Pornography is the Silent ‘Cancer’ of Our Time
October 27, 2012 4 Comments
Writes Fr Michael Shields:
The scourge of pornography appeared in force in Russia during the mid-1990s, when after the fall of the Soviet Union everything seemed permissible.
Pornography came to Magadan like a cold wind, blowing through the city and leaving behind openly pornographic magazines and videos strewn across new stands and book stores. It arrived all at once.
If you had a computer, unwanted invitations and pictures began popping up out of nowhere. I remember once sitting on an airplane, wearing my religious habit. I was situated between two men who both had purchased pornographic magazines for the flight. I decided to pull out my Bible and begin reading it. The men slowly closed the magazines and put them away.
I’m sure Russia had pornography during the communist repression but the new freedoms brought a new destruction upon human dignity.
In the last few years I have helped many men work through their addiction to pornography. I know one priest who started hearing so many confessions he decided to order a special book to help men with this addiction. He still reorders the book regularly.
I heard a heart-sickening story of a man addicted to surfing pornography websites at night thinking he could not be traced. But his young son, more computer savvy then he, found the sites and he himself began the deep descent into this sickness, thanks to his father.
If statistics are correct much violence against women can be attributed to the use of pornography. This is a war against women that we could all fight together — a war to reclaim the dignity and beauty of womanhood. We could stand against reducing women to sex objects — bodies without personhood.
I find it strange that most feminists and most in society ignore the problem of pornography.
I recently read an article about cigarette smoking and how in the beginning we were ignorant of its health impact. We just tolerated the smoke. Then slowly society changed as people learned that cigarettes can cause cancer. Movements began to ban cigarette smoking in public places. Signs warning of the dangers of smoking appeared on packages and billboards. Laws were enacted to limit how cigarettes were advertised and who could legally buy them. Over time, a smoking culture changed into a non-smoking culture.
We are in a similar time right now — tolerating a very terrible cancer that is eating away at our society and destroying homes, marriages and souls. We are just now sensing its effects but still have not seen the full devastation. You might say that the “second hand smoke” is in the air and our kids are breathing it and they are becoming sick. Now we need to label this scourge for what it is — a cancer that attacks your health even if you are not directly involved.
I especially want to reach out to men in this article and ask them to seek help if this is a problem. There is a way to freedom. The Scriptures give us help. Also prayer and a daily rosary for purity is a great benefit. The first step is to admit one’s weakness against pornography. For many men it is a very real addiction.
Examine your conscience and see if this is a problem.
I hope someday that we will have people speak out like ex-smokers on the struggle to free oneself from pornography.
Those of us who are not addicted may wonder why this is such a big deal.
It was the same way a few years ago with smoking. What’s the big deal? The big deal is a cancer in our society that is now eating away at lives and families. Let’s all place a warning sign on our computer, for our sake and the sake of our children.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
In aparthied South Africa, all pornography was banned.
We cannot ban “Sin” its in our hearts! And even Augustine knew that, as he changed his theological position on Romans 7: 13-25, later in life. Sadly, most Roman Catholic theology still follows Augustine’s older or early position. But, not the Reformers, they knew the heart of man was always sinful, and even as a Christian every man or person is caught in that tension of the ‘already but not yet’, until death.., the real Christian man/person is always “the self that is divided is the believing self.”
What various governments around the world do regarding this issue is entirely up to them and the citizens/voters/politicians of each country. Obviously, lust has been an issue with Christians and the Church going back to…the Garden of Eden and ancient Israel (e.g., David & Bathsheba). Jesus specifically discussed the issue, How people express or act out lust varies. But nearly all of us battle it, at least at some time(s), in our lives. Could be during puberty, before marriage, during marriage, etc. I think the Church needs to stress the positive in this case, not the negative. The sanctity of heterosexual marriage and the beauty of sex in marriage. We must not be squeamish about pointing out that God is the creator of the marital sexual union and it is good!
If we battle this dragon, let us keep in mind that it is only one of its many heads. Liberalism allows it to regrow, to survive, and to live again to strike another day.
Speaking from a generation that experiences mass promiscuity from the ages as young as 13-14 to the present, I know the causes of this. While I secluded myself at my school’s library, the culture of celebrity had infected the hearts and minds of the young; their “role models” are those who produce obscene films, music, and “literature” and these young people emulate them because they believe that they can become better than they actually are, because they believe these “celebrities” are somehow better than everyone and to emulate them is the best path in life. Never mind the encouragement of “adults” who tend to these young people at their schools. (Some even take advantage of them- yet it is somehow more tolerated by the liberal media, hence even if they’re widely known, they’re seldom reported as “newsworthy”.)
And then there’s the groupthink. If you wish to be a part of a group, you have to adopt its prejudices and its worldview to be accepted. Even if they talk about “being yourself”, it is limited to being oneself insofar as it is acceptable to the cliques that exist in youth cultures.
Pornography is taken for granted, and so is pre-marital sex, as well as homosexuality. It is planted in the hearts and minds of the young in places where the father and the mother no longer exist, and one is left to fend for oneself. It ought to be that love of God, and His Church that is planted and nurtured; hence, why home schooling ought to be a greater option for those who care about their children. The culture will just overwhelm the children of the faithful, or at least warp them due to the utter vileness that can be experienced at a young age.