The Standard of Liberty Voice
For God,Religion,Family,Freedom
A publication of The Standard of Liberty Foundation
www.standardofliberty.org
August 17, 2005, #8

Tell It Like It Is

Evidently, there is a couple that goes around speaking to groups about pornography. The husband is an addict, whose message is one of “preventance.” He displays himself as a living example of what may happen if you fall into porn: permanent enslavement. So, what we have here is people giving audience to a practicing porn addict, someone who just can’t seem to kick the habit.

First of all, why should we give such a person a public forum? It’s like looking to a chain smoker for insight and wisdom about smoking. It’s like convicts in handcuffs speaking to high school kids to scare them into obeying the law. It’s the old “do as I say, not as I do,” and it’s just plain upside-down. Why not instead give all that attention to a person who has forsaken pornography, quit smoking, or paid his debt to society?

I suggest that this particular addict’s louder message is that if once we fall, we can never get up. For those who are vulnerable it is a message of fear. For those who are already addicted it is a message of utter hopelessness.

Second, what ever happened to RELIGION, as in turning to the Spirit to know right from wrong, as in overcoming the natural man through Christ? Besides that, whatever happened to the indomitable human spirit, not to mention clinical and ecclesiastical help? Too often I have heard supposedly religious people say things like, “Well, it’s just such a difficult habit to break, practically impossible. Most people will always be addicted.” And, “It’s a stiff challenge. People who are addicted to pornography can live faithful and happy lives while they wait for the Lord to take their attraction to porn away.” Say again? (Funny how this is the same argument used by those who want to stay in their church and be homosexual, too.)I thought pornography addiction was dangerous and self-destructive.

What IS this bizarre denial of sin and argument for the weakness? If this isn’t a blatant example of being lulled into carnal security, I don’t know what is. (That’s 2 Nephi 28: 20-22.) And since when is God the one who decides when we give up our sins? I thought that was up to us. Look, if Christ’s gift of repentance and redemption doesn’t apply to porn addicts, how can it apply to me and you? Of course we are free to take it or leave it. But let’s not pretend the Atonement isn’t there, not us, not people who call themselves followers of Christ.

Along this same line, I saw in the newspaper an ad entitled "Dealing with Pornography," displaying books about pornography addiction being a bad problem. I haven’t read the books, and there is probably some really helpful material in them, but my concern is with the words chosen for the ad, the thing everybody sees whether they decide to buy the book or not. Maybe I’m overthinking, but to me it raises the question, is pornography something we should merely deal with?

Let me put it this way. I clicked my mouse on WordPerfect’s thesaurus for synonyms of the word “dealing”. The words “managing” and “getting by” came up, which brought to mind the things I’ve heard people say mentioned above. But do we really want people to merely “manage” the presence of pornography in their lives? Synonyms for “manage” are “supervise, oversee, handle, do.” So am I to understand that these books exist to help porn addicts more responsibly “do” their addiction? Yike.

I believe we are not taking the problems of pornography production, availability, and addiction seriously enough. What is it anyway? LDS Church President, Gordon B. Hinckley refers to it as “filth” and “sleaze.” George Orwell, in his book 1984, called the place where they produced pornography, the "Muck House," so nicknamed by the people who worked in it. I call it objectification and degradation of human beings who are God’s precious children – including the pathetically enslaved person viewing, reading, or listening to it. I also call it depraved, debauched, and destructive, just to name a few more synonyms off the top of my head. And THIS is the thing people are “managing,” the thing they can be “faithful and happy” to live with? Pornography in any form or degree is sexual abuse – it gives people false and harmful information about normal sex and sexuality. And besides spoiling the addicted individual’s chances for purity of heart and holiness of life, we all have some general idea of what wrong ideas about sex can do to individuals and to society in general. To quote Dr. Matthew Hedelius, who treats porn addicts age 11 and up, "If you don't get this problem taken care of, it'll kill you."

So, should we “deal with” depravity and abuse? It sounds as if we are afraid to say that porn is sick and wrong in case we might hurt some poor addict’s feelings. In reality, the most charitable thing to do is tell it like it is. It’s evil and we shouldn’t rationalize that fact. Why are we afraid to use words like overcoming, conquering, defeating, stamping out, getting rid of? Or vanquishing, crushing, defeating, wiping out? I hope my worries are in vain and the author of the ad in the newspaper just didn’t have access to a good thesaurus.

For a scientific report see “Pornography’s Effects on Adults and Children” by Dr. Victor B. Cline. If that doesn’t resensitize us, nothing will.

-Stephen & Janice Graham


Copyright 2005 by Standard of Liberty Foundation, Inc. All rights reserved.

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