The Weight of Smut

This is a must read article and I encourage you to read the whole thing.

Young people who have been exposed to pornography are more likely to have multiple lifetime sexual partners, more likely to have had more than one sexual partner in the last three months, more likely to have used alcohol or other substances at their last sexual encounter, and—no surprise here—more likely to have scored higher on a “sexual permissiveness” test. They are also more likely to have tried risky forms of sex. They are also more likely to engage in forced sex and more likely to be sexual offenders.

As for the all-purpose cop-out that “all this shows is correlation,” it can be refuted as Dr. Johnson famously refuted the immaterialism of Bishop Berkeley—by kicking a stone. No one reasonable would doubt that there is a connection between watching sex acts and trying out what one sees—especially for adolescents, who rather famously and instantly ape the other influences on their lives, from fashion to drug use and more, as has also been copiously studied.

But even this impressive array of data cannot answer a question almost as ubiquitous as pornography itself: So what? Why should people who are not part of that consumption even care about it? The varieties of the libertarian shrug extend even to those averse to it. Pornography indeed may be morally wrong, many of those people would also say (and of course major religions would agree); but, apart from the possible damage to the user’s soul, if you believe in such a thing, what really is the social harm of smut?

This lackadaisical attitude—this entrenched refusal to look seriously at what the computer screen has really wrought—is widespread. Religious people, among other people simply disgusted by the subject, understandably wish to speak in public of almost anything else. Closet users, and they are apparently legion, will probably already have stopped reading these words—or any others potentially critical of pornography—for reasons of their own; such complicity is probably the deepest font of omertà on the subject. And chronic users above all have their own fierce reasons for promoting the anything-goes-as-long-as-it’s-private patter—an interesting phenomenon about which more will be said further on.

And yet this hands-off approach to the matter of sexual obesity—this unwitting collusion of disparate interested parties masquerading as a social consensus—remains wrong from alpha to omega, as a new document signed by fifty experts from various fields and distilling just some of the recent empirical evidence, goes to show. Full disclosure: “The Social Costs of Pornography: A Statement of Findings and Recommendations,” just published by the Witherspoon Institute of New Jersey, was codrafted by Mary Ann Layden and me. Unlike other pieces of writing, however, this compendium summons no authorial joy and is not the work of one or two but rather scores of people. Most of them academics and medical professionals, they represent a true rainbow coalition of the spectrum: left and right, feminism and conservatism, secularism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It’s a collective attempt to render for the public good just some of the accumulating academic and therapeutic and other evidence of the harm and devastation now traceable to pornography abuse.

Bursting through the academically neutral language, the studies, the survey data, and the econometrics were the skin and bones of the very human stories that went into it all: the marriages lost or in tatters; the sexual problems among the addicted; the constant slide, on account of higher tolerance, into ever edgier circles of this hell; the children and teenagers lured into participating in various ways in this awful world in the effort to please romantic partners or exploitive adults. This report, in sum, like the conference that preceded it, answers definitively the libertarian question of “So what about pornography?” with a solid list of “Here’s what”—eight documented findings about the manifold risks of warping the sexual template with pornographic imagery.

See also this related link.

From the Morning Scriptures

Because of this [humanity’s refusal to glorify or give thanks to God], God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.  You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere human, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will repay everyone according to what they have done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

—Romans 1:16-2:11 (TNIV)

There is so much to comment on here and so little time. 🙂 Therefore I have chosen to address two issues that Paul raises here. The first is on judging others. Somewhere along the line, we have developed the ridiculous notion that as Christians, we are to suspend all moral judgment concerning human behavior. You’ve heard it before and it goes something like this: “The Bible (or Jesus) tells us not to judge so that we won’t be judged. Therefore you have no business judging my behavior concerning (fill in the person’s favorite sin here).” In fact, we will go to almost any length to avoid being called—dare I even say the word?—”judgmental.”

But this, of course, is not true to Scripture nor to Jesus or Paul, as today’s passage illustrates. If you really think Jesus never passed judgment on other people’s behavior, then what are you going to do with the Seven Woes found in Matthew 23? Calling others “hypocrites,” “blind guides,” “snakes,” and “a brood of vipers” sounds like pretty judgmental language to me, and this from our Lord’s mouth!

In today’s passage, what Paul is reminding us is to be circumspect in our judgment. Are we guilty of the same thing for which we criticize others? If so, we’d best keep our mouth shut because we will call down God’s judgment on ourselves as well as those whom we criticize if we are guilty of doing the same as they are. Instead, Paul suggests, we should spend our time cleaning up our own act before we offer commentary on the same thing that others do. This, of course, echoes the teaching of Jesus on judgment and I encourage you to read the passage from Matthew 23 that I have linked to above.

No, we are not to suspend our moral judgment but neither do we have authority to cast judgment on people. Only God can do that, says Paul, and we can be certain that he will. We can praise or condemn behavior, providing we are not condemning in others that for which we are guilty of actively committing. And since Paul argues that all humankind is guilty of sin, we must be circumspect in judging the behavior of others. But Christians are certainly not supposed to keep quiet when they see egregious wrongs being committed.

Speaking out against sin is not being judgmental. It is calling a spade a spade. Just make sure you are including yourself in the mix when you speak out against sin because it has infected you as thoroughly as it has infected others. The Bible calls this mindset, “humility.”

The second issue I would address here deals with what appears to be a works righteousness that Paul is advocating. Is Paul really contradicting himself over the issue of justification by grace through faith and telling us that we must earn our way into heaven and God’s sight by our works? Well yes and no. Yes in that our works will always be the only valid manifestation of our faith in Christ. We have been saved by grace in Christ and he calls us into joyful obedience that can only be made manifest by our actions, i.e., our works.

For example, if I tell you that I have faith in you as a friend but then never behave toward you as if you were my friend, such as confiding in you or trusting you with some confidential information, my actions are the real indicator of my faith; I simply don’t trust you, despite what I tell you. Likewise with faith in Christ.

Likewise, if we really believe he has saved us from God’s wrath and judgment by his great and costly act on the cross, then we will behave in ways that manifest that trust. Out of a profound sense of gratitude and thanksgiving for all Christ has done for us, we will try to live holy lives that bring glory to him and which are tangible manifestations of our praise and thanksgiving because we know that Jesus is holy and he wants us to be holy. This is implicit in Paul’s writing here and he gets very explicit about it later in Romans.

As I preached on Sunday, when you really begin to understand the desperate and hopeless plight of the human condition, and can begin to wrap your mind around what God has done for us in Christ to overcome our dire straights, then you really will begin to have Good News on your hands. And when that happens, it is a life-changing and mind-blowing thing.

John Wesley on Going to Heaven (3)

You will have no reward in heaven for what you lay up [keep for yourself]; you will, for what you lay out [give away]. Every [dollar] you put into the earthly bank is sunk: It brings no interest above [in heaven]. But every [dollar] you give to the poor is put into the bank of heaven. And it will bring glorious interest; yea, and, as such, will be accumulating to all eternity.

Sermon 89, The More Excellent Way 7.37

Notice here the totality of Wesley’s thinking. Life in God is much more than saying our prayers, reading the Bible, or going to church. If we are to have a real relationship with God we are to dedicate every aspect of our lives in obedience to his will, especially our stewardship of the resources with which he blesses us. Wesley is not here telling us never to save money or to plan for our future. No, he simply reminds us that we cannot take our money with us when we die and if we focus our lives on hoarding money, it is likely because either our priorities are out of whack or we simply do not trust God to provide for us. Whatever the reason, it betrays the fact that our god is something other than the one true God and that will necessarily lead to separation from him.

Elsewhere, Wesley counseled his people to make as much money as we can so that we can give away as much money as we can. Do you see the difference here? God expects us to care for the weakest and most vulnerable in society, and one way we do this is through our using our money to help them in their need. Wesley himself reversed tithed, keeping only about 10 percent of what he earned and giving the rest away to help the poor and needy. He got it. He knew what real life is all about. Do you?

John Wesley on Going to Heaven (2)

Consider the Lord’s Supper, Secondly, as a mercy from God to man. As God, whose mercy is over all his works, and particularly over the children of men, knew there was but one way for man to be happy like himself; namely, by being like him in holiness; as he knew we could do nothing towards this ourselves, he has given us certain means of obtaining his help. One of these is the Lord’s Supper, which, of his infinite mercy, he has given us for this very end; that through this means we may be assisted to attain those blessings which he hath prepared for us; that we may obtain holiness on earth, and everlasting glory in heaven.

Sermon 10, The Duty of Constant Communion 7.150

John Wesley on Going to Heaven (1)

I have endeavoured to describe the true, the scriptural, experimental religion, so as to omit nothing which is a real part thereof, and to add nothing thereto which is not. And herein it is more especially my desire, First to guard those who are just setting their faces toward heave, from formality, from mere outside religion, which has almost driven heart-religion out of the world; and, Secondly, to warn those who know the religion of the heart, the faith which works by love, lest at any time they make void the law through faith, and so fall back into the snare of the devil.

Preface to the Sermons 5.4

If you are having trouble translating 18th century English, let me help. Here Wesley’s focus is on the Prize—life forever with God, or what we call “heaven.” He indicates this should be the first priority of any Christian and is available to us, not by going through the motions, but by developing an ongoing relationship with the living God, a relationship that will inevitably (but sometimes imperceptibly) change us into his very image. It’s a free gift but we can lose it if we use our freedom in Christ as license to sin. God is holy and calls us to be likewise. This comes through faith made manifest in joyful obedience to the Christ who loved us and claimed us.

Gentle Jesus Meek and Mild?

The popular image of Christ as ‘gentle Jesus, meek and mild’ simply will not do. It is a false image. To be sure, he was full of love, compassion and tenderness. But he was also uninhibited in exposing error and denouncing sin, especially hypocrisy… The evangelists portray him as constantly debating with the leaders of contemporary Judaism … Christ was a controversialist.

–Dr. John R.W. Stott, Christ the Controversialist  49

Love Made Manifest

True love is always observant, and the eyes of Jesus never missed the sight of need. Nobody could accuse him of being like the priest and Levite in his parable of the Good Samaritan. Of both it is written, ‘he saw him’. Yet each saw him without seeing, for he looked the other way, and so ‘passed by on the other side’. Jesus, on the other hand, truly ‘saw’. He was not afraid to look human need in the face, in all its ugly reality. And what he saw invariably moved him to compassion, and so to compassionate service. Sometimes, he spoke. But his compassion never dissipated itself in words; it found expression in deeds. He saw, he felt, he acted. The movement was from the eye to the heart, and from the heart to the hand. His compassion was always aroused by the sight of need, and it always led to constructive action.

—Dr. John R.W. Stott, Walk in His Shoes 6