Posted on 11/28/2012 7:01:52 AM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
There have been several supposedly “scientific” studies published this year that either disparaged people of faith or insidiously mocked religion.
That includes a study, published in the journal Science, which asserted that people who believe in God are not analytical thinkers.
There also was a study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, which claimed that “highly religious” folk are less compassionate toward the needy than atheists.
Now comes yet another study, published this week in the Journal of Sex Research, which claims that adult film actresses are actually more religious than women who don’t get paid to have sex on camera.
“In terms of psychological characteristics,” the study’s five co-authors concluded, “porn actresses had higher levels of…spirituality compared to the matched group.”
This dubious study would be unworthy of comment except that it has gotten a lot of media coverage. It pretends to be scholarly research. But it’s nothing more than junk science.
Indeed, for those who blindly accept its findings, it leads to the absurd conclusion that there is some sort of link between sexual depravity and religiosity.
Uncritical thinkers could come away with the cockeyed notion that, just because a woman is sexually depraved – because she is a stripper or a prostitute or a porn actress – doesn’t mean she isn’t a woman of faith. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t love the Lord.
The authors of the Journal of Sex Research study argue that their findings disprove the “damaged goods hypothesis” with respect to “female performers in the adult entertainment industry.”
But close examination of the study’s methodology reveal obvious flaws that skew its findings.
It relied on the self-reporting of 177 porn actresses who responded to an advertisement posted at a Los Angeles health clinic, which was founded by a retired porn actress, and which catered to the adult film industry (before it was shut down last year by the L.A. County Health Department).
Apparently, it did not occur to the study’s authors that self-delusional porn actresses might misrepresent themselves as well-adjusted.
Might claim to have higher self-esteem, more positive feelings about themselves, a better support system, a more satisfying sex life and even a closer relationship with the Lord than women who don’t defile themselves for all the world to see.
The reality is that the 177 porn actresses who responded to the survey on which the study published in the Journal of Sex Research was based are indeed damaged goods.
And there is no better authority on the subject than Shelley Lubben, a former porn actress and born-again Christian. She is currently the Executive Director of the Pink Cross Foundation, a faith-based organization that reaches out to women caught up in the adult film industry.
The pornography business destroys body and soul, Lubben attests. Many porn actresses battle alcohol and drug abuse. They perform sex acts that are physically harmful and psychologically traumatizing. They contract sexually transmitted diseases.
There is a way for porn actresses to avoid that almost certain fate – give their lives to Christ. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
Have you read the book? All of it?
Yes
So then you know that, according to the story, God was trying to prove a point to Satan. It wasn’t really about Job at all.
She is hurting all the enslaved sexual-stimulation addicts whose cravings are exploited by the porn industry; she uses her body to draw the innocent into vice, and the not-so-innocent into ever more inhuman and degrading forms of vice; she coarsens society, and causes sexuality to be warped into cruel and impersonal shapes; she profits from an enterprise that destroys marriage (divorce lawyers say that internet porn is implicated in a HUGE number of marriage dissolutions); and she insults God who created her sexuality to be a precious gift in the eyes of her spouse, an element of bonding which keeps spouses together in good tiems and bad; and a life-giving power which brings images-and-likenesses of God into being: her children.
She may not realize all this. She may see only a little of it. But realize it or not, the damage is done.
Why do you think it was necessary for Job to have to go through all that? Just to help God?
We are His Creation. He is allowed—and requires no justification—to do anything He wishes to us, for us, or against us. He owes us no explanation.
I should not have said “He is allowed” That implies an authority over Him. There is no greater authority over God. He owes us nothing.
You ask because you do not understand. Some hints:
o Did The Almighty omnipotent, every-where-present, omniscient Jehovah want His adversary to know from experience the limit of his powers in opposing the merciful, righteous Source of Life, Light, Truth, and Love?
o Did not the Creator want His obedient, trusting creation Job to know from experience the limit of his own righteousness and faith in comparison to that of The God, that he might more fully appreciate, worship, and glorify his Maker, Friend, and Savior from Satan's clutches?
o Did not his four friends learn from experience the utter inability of their logic processes to explain the circumstances that both they and Job might face, and the correct solution thereof?
o Did not Elihu learn from experience the disdain with which The Mighty Potentate ignored his theology, and showed that men cannot attain wisdom out of their own reasonings?
o Did not The Great Teacher and Shepherd explain to all just a nit something of Who and What He is, reaching through and beyond time, space and matter?
o And was not Satan muzzled, and did not the humanly righteous, faithful Job humble himself before men, and meekly address The God admitting his depravity in sin, and cry out for salvation? Did not Job learn that his religiosity did not preclude Satanic infliction of all distresses, save death, until he cried out to his Maker and Savior for redemption?
o And was this not all recorded, word by word, with the express purpose of instruction for our benefit, in the afflictions that God permits to beset us, the we might know of our enemy the Liar and Father of Lies, and learn to rest in the Savior, the All-Wise and Merciful God and Great Shepherd of the sheep?
Why do you think it was necessary for Job to have to go through all that? Just to help God?
You already asked that question, and I already answered it.
ok
I do not know the workings of God’s mind.
It does not appear that you can claim that position. Three comments:
(1) He has shown some of them in His progressive revelation to the mind of humans through His Words, The Holy Bible -- enough to be wise unto salvation (2 Tim. 3:15)
(2) The Book of Job is perhaps one of the earliest inscripturated account of the workings of God's, men's, and Satan's minds, thus denying the excuse (Ezek. 14:14,20; Jas. 5:11).
(3) Deliberate ignorance of the God's mind through His General Revelation (Rom. 1:16-20) and/or His Special Revelation through the preached Word (hrema) (Heb. 4:1-3, 2 Tim. 3:16-4:3) will be no excuse at the Final Judgment when the disposition of all souls will be concluded (Ex. 32:33; Rev. 3:5, 13:8, 17:8, 20:12, 20:15, 21:27, 22:19).
And a command to be examined:
Deut. 4:2, Rev. 22:18,19 -- Let me suggest this indicates not to add to, or take away from, the words of the prophesy of this book, The Holy Bible.
I can claim it very easily. I don’t believe in the bible as you do.
I'll have to refute that statement. In the exchanges with ShadowAce and Raycpa you have both implied, the finally said explicitly that you have read the book of Job (see Posts 81 & 82). Therefore, you can't maintain ignorance of what the text of the book says. Furthermore, since the Bible has been published in many languages and many versions, and is readily available ($1.00 in a Dollar Tree, for instance); and apparently you both read and write in English, you have no excuse for not having access to and reading it outside of unwillingness to do so?
I don’t believe in the bible as you do.
Your belief in The Holy Bible, or mine, is not the issue. Neither is whether or not you understand the import of the account. If you have read the Job text, which illustrates something of the mind of God, the mind of the Devil, and the mind of humans, you cannot claim ignorance of what has been said about these things. In this case you may not believe that you will be held accountable to God for possessing that knowledge. But on the other hand if now you try to tell me you are ignorant of the story of Job after your exchanges here, yet want to keep on discussing its import, you are simply not making sense, are you?
A "porn star"? No.
Though I guess it depends on what the religion is.
Maybe a more interesting question: can a sexual surrogate be truly religious?
Helen Hunt plays one in a movie coming out now.
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Isn't all this up to God to decide --- not you? Or do you know better than He?
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Nor would I assume that God deems a man to be a truly spiritual Christian just because he declares himself to be so in his public diary.
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Well, what do you say about it? And exactly who gets to decide who among us is the "better Christian", you?
no its you. I mean with all the grace you just displayed you are obviously better than I.
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