FIGHTING PORNOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
A lot of people spend many hours on the internet daily. There is a need for caution in guarding ones self against the temptations that we are bombarded with every time we turn on the computer.
Porn affects every viewer negatively, regardless of religious belief, creed,
gender or age. Here are some reasons we have collected to support this claim:
1) Pornography caters to the areas of elemental lust in a person: lust of the
eyes and lust of the flesh
(1 John
2:15-17). Lust spreads like a fire and is never
satisfied. Pornography baits you with the visual lust and hooks you in with the
bodily enjoyment (lust of the flesh).
Lust has a nasty tendency of spilling
over into over forms of evil, like anger, envy, covetousness, depression,
compulsiveness, selfishness, idolatry and perversions. As you see the negative
effects of the lust, you will want to be free from it, but may find yourself
powerless to get free. Lust grows bondage in your life to things that are sweet
on the outside, but bitter to the core on the inside.
2) Your thoughts toward other people are increasingly sexual in nature above all
other thoughts - you have a warped or perverted perspective that will never be
satisfied as long as you feed it. You'll find yourself repeatedly returning to
porn.
3) Your thought life is inseparably permeated with the images you view - they
are stamped into your brain with the aid of hormones released during sexual
arousal. Even if you decide to try to stop your porn habit you will discover
that your mind easily recalls the images you saw in the past for your mind to
lust on today.
4) Pornography is habit forming and in many cases progressive. It can lead to
more and more hard core material, including perversions of homosexuality,
bestiality, necrophilia (sexual interest in corpses) and sadism (a sexual
perversion in which gratification is obtained by the infliction of physical or
mental pain on others).
5) Pornography intensifies an individual's drive to serve oneself, rather than
serve God and others.
6) The financial impact of a pornographic addiction can be very large
(see Proverbs 21:17).
The convenience of credit card transactions on the internet encourages spending
without limit.
7) By viewing and purchasing porn, you are supporting the porn industry and
facilitating its growth.
8) Your children could get hooked on porn if they find your material. They too
could fall into the same bondage to porn.
9) If married, you are expending your sexual energy in area other than with your
spouse - your sex life could suffer, your spouse may get unhappy, causing
problems in your marriage.
10) If you get caught, you can suffer consequences professionally, socially and
emotionally.
11) You are allowing your sexual appetite to feast on images of other people
having sex. God intended a different plan for you.....one where you and your
spouse can enjoy each other in a marriage relationship. The porn you fill your
mind with now, will detract and destroy your satisfaction, intimacy and
fulfillment from sex in your marriage, whether you are currently married or
married in the future.
12) Porn has power over you. Do you doubt this? Just try to walk away from it
and never view it again – it’s almost impossible! This kind of power is
destructive and will attempt to dominate and ruin your life.
13) Porn will increase your chances of committing a sexual crime, including
incest, rape, indecent exposure, sodomy, etc..
14) Porn will increase your propensity to lie.
15) Reality and fantasy rarely match up. Sex in porn is a portrayal, purely made
for the viewer's enjoyment. Sex in real life is, or should be, an expression of
love between a man and a woman in a marriage relationship.
16) Porn destroys families from the inside out. It usually starts with the man,
who God intended as the spiritual leader of the family. Porn will help block
God's blessing and favor from a family. Once a man is hooked on porn, he will do
almost anything to keep his addiction secret. Results can include, sexual
dissatisfaction with his spouse, habitual lying, incest with other family
members, rape, serial murder, divorce, abandonment, bankruptcy, violent behavior
and a loss of rational thinking.
17) Porn opens the doorway to spiritual oppression and confusion in your life.
The Bible discusses many spiritual laws which are set in motion by the things
that we do and say. One law is that we will reap what we sow. Sowing porn into
your eyes and heart will open a "legal right" for forces of evil to begin to
operate freely in your life.
Once evil has a license to oppress you,
it will do so by direct attack and by appealing to your fleshly sinful nature.
The forces of evil will toy with you and torture you like a cat does to a mouse -
read
James 1:13-15.
When evil has a grip on you, you'll be so confused, you won't be able to tell if
it’s simply you that has the problem or if there is a personal evil attacking
you. The answer will be both, as evil works through the flesh to bring you into
bondage to sin.
18) There are serious spiritual consequences that we incur through porn habits.
Those who deny the spiritual dimension of porn's effects, are greatly
underestimating the power of evil. There is much more to porn than meets the
eye!
19) By viewing porn, you contribute to the sexual exploitation of whomever or
whatever is in the images you are viewing.
20) You start to believe the real world functions like the porn world. The porn
world is built on lust and idolatry, completely lacking any form of love. The
fruit of lust and idolatry is destruction in your relationship with God, your
family, your friends, and your society.
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Examples of how porn can warp your
thinking: You start to believe that...
*Sexual activity is to be
enjoyed by anyone with everyone
*Perversion is more enjoyable than "normal" heterosexual sex (homosexual sex,
incest, sado-masochism, etc)
*There are no consequences to sexual promiscuity
*Sexual expression is a right, not a God-given and God-defined gift
*There are no limits to sexual expression other than one's imagination
*You can live a healthy life with the porn images floating around in your mind
*Porn doesn't harm you or your family
*Sex is something to be done for adventure and entertainment purposes (devoid of
love)
*Shame is just religion's attempt to control society
*The people in porn are actually happy in life
*Adults can handle porn material and not incur any lasting side effects
*What the people in the porn are doing is something that you ought to be doing
*Another person's body exists solely for your pleasure
*Porn isn't that bad after all...
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Fighting Temptation
There are perhaps several ways to fight temptation. The below example reflects some of the tactics we use when fighting temptation. You may not have time to take every action listed below, but using even some of them will help you have victory.
Immediate Actions:
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Follow-up actions
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