Unhooked: Holy in a Hookup Worldნიმუში

Day 27: Pornography

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For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. –1 John 2:16

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Today, erotic media is pervasive.

On screens big and small, billboards, and bookstore shelves, we are bombarded by pornographic images.

For some, pornography is an addiction. But even if we don’t solicit it, porn affects us all.

The porn industry manipulates and profits from human sensuality—the people who create porn know perfectly well that a human’s senses will react to it.

But you were created for more than what porn offers.

The hookup world suggests that there’s something wrong with us if we’re not open to every possible sexual experience, that if we reject the idea that “anything goes,” including porn use, we’ll be deprived, inexperienced, or embarrassed later by what we don’t know.

But the truth is that porn is reductive.

It reduces sex from an intimate, pleasurable, creative expression of marital unity to a means to achieve self-gratification.

It reduces people from infinitely valuable images of God to objects we use for pleasure.

Porn is also exploitative—and it exploits more than just your senses.

Sex trafficking victims often report that their captors used them to create pornography—which means some people who appear in porn agreed to participate, but many others were forced through physical violence or intimidation. And there’s no way to know who is who.

Saying no to porn doesn’t repress your sexuality—it protects it. Refusing to use porn doesn’t deprive you. Using it does.

But there is freedom from it—in prayer and counseling.

Turn my eyes from worthless things, and give me life through your word.–Psalm 119:37

Pornography is worthless. But we reject it because the people in it are not worthless—and because you aren’t worthless either.

None of us should be treated as objects.

You are full of the dignity that porn disregards.

And it isn’t too late to reclaim that dignity.

Pray

Thank You, Lord, for the gift of sexuality. I am sorry for the times I’ve misused it—and I want to help redeem sexuality in a world that distorts it. Please protect me from exposure to anything that exploits me, others, or my sexuality.

Reflect

Why is it a good idea not to consume erotic media or pornography? What can you do to avoid exposure to pornography? If you struggle with porn use, find a professional counselor or trusted pastor to confide in.