Why did he associate with him all those years, let him have an office as well as access to the same facilities where he sexually abused the boy? And now, all these years later, it finally caught up with him. I don’t think he is an evil person, but he failed to show the moral fortitude to do the right thing.
Completely true. A moral crusade against pornography must be fought as we as a people are quickly losing our souls to it.
More than watching our own eyes is required. There must be moral outrage expressed and teaching done. People who are found to imbibe in pornography in any way must be prayed for and helped to realize how terribly wrong it is and helped to escape it. Those who market it must be treated as a scourge to society as well they are.
Try putting out the fire in just your own yard in the midst of a forest fire and find out how far that gets you. If you don't think it is that serious you do not realize the attack to very moral fiber of our society. Children in particular are paying the high price with sexual molestation and horrible murders. If people just stopped and thought about what the "sexual revolution" has done to society and individuals therein we would not, could not put up with it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
