By Scott Tibbs, September 19, 2016
It is good to see that Pamela Anderson has written against porn, because there is no question that porn has been very destructive to our society. We need to work to help eliminate the use of it.
People are shrieking that Anderson is a "hypocrite" for taking a stand against porn in a Wall Street Journal editorial. This is a poor argument. Sometimes, the best people to speak against something are people who have done it themselves. I can tell you a lot about knowing your limits while eating so you do not make yourself sick, or being careful while walking through the house so you do not shred the skin on your shin. That does not make me a hypocrite. That makes me experienced in what to avoid.
And let's be real here. We're not talking about nude photos here. Much of porn is incredibly vile, perverted, violent filth. Women being slapped, humiliated and degraded is common. How do I know this? Because I am literate and have read mainstream media reports on what goes on.
When stories about a particular porn star were appearing in mainstream media outlets such as the Washington Post, I immediately thought she had been sexually abused as a child. It is not normal for a young woman who needs to pay for college to immediately take a job being sexually debased for money. This was not photos, this was humiliating, degrading, violent treatment. This is what happens when a young woman has had her understanding of sexual intimacy warped by a history of abuse.
Every technological advance in home entertainment has largely been driven by pornography. Just as the VCR took "adult" movies our of theaters and into people's homes, broadband internet access made it possible to stream video directly into living rooms. With modern smartphones, it is not even a desktop in the living room but an easy-to-hide small screen one can view anywhere. Parents especially need to be smart in how they deal with that technology and the dangers it represents.
It has long been thought that porn would make men into sex maniacs, but there is also another effect: Porn is making some men flaccid. Conditioned by years of stimulation by pixels on a computer screen, many men are unable to perform sexually when with a real, live, flesh-and-blood woman. It is terribly sad and shows how God's gifts are warped and destroyed by Satan.
The church has largely failed in helping men escape the sexual sin of pornography. I would love to see large campus ministries have at least one sermon per year recognizing the reality that a large majority of young men in the room have used or are using porn and offering them a way of repentance.
Porn is a real problem. It is not innocent. It is far from harmless. We need to stop living in a fantasy world and deal with reality. That starts with the church rebuking, exhorting and calling men to repent.
