The #1 Reason Porn Is Bad

Many parents believe that porn is bad. But why is porn bad? I mean, when you get to the root of it, why is it wrong to use pornography?

• Is pornography bad because it’s addictive?
• Is it bad because it can lead to porn-induced erectile dysfunction in young men?
• Is pornography bad because it destroys marriages?
• Is porn bad because it can lead to sexual violence, like rape?
• Is it bad because it fuels child on child sexual abuse?

According to Matt Fradd, a keynote speaker at this year’s Utah Coalition Against Pornography (UCAP) conference, as well as author of his newest book, The Porn Myth: Exposing the Reality behind the Fantasy of Pornography, those very bad things are simply the consequences of pornography.

So what's the core problem with pornography?

As humans, we all deserve to be treated with respect and love. Matt quotes Polish philosopher Karol Wojtyla, who wrote:

"The human person is a good towards which the only proper and adequate attitude is love."

In other words, we should love people. And what does it mean to love? Saint Thomas Aquinas answers:

“To love is to will the good of the other.”

In other words, to want what's best for them.

And is this what happens in porn? Do porn viewers "will the good" of the people they are watching?

Call me jaded, but I don’t think so.

In fact, porn does the opposite. Porn teaches its viewers to commodify, use and discard other humans! (Umm...isn't that why we abolished slavery?!)

Porn dehumanizes the "actors" within it and ultimately does the same thing to those who watch it.

Piece by Piece

In Matt’s UCAP address, he showed a video of Kelly Clarkson on American Idol singing Piece by Piece. In this song she tells the story of being abandoned by her father at the age of six and rejected by him again when she was older. When she became successful, her father tried to return to her life. But her husband showed her that a genuine father’s love can be truly healing. (I dare you to watch this and not shed a tear!)

None of us like feeling used or abused. But when people are pulled into porn, they’re deceived. And they get the opposite of what they’re seeking.

Matt Fradd nailed it when he compared the expectations with the end results of porn:

“We go for excitement, we become bored. We go for freedom, we become enslaved. We go for joy, we become sad. We go for intimacy, we become isolated. We go for adult entertainment, we become increasingly juvenile.”

What’s the #1 reason porn is bad?

The underlying, intrinsic reason that porn is bad comes from these basic truths:

• Porn turns people into objects to buy and consume.
• Porn reduces people to their parts which can be altered, “perfected” and pimped.
• Porn teaches users to dehumanize others as they buy into its degrading objectification.
• With each pornographic picture, porn denies the dignity, and many would say the divinity, of each human soul.

“Watching pornography can lead you to believe that people are objects to use instead of real human being with feelings. We know that everyone has feelings and wants to be treated with kindness, so that’s one more way pornography lies to people who look at it.” Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn-Proofing Today’s Young Kids

And that's why porn is bad.

What could be worse?

I’ll answer my own question--what’s worse is letting porn infect our kids and not doing anything to inoculate them! To let fear and shame overwhelm us and keep us silent.

There is a lot of bad out there, but as Sam from The Lord of the Rings once said, “...there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.”

So let’s fight. Our kids are worth it.

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