Mal Fletcher comments



Continued from page 1

We should reject pornography for the same reason that most people reject prostitution - porn, like prostitution, reduces people to something lower than they really are. People, who are awesomely complex beings, become "pleasure food"; they exist for nothing more than the gratification of others.

Porn also demeans the people who use it. Several studies have shown that frequent porn users suffer a breakdown in the way they see relationships.

If you're used to treating people as objects whose sole purpose is to make you feel good, it's hard to switch that off and build a healthy relationship based on mutual respect.

Porn can take over a person's life. To really understand this, we need to recognize how addictive disorders take hold.

Let's take an example from the world of gambling. People who are called "compulsive gamblers" gamble far beyond their limit, because the excitement of gambling releases powerful chemicals in the brain - especially endorphins and enkephlines. Those chemicals bring with them a feeling of euphoria or high.

In a similar way, the theory goes, some people get involved in porn simply because they've become physiologically dependent on a chemical reaction. They want the sexual fantasy and activity just for the high it gives them; and the more they get, the more they want.

People who've suffered in this way often say that their unhealthy use of sex started with pornography then, over a period of time, morphed into more and more risky types of behavior.

After a while, they found themselves having extra-marital affairs, or seducing work mates, or making indecent phone calls - or involved with something even more serious.

In the end, they experience great feelings of shame, pain and self-loathing. Above all, though, they've felt powerless to change their own habits.

One person who struggled with compulsive sexual behaviours for years said: 'Our habit made true intimacy impossible. We could never know real union with another [person] because we were addicted to the unreal. [we were] first addicts, then love cripples. Fantasy corrupted the real; lust killed love.'

Pornography is essentially a form of psychological, emotional and spiritual poison. It will exact a high price from our relationships, but it will also cost us in terms of our self-control.

The ancient wisdom of the Christian Scriptures teach us that self-control is like a wall that protects the city of our emotions and thoughts (Proverbs 25:28).

If you break down that wall in one corner, you expose the whole city to attack.

The shattered lives of millions who've become addicted to porn remind us that once our self-discipline begins to be eroded by it, we may find it increasingly difficult to keep out other, more dangerous thoughts and attitudes.

Watch Mal's Video Blog on Porn

Hear/Download Mal's Podcast on Porn CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.