My Ten Page Paper on Pornography

 
Death to the Living
An Investigation into the Pornographic World
 
Kevin Sattler
10/11/2010
 
 
Pornography has become an addiction that has taken over the world.  Millions of people are addicted and even more are affected by the atrocities that are caused by the world of porn.  It is not something like poverty that can be put on the backburner of the mind because it does not affect you directly.  It will at one point affect everyone.  Do not ruin your life and those around you because you are too weak to accept God.
 

David
David walked through the tunnel wearing a huge smile and carrying his helmet under his arm.  Sweaty, engrossed in the events of the evening, his smile reflected the joy in his heart.  David finally achieved what he had worked so hard to attain.  He was the MVP of the state championship game, and he was loved by everyone except the members of the opposing team.  The last one in the locker room, he thought nothing could penetrate his intense happiness.  In this thought, however, David was wrong.  Very, very wrong.  He walked briskly into the locker room to the all encompassing sound of applause.  The game ball and the honor went to David, the senior quarterback who could do no wrong in the eyes of his fans.  On his way to a great college with a full football scholarship, his life was seemingly perfect.  At that moment, it was pretty darn close.  As he was changing clothes after his long shower, however, his life was about to change forever.  As he was pulling on his shirt, he glanced around and noticed a group of his team standing together with smiles of a different kind upon their faces.  He walked toward them, an action he later regretted, and got simply a glimpse of what their eyes were viewing.  He saw just enough skin to be embarrassed.  He congratulated the guys one last time on a victory well earned and walked out of the locker room with his bag over one shoulder and his mind racing.  As he walked out of the building, he put on that same smile, and forgot about everything except the hug he was giving his mom and the kiss he was giving his unlikely girlfriend of two years.  He was back on cloud nine.  That night, after an amazing dinner with his family and proposing to his beautiful new fiancée, David picked up his Bible and began reading through Psalms amazed at his wonderful blessings.  However, his mind kept returning to an image he was not even sure he witnessed clearly.  With his mind turning, he put down his Bible and picked up his computer.  
Meredith
​Meredith had done this countless times, but something felt so different.  She did whatever the cameraman and other guy, Tanis, instructed her to do, but this time something just felt different.  As she put on her clothes and walked to her car, she knew something was wrong.  However, she ignored the feeling and went to a party she was invited to, as she usually did at the end of every work day.  Engrossed in the numerous drugs and other things of the party scene, Meredith’s mind could not concentrate enough to focus on anything, let alone an abstract thought that she knew nothing about.  Later that night, after being used by numerous guys as a sex toy, Meredith returned home to her boyfriend who knew just how to physically hurt her without anyone being able to distinguish any abnormalities.  Meredith was broken.  However, this was the only life she had known in her entire twenty years, so she thought everything was fine.  She would soon realize her mistake.  Lying in the hospital bed after her boyfriend had lost his temper, Meredith began to gain clarity as all the drugs she had used the night before begin to wear off.  She opened her eyes and only saw one thing before her eyes became blurred with tears.  For the first time she could see the utter loneliness that she had been feeling for so many years.  The only people present were the officer outside her door and a man she did not recognize carrying a book she could not stand to see.  Tears streaming down her face, she could not believe what she was feeling as this stranger told her that she is loved by someone who had the power to forgive her for everything she had ever done and would ever do in the future.  The gentleman closed his Bible and took her hand.  She gathered what strength she had and threw her arms around him.  She could not imagine any act any purer of love than his simple gesture of taking her hand.  This person is the only one who had ever shown her any real tenderness.  As she closed her eyes, for the first time she had a smile of true joy upon her bruised face. 1
​“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” (Romans 1:18 ESV)  The world is not an easy place in which to live.  Temptation surrounds everything and everyone.  The strength and integrity of a person defines what a person does when they are backed into the corner of temptation.  A pandemic of epic proportions is spreading through the hearts of the young people in the world today.  On average, a boy encounters his first pornographic material at the age of just eleven.2  The problem with this statistic is not trying to understand why this occurs.  That question is an easy one to answer.  The question that must be answered here is how to take a person who has been entranced with porn since the age of eleven and shape them into a Godly person throughout their college experience.  By the time a person is in college the likelihood of that person already having some sexual experience is extremely high.  Pornography has become a major problem in society today that the church3 can no longer ignore and try to dance around.  A large number of bible verses can be given that illustrate what God thinks about sexual sins and how they can negatively affect a person.  The problem goes beyond that of any individual, however, and can lead to a twisted spiral that affects every person around that individual.  The impact that porn brings to a person and all the people that person knows, is absolutely devastating.  As devastating as porn can be to a college student and all others, there is always hope.  There is always a solution.  In the case of porn, the solution is easy.  The solution may be easy, but the path to purity is one that men have struggled with throughout known history.  Beyond the solution, however, is a way of life.  There are many ways to live, many paths that one can take; however, there is only one right way.  Simply offering a solution is not enough.  Teaching a person to live in a godly way takes more than a simple answer and is a road that is not easily done, especially for someone so entranced in the world of lust, porn, and adultery.
The Problem
​There are so many problems that are facing teens, college students, and adults, which make the problems caused by lustfulness all that much more detrimental.  With so much other stuff going on, it is so very easy to get roped into the world of pornography addiction.  There are so many statistics that would prove very useful to portray how far society has slipped into the sensual world of lust.  Craig Gross, founder of XXXchurch.com, has been helping people both Christians and non-Christians alike fight the hold that porn can place on the mind.  In his recent book Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You, Craig does a very good job of compiling some very surprising stats that are essential and understanding just how many lives are affected by porn:
Today pornography is a 57-billion-dollar, worldwide industry, making more than the combined revenues of all the professional football, baseball, and basketball teams in America.  Porn revenue in the United States (12 billion dollars) exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, AND NBC (6.2 billion dollars), and, disgustingly enough, child pornography alone generates 3 billion dollars annually.4
Every second 3,076 dollars is being spend on pornography, 28,258 internet viewers are viewing pornography, and 372 internet users are typing adult search terms into search engines, and every 39 minutes, a new pornographic video is made in the United States.5
Most estimates put the number of Christians in the United States at 40 million, and a recent anonymous study done by Promise Keepers discovered that 54 percent of pastors had viewed porn in the previous seven days.6
Of the Christian women polled, 20 percent admitted they were addicted to pornography, 60 percent admitted to having significant struggles with lust, and four out of ten admitted to being involved in sexual sin in the past year.7
The statistics go on, and on, and on.  They all point to the very same point.  Pornography is a huge problem in society today.  How does this specifically affect the lives of college students?  In the current affair of things, it has absolutely everything to do with college students.  By the time they have entered college the average male has spend seven years since the first exposure to something pornographic.  If these young adults continue with the sin of porn throughout their college career, and get jobs, and start families, there are countless scenarios that will ruin a person forever.  The longer any sin is sustained, the less terrible it becomes in the mind of the sinner.  After years go by, an addiction to porn can be almost impossible to stop.  As statistics stand, pornography is shaping the lives of all of the future generation of leaders, both political and religious.  With corrupt political and religious leaders for the future, the status of the world will increasingly decline until it resembles Sodom and Gomorrah and will need to be destroyed.
This may seem like a slippery slope that seems unlikely to happen any time in the near future, however, that is a main problem that porn proposes.  It is extremely sneaky.  People do not see it as a problem, because people do not want to admit that they have a problem with it.  Porn inevitably causes a slope that cannot be avoided.  Look at King David, for example.  “With a glimpse, he had a thought.  The thought became an action.  The action became a heartbreaking, twisted tale of sin and seduction.”8  A glimpse is sadly, but simply, all it takes.  Another example is infamous Ted Bundy:
As a young boy of 12 or 13, I encountered, outside the home, in the local grocery and
drug stores, softcore pornography. Young boys explore the sideways and byways of their
neighborhoods, and in our neighborhood, people would dump the garbage. From time to
time, we would come across books of a harder nature - more graphic. This also included
detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of
pornography - and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience - is that that involves
violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces - as I know only too well -
brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.9
This is a section of an interview that serial killer Ted Bundy requested merely hours before his execution.  Now these certainly are extremely cases.  Not every person who views porn is going to go on killing sprees.  However, every person who views porn will, in some way, hurt those that are closest to them.  The impact of pornography is just too great to prevent.
The Impact
​“Maybe your marriage is in a shambles because of porn use.  You aren’t alone.  Marriage therapists report an increased number of clients presenting porn-related problems.  For example, 50 percent of divorce cases in 2002 involved porn, according to The Porn Trap by authors Wendy and Larry Maltz.”10  Porn never simply affects the user.  Porn is like a loaded gun.  If a person plays with a gun long enough, that person will eventually shoot someone.  “We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day.” I Corinthians 10:8.  The impact of pornography is greater than any individual can ever know.  A person cannot know whose life they may change, for the better or for the worse.  Marriages, relationships, families, friendships, and all emotional and physical ties can be severed once pornography is entered into the equation.  Mark Driscoll puts it very bluntly when he says, “Sure, the naked people you like looking at are hot…but so is hell.”11  Porn will most certainly affect everyday life of all addicts, but everyday life is not the only thing being threatened.  As if ruining every aspect of one’s physical life is not enough, porn can also have an effect on the eternal life offered to every person by the grace of God.  A porn addiction can always start as something so small.  It can go from being turned on by a kissing scene in a movie, to finding a movie that shows a little bit more skin, to movies with sex scenes, and then to actual porn photographs or videos.  Every bad thing can start out as an innocent plea for some type of physical pleasure.
​Is the impact of porn even higher for college age students?  That depends on how deep a student is into a porn addiction upon entering college.  However, the potential for disaster is greater, as is the redemptive possibilities.  Students go to college to gain knowledge.  Well most probably go to earn more money in the future, but they most certainly gain knowledge in the process.  Maybe a porn addiction begins without the knowledge that it is really wrong and why.  Perhaps a non-Christian gets addicted to porn and then becomes a Christian in college.  College student’s lives change more than the lives of people in any other age group.  Because of the drastic changes that occur during this time period in a person’s live, college age students are more capable of making decisions, such as giving up porn, than those of other age groups.  College students also think about the impact that their current decisions will have on their future lives.  This is a reason to believe that college age students might be more willing to accept that the problem of porn will negatively impact their future relationships, families, and even job opportunities.  The impact of porn is never ending and vast.  However, there is always, most certainly, always hope for the broken.
The Solution
​The solution for any addiction can be summed up very, very quickly.  Jesus.  The end.  So maybe that is a cheap answer.  However, it is most certainly the right answer.  People who have accepted Jesus, however, are far from perfect.  As a matter of fact, they are probably less perfect then some of those people who have never accepted Christ.  There is just one major difference.  A person who has accepted Jesus will go to heaven, no matter the transgressions.  However, Christians do fail, and the area of failure can also include pornography.  So, how does someone who is a believer in Jesus (as well as those who are not) escape the seemingly inescapable web that is pornography?  There are three simple steps to follow:  tell someone, avoid temptation, and worship vigilantly.  These steps need to be explained a little bit further.
Tell Someone
​There is nothing quite as affective as putting all of one’s sins on the table for someone to see.  Telling a best friend or family member of an addiction to pornography does many things.  First, it is shameful to admit (or it should be).  Because of this, telling someone is an effective way to avoid porn because it is very hurtful to disappoint a loved one.  When tempted to view porn, simply think of how that loved one might change their outlook and the temptation may not be strong enough to face that disappointment.  
Avoid Temptation
​It happens to be very easy to avoid sin if the initial temptation is avoided.  Selling all electronics, though it seems like a good idea, only changes the surface of the problem not the root cause.  But if it comes to that, it is better to be extremely tempted and have nothing around in which to follow through with that addiction.  It could be harder to view porn without any electronics.  If electronics are a must have, keep them in public places.  No one wants to look at porn in the living room with the parents watching.  Well, no normal people want this.  Avoiding temptation is the easiest way to avoid sin.
Worship Vigilantly
​Obviously temptation cannot be avoided altogether.  Jesus was tempted.  Jesus was a human male.  Jesus was perfect, which means he would have had to be a virgin.  Jesus was tempted.  What did he do when facing temptation?  He worshipped an Almighty God through the knowledge of Scripture.  When feeling tempted, pick up a Bible and start reading Revelation.  No one wants to sin with the immediate threat of hell in the mind.  When feeling tempted, get on your knees (by yourself), life up your hands, and worship the Creator of the Universe.  Whether this be through song or prayer does not at all matter.  God is a friend.  Confess your temptations and give them to He who can handle them.  I Corinthians 10:13 makes it very clear.  “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.  God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”  God is great.  When feeling tempted, simply remember this small, but oh so awesome fact.
David
​Ten years down the road and David had nothing.  His life as he knew it was over.  Drugs, porn, sex, and idolatry fully encompassed his life.  He was at a precipice that would determine what would happen from this point forward.  He still, somewhere deep within the depth of his mind, remembered all the Bible stories he read years ago, but these were far from helpful in his current state.  As he stood at the edge of the bridge, no crucial thoughts entered his mind.  He was at the point where he literally had absolutely nothing worth living for.  His family had disowned him years ago.  He had not had a relationship, or even a friendship, in years.  As he stepped up on the railing, someone gently brushed his shoulder.  As he turned, a girl smiled sweetly at him.
Meredith
​The life of porn was all she had ever known.  For ten years, however, she had not dwelled on any thoughts of her previous existence.  For the past five years Meredith had been in Africa as a nurse trying to heal anyone and everyone.  The day she got back to the United States she decided to walk home from the airport.  It was a five mile walk, but she wanted to bask in the glory of everything God had been doing in her life.  Glancing at the sunset over the beautiful lake Meredith accidently bumped into a man more focused on the water below than the majesty above.
​College ministry is a unique and challenging adventure.  Everyone at that age is so volatile that no two people can be dealt with in the same way.  No matter what the impact is, every person has issues.  Whether self inflicted, or thrust upon them by others, every person has problems.  It is the people that help them with these problems that can alter a person’s life, for good or bad, forever.  Porn is a plague.  This particular plague has only one cure.  The cure is sitting in an unmarked syringe in front of every person in the world.  However, these people must pick up the syringe themselves and inject the contents.  No one can do that for them.  It is easy to point out the syringe and tell a person what affects it will have.  But it is up to each individual to trust that the contents will cure them.  Pornography is a cancer spreading through the youth and adults and leaders of all societies.  For the world to be saved, this cure must reach all those who are reaching for it.  Are a few seconds of meaningless pleasure worth an eternity of torment?

Notes
1. The stories of David and Meredith are completely fictional and are in no way meant to be stories of real people.  They are merely stories meant to grasp the reader and get the reader to start thinking.
2. Mark Driscoll, Porn Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography and Masturbation (Mars Hill Church, 2009), 35.
3. I refer to the church here not as a building but as a group of people who are living their lives for the only and only Savior, Jesus Christ.
4. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 21.
5. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 22.
6. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 30.
7. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 58.
8. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 49.
9. Mark Driscoll, Porn Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography and Masturbation (Mars Hill Church, 2009), 39.
10. Craig Gross, Eyes of Integrity: The Porn Pandemic and How it Affects You (Grand Rapids:  Baker Books, 2010), 80.
11. Mark Driscoll, Porn Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography and Masturbation (Mars Hill Church, 2009), 12.
 

Why Christianity?

I have answered the question on why I feel that college ministry is the way to go. Now I feel the need to justify why I am a Christian and why I believe Christian doctrine is the only way to go [to heaven]. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of world religions. So what makes Christianity the right one? Why isn’t Buddhism or Islam right? My answer to you is to say thank you for asking that question. If you are asking that question that means you are not comfortable with simply accepting the religion of your parents (if you are from America) or of those others around you. You are curious. I absolutely hate when people take something that someone says and believes it without justification. That goes for you. Meaning, please do not take anything I say here and automatically accept it as truth. If you do, you are stupid, because I am stupid on the grand scheme of things so if you take my word as truth without figuring it out for yourself, you in turn are also stupid. But I don’t think you are really stupid so please figure this stuff out on your own. But feel free to take what I say here under advisement and use it as a tool to get your brain thinking. :)

So. Christianity. Let’s talk about it. Main truths (simplified of course). God created everything. Except for himself. He was not created by anyone, otherwise there would be someone greater than Him which is not possible. Nor can He be self-created because that just makes no logical sense. God sent His son (Jesus) to the earth to take on the sins of all mankind so that we don’t have to spend eternity in Hell. That is it in a nutshell. So with that simple description, what makes Christianity different? Well, Jesus (who could be considered the founder of Christianity in a way) and he died for us. Siddhartha Gautama, aka Buddha, was born a prince. He gave up his riches to pursue a more knowledgeable life. He died when he was old. L. Ron Hubbard (founder of Scientology), a science fiction author, made millions of his religion and died on his ranch leaving behind his almost billion dollars. Divorced three times supposedly because he was abusive and also was into drugs. Great guy. To each his own. Muhammad. Now, I am not mentioning him to step on any toes by any means. I promise. I don’t purposely offend people. It just so happens that the truth often does. Don’t kill the messenger. Islam. Isn’t it just a little strange that they claim to be a peaceful religion, but yet Muhammad edited the Koran whenever it suited his needs? It sure is convenient that whenever he needed to attack someone, a passage would appear in the Koran that justified his actions. Hmmm. Now, I won’t really continue any farther because I think I have made my point. What makes Jesus different than those guys? Well, first of all, while He was alive, all He did was help people. He healed countless people. He befriended the least of these. He loved people. Most of all what makes him different is, HE WAS CRUCIFIED AND KILLED FOR US!!! If that sounds a bit morbid, it is because it was. The crazy thing is that the beating and ridicule and pain that he faced as he was hanging on the cross were not the worst thing he endured. As the sin of mankind entered him, he was separated from God. Even for the shortest amount of time. Just think about the pain that that act caused Jesus.

Now, my claim here is that Christianity is right. My claim is not at all that Christians are right. Because most likely, they aren’t. Christians, just to be honest, really piss me off. Even I piss myself off. Christians are in no way perfect. Far from it. I know many people who aren’t Christians at all that are way, way better people than Christians. I am also not saying that Baptists are right. Hopefully, I won’t get kicked out of my Baptist seminary for saying this, but I highly doubt that Baptists are right about everything. And by highly doubt I mean I am sure that they aren’t. People do not make Christianity different from other religions. Jesus makes Christianity different. Christianity itself stands apart. If us Christians would get the hell (pardon my pun) out of the way and let Christ work, this world would be a lot better.

This post really only applies to other religions. If you are an atheist or agnostic type of person please be patient. I am sure that one of these days I will have a philosophical post with logical arguments about why God is real and all that. Until then, I love everyone and hope you are all having a freakin spectacular day!!!!