Brerah

Porn Nation "The Naked Truth"-- a review, and my own relatings

Last night here at Vanderbilt there was a presentation called Porn Nation "The Naked Truth". It was a series of short video clips with facts and accounts from different individuals of their realizations about porn and the porn industry, and also some of the detrimental effects of what porn does to people. These video clips were interspersed with narrations from Michael Leahy, a man who had a 30 year addiction to pornography and sex, who is now living a life free from this addiction. He talked alot about his own struggle with pornography from the age of 11, and the deepening effects of it, until it finally wrecked his marriage, family, career, and essentially, his life.

He talked to a large degree about the extremely deceptive side of porn and how in our lives, the things that we feed grow, and the things that we starve die. So if we begin looking at porn at a young age, our desire for it and its mastery over our lives grows. And the explicivity of the material that we intake, doesn't stay the same. And if you think the advertising market and entertainment industry in this nation doesn't know that, you're crazy. The first Playboy magazine that came out in 1954, looks more like what i see walking around here at Vanderbilt on the first 80 degree spring day. Now, the mainstream infiltration of pornogrpahy into our culture is tough to ignore. TV, magazines, newspaper, internet, walking to class, whatever, IT IS EVERYWHERE. Guys walk around with MAXIM magazines as if its no big deal just because it doesn't come in a plastic wrapper with an 18&over sticker on it. We've bought into pornogrpahy, and in a big way.

But what is shocking about this stuff is what it does to us. When the guy started talking about this, I was right on with him, because to some degree I know what he was talking about. You see, what porn does to us is it tells us that the normal isn't enough. The normal girl walking around in 'less than painted on' jeans and a nice, but not boob hugging shirt isn't enough. We need, and furthermore, deserve the beautiful porn-star type of girl that we can get every other day of our lives. We can get her in all of the places that i mentioned above, and she is always going to be smiling, ready to indulge our sexual desires, all the time without having any real life problems that she deals with. I mean, why shouldn't this girl have her whole life together? after all, she is beautiful! And for those who have been in a relationship with a woman and meanwhile trying to manage pornography, they will at some point, without a doubt, find that the woman they are with isn't enough. She has problems, she isn't the hottest girl on the block anymore, she isn't always looking at me with a smile and wanting to have sex all day. Notice I said RELATIONSHIP, not marriage. You don't even have to be married for this to ruin you. I have seen it, my friends have seen it, in fact, I haven't talked to one guy who has struggled with pornogrpahy who doesn't agree. "There is always someone better. The grass is greener somewhere. You'lll find someone who is better for you." To continue to buy into this is a lie, it is sin. You see, the girl that we all long for and just KNOW is out there doesn't exist. She is a mirage, as soon as you think you've found her, she disappears. So does this mean that we should just find any girl and date her and marry her. No, i don't think this is the answer. To be physically attractive to someone is important, but for every guy to hold out for the girl with a perfect body, perfect hair, and a 24/7 seductive look, does us guys no service at all, and moreover, what it does to women is even worse. It is no wonder that women struggle with body image as they do, we expect them all to be tall, thin, and perfectly shaped in all the right areas. It is no wonder that plastic surgery for people under the age of 18 has increased 1200% since 1998. Pornography deceives us into a surreal demand. A demand that is literally killing us from the mind outward.

A struggle with the infiltration of pornography probably will never end so long as you live and have functioning eyes, because the last time i checked, the media and advertising is not giving up on this profit cow. But our hope is not in ourselves, our hope is in the one who can change our mind and our heart and redeem even the sickest areas of our lives. To have any hope at all in this area is to look at Christ and admit that we can't do it, my pornogrpahic mind and heart will fail every time if He does not change it. If the Holy Spirit does not draw me to the Lord and show me that any love other than Christ is a lover less wild, then I am hopeless. We are hopeless, our friends our hopeless. All the accountability groups in the world will not change your heart. They can help, but they will not change your heart. The gospel applies here as it does in every other area of our lives. Repent and Believe the good news that Jesus has died to redeem you, to redeem me, and to rescue me from my addiction to and idolatry of anything other than Him. Repentance and belief in Christ change us, they are our hope. Have mercy on us Lord, and give us strength to overcome this love that can never love us like you do.

posted by corbs @ 9:41 AM