Jul
23
2012
60 Second Summary: He's Watching That, in Public? Pornography Takes Next Seat
Articles you need to know about, summarized in 60 seconds (or less).
The Article: He's Watching That, in Public? Pornography Takes Next Seat
The Source: The New York Times
The Author: Matthew D. Richtel, a Pulitzer prize-winning technology reporter
The Gist: Americans are increasingly viewing pornographic materials in libraries, gyms, airplanes, and other public spaces.
The Excerpt:
It is an issue playing out not just at libraries, but in cafes and gyms, on airplanes, trains and highways, and just about any other place where the explosion of computers, tablets and smartphones has given rise to a growing source of dispute: public displays of mature content.
The subject can put personal media on a collision course with personal morality. This is an era, after all, that celebrates people's ability to watch what they want, when they want, but it also forces bystanders to choose whether to shrug, object or avert their eyes.
The Bottom Line: Acquiring pornographic material once required taking a public action---buying a ticket to an X-rated theater, renting a tape from an "adult" video store, asking for a magazine kept behind a store counter---and having the boldness to overcome the shame involved. It should come as no surprise, then, that as our culture becomes more accepting of pornography, those who were already comfortable with smut become even less inhibited and immune to public shaming.
What once was primarily a private sin has becomes a public plague. This soul-destroying sleaze has infested our nation, and many people who call themselves Christians have allowed it to happen. At most we turn a blind eye. But more often than not, believers are consuming pornography at the same rate as non-believers---and doing so without remorse. In an age when so many Christian men have succumbed, and when Christian women brag on Facebook about reading Fifty Shades of Grey, why are we shocked to find nonbelievers bringing filth into the public square?
43 Comments
Wow, this post makes some serious assumptions. Such as.. "why are we shocked to find nonbelievers bringing filth into the public square?"
Where does it say that it was "unbelievers" doing this?
Also, I don't consider pornography a sin. That I think is a christian world-view concept. I guess I have to accept that this is a christian blog and the post on it come from that world view. To constantly state something like it were a fact, doesn't make it a fact.
I put porn into the same category as many other things, all things in moderation. I have a wonderful marriage (for a long time), my children are well adjusted and I'm successful (relatively). One mans filth is another mans fine art!
I'm glad you have a healthy marriage.
Please consider that many of the women who are professional porn "actresses" were sexually abused as children or teens -- according to some accounts I've seen, it's upwards of 80%. Virtually every porn star's biography or autobiography details a string of sexual abuse in the years before they began their careers. Consider that, when you watch pornography, you are, in all likelihood, paying a woman to re-enact her sexual trauma for your titillation, the health of your marriage and family notwithstanding. And not only that, you are turning her -- someone's daughter, someone's sister -- into nothing more than a tool for your satisfaction.
Would you encourage your wife, daughter, or sister to explore a career as a porn "actress"? If not, why not? Are the women on the screen less valuable than your own child?
very well said....
LG
Nonsense. Those women are of age, they're accountable to themselves. A lot of women who were sexually abused DO NOT end up being porn actresses. These people are adults, and they get to choose what they want to do. I would NEVER pay for porn, I'm not sure why anyone would. Every product we buy at any time turns someone into a tool of our satisfaction, and most of those people are happy to be the tools of our satisfaction. It in turn allows them to turn to others as tools of their own satisfaction.
A lot of women who are in the porn industry are victims of sex trafficking. So no, most of them do not get to choose what they want to do...
Then legal recourse needs to be taken to protect them from being kidnapped and turned into sex slaves. The answer perhaps is to regulate the pornography industry. Even more simply, chase down any video that doesn't include chain of custody information within the first part of it. This is one way that currently records are maintained concerning the ages of actors in porno's. There are solutions to keeping women(and men) from being abused, those people who are forcing anyone to do anything they don't want to do are breaking the current law.
Perhaps christians should focus on knowing the source of the porns they watch...
Jimmy I do not believe for a second that someone can be filled with the Holy Spirit and claim what you claim. You should seriously question your salvation if you do not feel even a twinge of guilt for something that is so obviously taking advantage of people. I really hope that the consequence isn't that your daughter will end up with someone even worse.
@mel
Two problems here..I don't believe for a second that any finite human being can be filled with an inifinite being (holy spirit), and I have no daughters, only sons, that it's pretty unlikely.
I don't believe I need or have some sort of "salvation". Salvation from what exactly? I don't need to be saved from anything as far as I can tell.
so how about you fly your colours a bit clearer so that on this primarily christian blog site, people don't make incorrect assumptions about you, and possibly pigeonhole you in ways that don't fit who you are?
word. ^
"...I don't consider pornography a sin."
Just out of curiosity, what would you consider a sin (if you even acknowledge sin exists at all)?
[...] pornographic material in libraries, cafes, gyms, airplanes, etc. You can also check out this “60 Second Summary” of the article, which includes some brief commentary from a Christian [...]
For a few decades now, there has routinely been pornography displayed on store-front windows in many Western European towns. I would guess that this would be the next logical step based on the data in the NYT piece.
I remember (when I've been to Europe) being bombarded by this stuff on storefront windows and thinking "that will NEVER be allowed to happen in the US". Now I'm not so sure.
The key point in the thread is the slow erosion of shame AMONG CHRISTIAN BELIEVERS in our culture. There should be shame attached.
....and to Jim, first commenter, if I were not a Christian, I think I might still struggle with the notion of looking at porn simply because I'd be gazing lustfully at someone's daughter (whether said daughter or parent consented or not). Isn't there something implicitly wrong with this at a basic human level?
NHE..when I look at my wife naked..I'm gazing at someones daughter.. I believe christians are the primary viewers of porn here in the states. Considering how great the demand for porn is, there is NO way to eliminate that fact.
I don't think there is anything implicitly wrong with this at all. Now, that being said, I do think anything with which one obsesses can become a problem when it starts to affect the normal functioning of ones life.
Hi Jimmy - I was assuming some things that you don't assume, so we'd have to start at more basic things like how sex in marriage and pornography are different.
If you don't grant that, then you're probably only going to find yourself in an adversarial position in this thread, because there is a huge difference to most who post here between a guy's wife's naked body and someone elses.
There are sexless marriages that work with no problem whatsoever. I don't make many assumptions, but I am getting better at seeing through what I once would consider a fact but now realize is only someones assumption.
How are sex in marriage and sex in pornography different? Of course, I can see one is being a little more emotionally based (marriage), but there is also a very physical part to that which would match up with the sex in pornography (purely physical..endorphin release).
Humans are sexual animals (as is consistent with most primates). I suspect (haven't researched this) but even primates would be highly aroused should they be shown some primate pornography. It's not a sin nature or anything more complex than that.
Jimmy, this is where we get into the "Bible" stuff.....which is where I would get my definition of marriage.
I'm not sure you'd want me to expound on that, though I can, and I'm sure others will.
Sure, I can understand that with your christian world view, you use the bible to form some of that opinion. But the thing is..that's just an opinion. So christians (who look at LOTS of porn) would argue against porn based on their biblically based world view. I can understand that position. However, I don't use the bible to form my world view. Perhaps, even reason can prevail, then people won't be so inclined to look into a really old book to form their opinions. Maybe just look at the facts. People like to have sex, and they like to watch other people have sex. This is true for men, women, married, unmarried. Instead of vilifying it, let's just accept it as a normal part of human biology. Like anything that incurs an endorphin release in the brain, it opens itself up for becoming an obsessively habitual problem with some individuals. We should strive to help those folks, but for those of us of the opinion that a little porn here in there are an ok thing, let's just let that be. I'm not a christian and I'm not really interested in in having some sort of legislation controlling my activities based on an opinion dragged up out of your bible. Apparently..Christians aren't that interested in not looking at porn as well, they can post blogs all day long and even form "moral working groups" against it. The fact remains, on Sunday between church sessions, the church folks like to look at naked folks doing the dirty.
They need to stop looking at it if they don't like it.
Jimmy, why is it that you make a bunch of stupid assumptions about the Christian faith, all of which are wrong. Then you theorize about the porn industry as if it is fact. You stereotype people, talk out of both sides of your mouth and then try and act smart. You deny God but talk about moral choices. Hey genius, if there is no God then what is your standard for morality. Yep, there isn't one. So, act out your atheistic world view and don't talk like an atheist with morals. There is no such thing. And why come on a Christian blog and talk a bunch of nonsense. You must not have too good of a marriage to be spending so much time on a blog where you don't agree with anything about it. Bro, are emotions empirical ?
Jimmy, I agree with you wholeheartedly regarding the hypocrisy among Christians when it comes to this topic.
I'll take it a step further..
Christians have a reputation for being hypocrites. I'm not accusing anywhere here of that, I'm just saying..there is a history of it.
Instead of complaining about porn and what it does to women. If christians just didn't look at porn, the American market would most likely dry up. I bet if you could reach through the internet and ask a porn viewer directly what their belief system is...8 times out of 10..they would say "Christian".
It's time for the church folks to put up or shut up. The wrest of us are tired of the whining and the hypocrisy.
As far as "professing" Christians are concerned, I think your point is valid.
Oh what ever, everyone is a hypocrite regardless of whether they are a Christian or not. EVERY single human being is a hypocrite because they are always measuring themselves to everyone else to determine how great they are. A fat person will look at someone that is bedridden obese and judge them. A jerk will look at someone that is rude to them when they are feeling friendly and judge that person for being a jerk. Someone that regularly breaks the speed limit NEVER says "way to go" when someone going faster passes or cuts them off. They get mad and judge them. And they do it without feeling guilty about being a hypocrite.
Even in a secular world that cares about sex trafficking and child predators injuring our youngest and most vulnerable would find a person with a casual attitude about pornography to be a lech.
Only in a really depraved world that sees human beings as something to be consumed would it be okay without any shame. Don't call it a sin if you don't want to but it still makes you heartless and selfish to consume other people like they do not matter.
Jimmy, what exactly is your definition of a Christian?
I dont sit around trying to figure out who's a real Christian and who isn't. Most Christians rarely agree with each other, every Christian thinks they are a true Christian. You call yourself a Christian, I'll consider you a Christian.
Jimmy,
I do not expect you to have a problem with porn because you are not fileld with the Holy Spirit. Why should I expect Christian morality from a non-Christian?
"How are sex in marriage and sex in pornography different? Of course, I can see one is being a little more emotionally based (marriage), but there is also a very physical part to that which would match up with the sex in pornography (purely physical..endorphin release)."
Even with the above statement I have a hard time believing you really believe what you said above. It is too obvious how it is very different. In marraige there is a commitment. In porn the only commitment is to make a product that makes $$ and to not pass on diseases (some I guess control this). But there is no comitment that one party has to be true to the other. In a marraige one party states that one will love only the other person physically and emotionally. Sure there are affairs but these are looked on as being wrong. There are also some marraiges that doe not believe in fiedlity but these are nto the norm. They are odd. I really cannot beleive that you really can't see the difference between sex inside of marraige and sex in a porn video. I think it is just easier for you to push everything on to the Christians on this site. It is very easy. One can say I am not a christian so you can't hold me to your views. One can state obvious facts but then you just state that I can't see it you must prove it to me. Or you bring up the red herring of the hypocrisy of the church. Sure there are many hypcrites in the church because there are many hypocrites in society. Not defending any hypocrite and especially not a christian one but the whole hypocrisy line is jsut a red herring to get off the real topics.
Carl,
I didn't say those were the only differences. I'm willing to accept your additional differences. Youve really done nothing to defend the Christian position. So porn is just a different position, where the agreement is short term. People make those types of transactions every day. Adult human beings should have the right to do so. If Christians don't feel like porn is healthy, then they shouldn't watch it. If they see it in public, they should turn away.
Actually no porn is not a different position where the agreement is short term. There is not the same type of agreement at all. That is what I stated and I think it is very clear. In marraige one has an agreement to love, honor and cherish the other. There is nothing like that in porn. Sex is just a physical act. Or at leat it tries to be just that. Again this is very clear in our society. There is a real covenant in marraige where the agreement in porn is virtually non-existent. Thus marraige is pure, good, and holy. Porn is dirty and demeaning to all involved.
Porn is not healthy because marraige is a healthy enviroment for sex. But again I do not expect you to hold that position as a non-Christian. I do not expect you to be moral.
"If Christians don't feel like porn is healthy, then they shouldn't watch it. If they see it in public, they should turn away."
The easy answer to this is I should not have to see it. My freedom is being assaulted by your freedom. I do not want to view it but it is impossible when others are viewing it in usch public and cramped spaces. I do not want my kids to be tempted to watch it either. They are young and I do not want them to view dirty pictures or videos because some person wants to invade our freedom by viewing them in front of everyone.
This seems pretty straight forward to me.
My freedom is just as important as your freedom. I'm not moral? You can't possibly determine that without knowing me. I believe you are what people refer to as a "christard", typical pompous "I'm moral because I believe in an invisible sky daddy who morally decided to send his own kid to die so he could get around a rule that he himself made up could be circumvented"
You're only argument seems to be that having sex with your wife and watching porn are different. They are different, so what? It's just your opinion based on your freakishly odd world view that causes you not to want poor helpless church folk to see some naked people knocking boots. I'm sorry the all powerful all knowing deity that lives inside you can't seem to empower you people to not look at the dirty pictures...
"freakishly odd world view"... such as believing that in the beginning there was nothing and no one, then suddenly there was inorganic matter magically that somehow turned into a cell that somehow turned into apes that turned into men. Odd indeed!
No, "freakishly odd world view" such as believing that an all powerful perfect being who has existed eternally suddenly decided to create human beings, put them into a garden with a talking snake, then curse them to hell because they ait some fruit from a tree, then decided to drown all but 8 people (including drowning men, women, pregnant ladies, children, and infants), then decided that he would need to send himself down and have himself killed so that he could overlook his own rule and whoever would believe such a silly load of hogwash could be spared from an eternal fire... Yeah..that's the ""freakishly odd world view" I'm talking about..
I'm out of breath or I would pick apart your very ignorant attempt at explaining cosmology, evolution, and common descent, although, I would say that you did a good job of representing the fundie view of a topic that is far above the head of most fundies.
Jimmy you have already stated you are not moral by discounting the victimization of people in that industry. Whether you believe in God or not. Victimizing people is not moral.
Jimmy,
Yes your freedom is JUST AS important as my own. Thus you cannot intrude on my freedom because my freedom is just as important as yours. So you can't use the "I am free" excuse to limit my freedom. Pornagraphic images have been deemed dirty and innapropriate by the community so they should not be viewed in public. Also you are free but you have a moral responsibility also. That is not a fun word these days but it is still true. You have a moral responsbility to others and I think expecially the elderly, physically or mentally impaired, and children. Why? Because these groups can't protect themselves as well as some others.
And yes I did say that I cannot expect you to be moral. I have to expect you to live your life as someone who does not know Christ. i expect more from Christians. Sometimes I do not get that but I can expect more.
Also you still seem not to get the vast differences between porn and sex inside marraige. But I only went there because you seemed to not understand any difference between the two. But again porn demeans men and women. True sexuality lifts men and women up as they grow closer to together and God.
So if there's an issue with a cafe or gym allowing smut, then why not simply.... wait for it.... avoid supporting those places with your money?
Makes me wonder.... how often do you hear the Amish complaining about smut?
The Amish have a serious problem with sexual abuse not being dealt with in their community.
I don't see how the boycott solution will work when you are trapped in a situation next to someone like an airplane seat for hours. Really the article is not really talking about what you can do to other people that look at pornography. It is speaking to a spiritual and moral issue that has created this situation.
Actually, I agree more or less with the main premise here: that consumption of porn, if it must be consumed, should be private. I don't especially want to sit next to someone on a plane or in a library who's watching porn either, but that should be pretty easy to regulate if necessary.
I do agree with Jimmy, though, about lust not being a reasonable sin. We're animals, and animals lust. What's important is what we do about it, and especially whether we harm others. And I don't see how watching porn, unless indulged in to such excess that it interferes with life, is really hurting anyone, if you don't pay for it. And Christians pay for it, or it wouldn't exist.
If you don't pay for it then it isn't hurting anyone?
As Christ overturned the tables desecrating the Temple, I think it's time to overturn these public computers and other avenues of porn.
I'm a gentle person, but enough is enough. The porn epidemic is destroying the fabric of our society, tearing apart marriages, and wrecking untold dehumanization and destruction to individual souls.
--Wm. Brown MD
Forest, VA
I agree with most of this article, but to end it with condemning any believing woman who has read 50 Shades of Grey is untasteful. The idea that literature has to identically match our worldview or be devoid of sin isn't something anyone would hold to. I haven't read it, but the popularity of that book has made traditional complimentarian views so much easier to defend in a public setting. And while lustfully reading that book could be considered pornography, it hardly has a place at all in an article about porn in the public square. Visuals and sounds on our phones are one thing, someone reading a novel is another.
I'm just going to put my response as a woman in here... my three brothers have all struggled with pornography addictions, and I have struggled with an addiction to pornographic novels. Through discussions with them about their experiences and mine, I have realized that they are essentially the same thing. For most women, reading pornographic literature has the same effect as viewing pornographic images or movies. I think your last statement shows that you fundamentally misunderstand what happens in a woman's heart when she reads words like that.
The worst part of all this thinking that entertainment can't be sin....the kids that are exposed to it and end up becoming sexual predators when they decide to try out what they have seen on the younger kids that they are around. Unless you don't believe the reality of what scripture says about hardening hearts I don't see how anyone go around thinking that Satan isn't involved in all this.
Mel,
I cannot agree more with that comment. I think that only willful blindness can deny the obvious disaster that has been the result of free, unrestricted, and unmonitored access by kids to the internet.
How many have the discipline, self-control, and spiritual maturity and understanding to not just push that button. It's far too easy. It always starts small, but can lead to monstrous consequences. I am surprised at how little is said and written about this by pastors.
I see most new technologies as being used for about 5% good and 95% unmitigated evil. Not PC thoughts here, but I see the results everyday in my job as a physician.
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