Friends, I decided to write a post on this very important topic, because I like to bring attention to major problem areas. This is not a shaming post. People have many struggles. There are so many sins one can fall into. Pornography is one of many. Not everyone agrees with the fact that pornography is sin.
Mainly, I want to encourage those who follow Christ to stay away from pornography. It not only has spiritual consequences, but emotional and physical ones as well. I have learned that pornography is an addiction among many Christians.
Pornography addiction may be a sensitive topic for some people. I want to be sensitive, but very clear: pornography is evil. It is extremely damaging and destructive to a person spiritually, emotionally and physically. The good news is that God can help and restore a person from such an addiction.
That is, if a person desires and seeks deliverance, and allows God to set them free. God does not force or control anyone, though. A person must truly desire to be free of their sins, confess and repent.
The battle against sin is ongoing, even after confession and repentance. A person must be intentional to maintain integrity. A first step is confessing our sins to God.
“But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” 1 John 1: 9
Pornography is a major problem among some men and some women. However, it seems to be a much bigger problem among some men. In addition, pornography was created by men, for men, primarily.
Sometimes, women go along with it to please their partners. Some women just really enjoy it for themselves. Porn is a problem for plenty men and plenty women.
• Pornography has been a major problem for a very long time and yet, even many preachers do not teach publicly against it.
• I have concerns as to why this is the case, but I will not go into that right now.
• Many pastors do not speak out against it; yet, pornography continues to destroy relationships, lives, and souls.
There are many reasons pornography is harmful. Here are just five:
1. Porn is an offense against our holy God.
Pornography is a severe distortion, perversion of and substitute for real sex. God created sex for procreation and bonding between a husband and wife.
Where God creates something real, satan creates a counterfeit. Sex should glorify God. During sex, there should be no violence, selfishness or perversion. Pornography includes all three of these factors.
2. Porn destroys sexual functionality.
Some men have been known to lose sexual functionality as a result of pornography addiction. Their brains are reprogrammed by porn. The brain is the largest sex organ.
Therefore, when their brain is programmed with pornography, it causes emotional and physical difficulties for some men when they try to relate to real-life women. They cannot function with their real-life flesh and blood wives. Some suffer from erectile dysfunction. Some choose pornography over their wives.
3. Pornography contributes to insatiable lust.
Lust is never satisfied. Like any drug, pornography feeds the addict. Like any drug, the dosage and or types of porn need to be increased and changed up, in order to have the same pleasurable effects.
According to studies, a pornography addict tends to venture further and further into depravity [1]. Some porn addicts regress from enjoying content that involves humans. They may become interested in beastiality.
Some become involved in viewing depraved acts that involve children. They may even become involved physically with children. It is the nature of sexual sin, that it is never satisfied and takes some people deeper and deeper into depravity [2]. Some murderers and sex offenders have admitted that one of their primary influences was pornography.
4. Pornography warps a man’s view of women and destroys relationships.
Porn is destructive to relationships, even though some argue that it isn’t. It is hard for a man to be able to respect women when he’s a porn addict. Many with such addiction are often emotionally disconnected from their significant others.
A man indulging in porn often becomes consumed with self-gratification. A woman is to be used. Women are reduced to objects that are meant to fulfill his fantasies. I am not sure how capable a man is of seeing women overall as equally valuable humans or as respectable ladies when he is a porn addict.
It is less clear to me about how women who watch porn see men, but the same could be true for women generally, in not being able to respect men, due to their pornography consumption.
5. Pornography helps to destroy a man’s confidence.
Understandably, a porn addiction causes shame. It can also interfere with a man’s courage to even approach and connect emotionally with a woman in reality off the screen. Porn could be one of the main reasons some women find that men are not approaching them.
God has so much better for men and women than pornography! Sex should be real and should glorify God. Men and women are best able to connect when they are emotionally intelligent and emotionally available.
God designed sex to be between a husband and wife. There should be mutual consent, mutual respect and mutual satisfaction. Sex is for procreation. It is for bonding and mutual enjoyment between husbands and wives.
On the flip side, pornography is about self gratification, lust, it increases lust, increases depravity, emotional disconnect, selfishness and emotional unavailability. Pornography is not benevolent.
“Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence: and likewise also the wife unto the husband.” 1 Corinthians 7: 2-3.
It must be understood that a person cannot resist such temptations in their own strength. A person will need the power of God, the Holy Spirit to help them live a holy life.
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” Romans 8: 13.
Below is an article that spotlights correlation between pornography addiction and other depravity, including serial killing.
[1]
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-02-08-me-1969-story.html
Pornography is destructive in every way. Below is an article about pornography in relation to erectile dysfunction and other negative consequences. Porn-induced erectile dysfunction affects men as young as in their 20s and 30s.
[2]
https://fightthenewdrug.org/science-behind-porn-induced-erectile-dysfunction/
