Posted on 01/09/2002 7:29:19 AM PST by truthandlife
Pornography – the written and/or graphically portrayed uncovering of nakedness, especially in acts of fornication – grips the hearts and lives of many Christian men and, according to recent surveys, twenty percent of ministers. It tempts potential patrons from its store shelves and by mail, and it champions over three million websites, enticing over twenty percent of online viewers.
Porn appeals to an undisciplined culture (both inside and outside the church) that refuses to mature mentally and sexually. Specifically, many Christian men of all ages find it easier to view porn than to fulfill their God-given responsibilities to glorify their Lord and to love their spouses, their children, their estates, and their congregations.
As Christians, we would expect unregenerate men, who are in bondage to the sin of their Adamic nature, to embrace no conviction against viewing pornography. These men, as are all men before coming to Christ, are corrupt by nature and in need of spiritual rebirth, needing to call upon Christ Jesus for salvation. These men will only curtail or cease viewing porn when they are threatened civically (being jailed or imprisoned), professionally (getting fired), or domestically (being sued for divorce).
To the Christian, porn appeals to the workings of sin in the flesh (Rom. 7:23) that must yet be submitted to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It is unbiblical for the world or the church to think that a Christian cannot be tempted to view and to succumb to the viewing of porn during a time or times of weakness. Yet, having yielded to the beguiling temptation of viewing porn, the Christian must realize, as spoken by Christ Jesus, that he has sinned by committing fornication (in the case of the unmarried) or adultery (in the case of the married) in the heart – sins which Jesus says will deprive one of eternal life.
For the Christian minister, porn can be alluring as he manages his pressures to serve others, his solitary work environment, his mental exhaustion, and perhaps, his frustrations resulting from his entering the ministry as a novice not fully disciple himself. If he also has relationship and sexual difficulties at home, then porn becomes for him an easy, seemingly victimless escape. However, when he views porn, he jeopardizes the ministry that his God has entrusted to him. 1 Timothy 3:4-5 is clear that the minister’s household must be in order for him to retain his ministry, and, thus, his admitting his habitual porn use exposes problems in his own household, which he must correct lest he be ministerially disqualified. Often, the tremendous guilt that follows is difficult to jettison because the minister is supposedly required to be not only “perfect” but is also forbidden to confess his faults to his brethren (contrary to James 5:16), which would aid in his repentance and restoration.
All Christians: Shall you risk bringing reproach upon the name of our Lord Jesus for a season of lust-filled escape? Shall you risk destroying your own Christian reputations, marriages, families, and estates? Shall you risk jail or prison to fulfill your potentially illegal lusts before calling upon the name of our Lord to save you from yourselves? Do you realize that your viewing Internet porn can be and most likely is being monitored, if not by your bosses at work, then potentially by credit card companies and by porn sites themselves? Furthermore, have you considered that the hardness of your heart and your refusal to repent of this sin may prove indeed that you are no Christian at all, and are, therefore, in danger of eternal damnation? “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?” (Job 31:1).
Never forget that all men will eventually appear before the judgment seat of Christ to give an account for the deeds done in this life. We, therefore, strongly urge both Christians and non-Christians to repent of this heinous sin and to beg God’s gracious pardon. Christians, if you confess your sin, God is faithful and just to forgive you of your sin. Get rid of your porn regardless of its form or format. Don’t place yourself in a position to view porn. Don’t allow your mind to be idle and filled with pornographic fantasies and thoughts. On the contrary, plan to stay mentally active and to replace pornographic thoughts with pure, holy, and natural thoughts (see Philippians 4:8). Pray for God’s grace to deliver you from the desire to view porn for His name’s sake. Pursue spiritual maturity and love (toward your wife, your children, your church, and your Lord) instead of gratifying your selfish, sinful desires.
Those of you who are spiritual are to restore, with a spirit of meekness, those who have fallen into this sin lest you also be tempted. God will forgive the sins of those who truly repent and turn from their sin.
True. Christian morality, the Golden Rule, exceeds natural morality or the natural law which is written on the human heart. Evidence of the existence of the natural law is the fact that virtually every society treats murder, theft and adultery as wrong. And I don't know of any society that accepts public copulation.
And copulating on film constitutes public copulation.
There are other faiths in this world. Some religions do have rituals that very closely equate to what you are asking.
If there are any, they are in a tiny minority.
That being said, regardles of the morality of the question, there are few people who would even consider doing that as the pressure to perform would be VERY high.
The morality is the question.
I've got friends that are cops and I've worked in smut. The best I can say is that the strip club cop relationship is very interesting. There was one pair of vice cops that came in a few times a week, they were plain clothes/ under cover but everybody knew they were cops, nobody cared because our girls didn't break the law and vice cops that work the strip club circuite tip heavily while trying to convince the girls to do illegal things (it's all on expense account of course). I'm pretty sure after the 10th or 15th time these guys gave Mandy (not her real name of course, that's de rigeur in smut) over a hundred bucks and got nothing they knew she was straight, but who can say when people know something.
Strip clubs really draw an undesirable element.
Yes and know. Depends on the club. Easy rule of thumb: the lower to cover the sleazier the people in the club (clientelle and employees). I mean it is the smut industry after all, there is a certain level of sleaze inherent in the people involved regardless but the more you pay to get in the better the situation.
Most of the ones in AZ were run by the mob. There was one just outside of Tucson off of I-10 called the Ranch House.
Now I see your error, the Ranch House went away a LONG time ago (I don't even know how long ago but I only hear stories about there from guys that were in construction during the Carter administration). Things are very different in strip land now. For one thing it became vaguely respectable about 8 years ago (during the big cigar push of the mid-90s Hollywood started admitting they dug strippers), for another the strip club owners (not all of course but the vast majority) figured out there was plenty of money in running a club without breaking the law and the added money just wasn't worth the risk. The mob still has it's finger in some places, it's the mob they've got their finger in everything, but even they have mellowed in what they do with strip clubs (these days they tend to be legit covers for money laundering if the mob is involved at all).
It was a mecca for drug peddling and prostitution.
Got that right. The Ranch House was crazy from everything I've heard. But again, 20 odd years ago if memory serves. I know it was long gone by the time I got involved in the smut industry (1990, right before Iraq invaded Kuwait). Where I worked the DJ booth was right next to the door, so I was cheif enforcer of many rules, in my first week I was involved in the firing of a girl for leaving with a customer, ownership didn't want to play that game not even the potential image of it. Though there is still a lot of prostitution surrounding the industry the girls generally have to keep it quiet and the owners will boot them if they find out. Too dangerous for the owner.
One of my older brothers was an officer for the AZ Department of Public Safety at the time. He witnessed a Tucson police officer named Barry Hedricks get blown away by a scumbag that worked at this place. They were in the middle of a stake-out. Fortunately, there were numerous law enforcement personnel in the vicinity that turned the perp into hamburger with their service revolvers and shotguns. My brother was responsible for six rounds from his .357.
I have vague recollections of that, I think that was near the end for Ranch House, eventually it was closed, stayed abandoned for a while and has since burned to the ground. It was a wild time down here in Tucson. Between the mine strike/ layoffs and the major outlaw biker war we had a lot of shootings in front of bars. My youngest aunt was a biker babe with the Dirty Dozen, I lost a lot of "uncles". Now the Bashful Bandit (main biker bar in town, scene of frequent killings back then) is a respected tradition in Tucson. Times change. Now the main strip clubs in town are both TDs (east on Speedway and West on the street that is no longer Miracle Mile) and Tens (about 1 miles west of TDs East). They're in good neighborhoods (yeah, Miracle Mile is now a good neighborhood, still poor but the legit businesses outnumber the others and the others are going out of business, not TDs though) and have no cover policies for cops. They sell imported beer and cigars and you can reserve space for bachelor parties. They advertise on radio and sometimes even TV not just in the underground newspapers. It's a totally different industry.
Certain elements are still there of course, don't even get me started on Curves (across the street from a halfway house for wayward girls with no cover ever, I think you can figure out the rest), but that element will always be there. Some form of those elements are in every industry, they're just a little more public in smut.
You need to study aliitle more....adultery is also defined as happening in the heart/mind....with any woman/man whom is not your wife.
To answer your second question...reading material which causes the above to happen (adultery of the heart/mind) would also be sinful....therefore it is my guess God does not particularly like porno writings.
Reality can be your friend. Embrace it. Don't hide from it.
And so our society should not accept copulation on film?
And should subsequently use force to prevent and punish it?
But when has religion ever stretched the meaning of things to accomodate its prejudices? / sarcasm
No.
I ask again, have you ever looked at pornography?
Other role?
Ohh.... I get it.
I asked you if you have ever looked at pornography, so therefore I must be a homosexual pedophile.
You do your faith a grave disservice with such a profoundly evil insinuation.
Consider your self-righteous little ass lucky, that you have the anonimity of the internet to hide behind.
You could be hetero. Most men think they are anyway.
Yep, I think we should execute a whole lot more criminals than we do.
I'm sure he'd be very proud.
Hang on here. I'll take the mea culpa for a crass generalization, but it was much less overboard than a lot of the anti-porn BS being spread on this thread. As for this sentence of yours that has no connection to what I said. Trust and fidelity are trust and fidelity which might or might not have anything to do with porn but if the woman is smart they don't. As for fidelity being trumped by orgasm you'll have to explain to me how someone can cheat without at least the serious potential for orgasm cause that just don't jive in my brain.
Every relationship has to make it's own set of rules. But any woman familiar with human nature should learn to accept certain facts. Like how her husband is not looking at the Victoria's Secret catalog because he's thinking of buying her something. Like how no man goes to see a Meg Ryan or Julia Roberts movie with his spouse because he's in the mood for a romantic comedy. And there's a reason why in the middle of the February dulldrums when all sports are napping Sports Illustrated prints 5 times as many issues of one particular traditional issue as they do any other.
She's got to make her own rules of course. But it's not for any of us to judge those rules. And when we have people on here telling somebody he's effectively cheating on his wife because he and his wife sometimes enjoy watching porno before being intimate those people are wrong and need to shut up. It's not their relationship and they have no right to judge, and given what a closed little world with no naked people allowed they seem to live in they clearly have no understanding with which to judge even if they had a right.
Man's definitions general are "elastic" in comparison to God's law. Man LOVES to define things his way....that's the whole problem between "your" definitions and the ones i go by. .I believe that even that concept is addressed by God in the Bible. Of course unless you believe the bible to be God's word that point is probably meaningless to you.
Holy cats. Now people who engage in or view consensual adult pornography should be executed???
You are one sick little puppy. Seriously get some help.
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