Pornography, Then and Now
Transcript:
Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to The Kingdom Perspective.
With all the changes in Western culture’s view on sex, we often miss the fact that there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the changes we see all about us are really not so “new”, but something quite old. Much of the contemporary sexual ethic is simply a return to pagan Rome.
This is clearly seen in the increasing acceptability and ubiquity of pornography. Pornography is not new. In ancient Rome, pornography was everywhere. It was mainstream. Pornographic art was prominently displayed, maybe especially in respectable upper-class households.
Over the past 70 years or so, as the prevalence of pornography has risen, many saw it as progress. It was believed that, for the first time in history, we were finally ridding ourselves of the regressive ethic of tradition and religion. What we failed to see is that this was not progress but regress. It was a return to Rome. We were not “back to the future”, but back to the past.
This push toward sensuality, just like in ancient Rome, drives us to see one another as mere objects to fulfill our sordid fantasies, instead of bearers of God’s holy image, to be cherished and honored. Sexual desire without limits trains our hearts to see one another as mere commodities to be used for selfish ends. This is not the biblical view of sex, and I don’t think it’s the sort of world we should want to live in.
Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
~Galatians 5:16-24 (ESV)
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