Articles
How to End Pornography
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"I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman?" (Job 31:1)
Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, nor let her allure you with her eyelids. (Prov. 6:25)
"Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart." (Matt. 5:28)
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Pornography is as old as the human race. Lurid sexual images and graffiti have been found on the walls of Pompeii, buried by volcanic ash in AD 79. Archaeologists have unearthed statuettes featuring exaggerated genitalia from cultures thousands of years old. Using images to get a sexual thrill has been around a long time.
But in the last couple of decades, the rise of the internet and smartphones has created an explosion of pornographic material unparalleled in history. According to a recent opinion piece in Newsweek, the porn industry is now a $100 billion business, "using more bandwidth than Facebook or Amazon." Pornographic content is more violent, more degrading, and more twisted than ever, leading to addiction, sexual dysfunction, marital breakups, and criminal behavior. We are now facing what the author labeled "a national emergency."
What can we do about it? There is growing pressure to enact legal sanctions to regulate it, or at least limit its exposure to children. That's helpful, but passing laws and handing out prison sentences is a stop-gap measure that doesn't really address the root of the problem. Just as Prohibition had unintended consequences in trying to solve an earlier generation's struggles with alcohol, so any legal solution will fail to solve today's pornography problem.
So what can be done? Job, Solomon, and Jesus all point to the same remedy: self-discipline. The pornography problem must be addressed one human heart at a time. Only by educating men, especially young men, to harness their thoughts and habits can this scourge be curtailed. Parents must train their sons to have a wholesome respect for women. Preachers must give practical guidance on how to control our thoughts. Elders must provide counseling to men struggling with their passions.
But what if millions of men choose not to control their lusts and remain addicted to porn? Then society, including these men and their families, will pay a ghastly price. And God in heaven will weep over their destruction.
Men, this is a challenge we must win. Our civilization's survival depends on it.
--David
