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Pornification: Causes or Symptoms?

Pornography has always existed because people have always been drawn to the visual expression of sexuality. Men (and women) like to see what God desires them not to see outside of their marriage relationship. The desire for sex and sexuality is good and God-created, but its expression is clearly defined– and that definition is for God’s glory and for our good.

Yet, something has shifted in our culture. Porn was once relegated to shady peep shows in the bad part of town. I remember taking the train from Levittown into Times Square as a child. We didn’t stay long, but we saw enough. Times Square put on display just about every sexual practice possible– and that’s what made it so despised and to be avoided by people of good character.

Now, we can find much worse with a few clicks of a mouse. A thousand years ago, you might go your whole life and never see a beautiful woman. You lived your life in a wood hut on the side of a hill in England and told stories of a beautiful princess. Today, beautiful women satisfying every desire are just a web page away.

So, today, pornography serves up beauty and sex to any and all in a way we’ve never seen before. This is uncharted territory for our culture and even an unbelieving world knows this to be true. This series is to help us consider and deal with the implications.

These posts come from a lengthier article I wrote for the Assemblies of God Enrichment Journal. The entire issue is worth your time and you can access it here. Read the first four parts of this series here.

It’s complicated. We debate about causes versus symptoms on the topic of sexual deviance. But here is a thought that describes our culture. Picture “causes” of a sexually deviant culture as one stream running rapidly through our culture. Causes include dysfunctional families, sexual abuse, and on the most basic level, the sinful nature of people. Then, picture another stream, “symptoms” of a sexually deviant culture. Symptoms might be accessibility to pornography, acceptance of sexual deviance as normal, and an increasing divorce rate. As both streams rise and leave their banks, the culture is flooded with sex. The reality is we become so overwhelmed by sexual deviance that we do not know how to respond; neither can we tell symptoms from causes. Without knowing where to start we either take a blind swipe or disengage to irrelevance.

We swim in cultural flood of confused sexual roles, ambiguous standards, and sexually charged images. This flood is the pornification of America. Porn and sexual deviance is common and accepted. Holding any healthy biblical standards puts us in the cultural category of hate-mongers, Bible thumping moralists or repressed fundamentalists.

The attempts at “Seven-day Sex With Your Spouse” sermons seem a sideshow to a culture where random sexual partners is normal and the hypocrisy of Christians who also indulge in pornography does not help. In 2007 CNN reported that 70% of Christians admit to struggling with porn daily according to a non-scientific poll taken by XXXChurch while Focus on the Family reports that around 20 percent of the calls received on their Pastoral Care Line are for help with issues such as pornography and compulsive sexual behavior. [Blazing Grace]

Certainly, the church must speak the truth about biblical sexuality through nationally published magazines, books, and other mediums. But local churches should do the difficult–and messy–work of understanding their own communities so the gospel can be displayed and explained.

So, Where Do We Go?

Pamela Paul explained the danger of being uninformed or naïve about the porn devastation. “An entire generation is being kept in the dark about pornography’s effects because previous generations can’t grapple with the new reality. Whether by approaching me (at the risk of peer scorn) after I’ve spoken at a university or via anonymous e-mails, young people continue to pass along an unpopular message: Growing up on porn is terrible.” [Washington Post]

For years culture has been forced to find an argument to defend their passion for consuming porn in general and selling porn in particular. Somehow they have managed to find and win their argument. Now we must find the new argument. Right now it seems that is not working well for us. Yet, the church holds and proclaims the truth of the gospel–and the gospel, and only the gospel, permanently fills the void that porn temporarily occupies.

Be informed and be optimistic. Read the numbers and see the realities of devastation to our children, our marriages, our lives, and our culture. But, be optimistic about the power of God to give hope and healing. Imagine thriving local churches addressing issues of marriage, pornography, and homosexually in biblical ways. As a local church leader, establish your church as a safe place for those who experienced the devastation of bad sexual choices and addictions. By applying the gospel’s transformational power to this area of our lives, believers and churches can regain relevance because people hear us understand and address cultural currents like pornification.

In the history of the world, we have never had such access to and involvement with porn. Our culture has never been more pornified. Just like when Jesus came the first time in the “fullness” of time piercing darkness as the light of the world we need Him now! The darkness makes the light shine brighter. The best is truly yet to come for the body of Christ in American culture.

Next, a final post with some thoughts to consider.

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Ed Stetzer, Ph.D., is the Dean of Talbot School of Theology at Biola Univeristy and Scholar in Residence & Teaching Pastor at Mariners Church. He has planted, revitalized, and pastored churches; trained pastors and church planters on six continents; earned two master’s degrees and two doctorates; and has written hundreds of articles and a dozen books. He is Regional Director for Lausanne North America, is the Editor-in-Chief of Outreach Magazine, and regularly writes for news outlets such as USA Today and CNN. Dr. Stetzer is the host of "The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast," and his national radio show, "Ed Stetzer Live," airs Saturdays on Moody Radio and affiliates.