The pornification of our culture is destroying everything and everyone in its path. Men are harmed by porn, as are women, children, marriages, and society as a whole. No one escapes the devastating effects of the toxic porn culture. The trouble is, for so many years, those pointing out these obvious truths were not exactly warmly welcomed.
For decades I and others have warned about our staggering pornopolis, but we were shouted down, laughed at, derided, and labelled as idiots and wowsers. But the porn problem has reached such epidemic proportions that all sorts of people are now speaking out against it, and they cannot be accused of being rightwing religious types.
For example, in the past few days several women have strongly spoken out, and they are well worth listening to. Columnist Miranda Devine wrote a piece about new research conducted in Australia, showing how teenage girls are especially getting involved in sexual activity, no thanks to our porn culture.
She comments, “Sexualised by our sex-saturated culture since early primary school, girls are more vulnerable than ever to the depression, anorexia, suicide and mental illness that are its inevitable by-products. Such slatternly celebrity role models as Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan are the canaries in the coal mine of the raunch culture, their emotional disintegration testimony to its toll.”
Devine concludes, “Turning young women into creatures whose libido is unmoored from their feelings, and with an appetite for multiple meaningless sexual couplings, doesn’t seem much like feminist progress. As one Jezebel [website] critic put it, it’s not feminism. It’s masochism.”
But an even more important critique comes from an American sociologist and feminist, Gail Dines. She has written a new book entitled Pornland and she was interviewed on the ABC the other night. Snippets of the interview are worth reproducing here.
It is big business of course: “it’s about a $96 billion a year industry worldwide. There’s over 13,000 porn movies released to the market in the United States of America. They reckon about one in three web pages contains some pornographic content. So what you see as pornography is all over the Internet and in fact pornography drove the Internet. The technology that the pornography industry devised is now mainstream in the industry.”
And it is all escalating, getting worse and worse: “And the reason for that is a lot of soft core pornography today has migrated into pop culture. So the more you have soft core in pop culture, the more the pornography industry is forced to go hardcore as a way to distinguish its products.”
And it has to get worse and more extreme, as porn users get desensitised, and want even more nasty stuff: “In fact Adult Video News, which is the trade journal of the industry, had a story a few years ago about the directors and how they don’t know what to do next to keep these men interested. Because really in pornography you’ve done virtually everything you can to the woman’s body short of killing her so they’re fast running out of ideas.
“Now study after study shows the more men view pornography the more they become desensitised. They get bored, it becomes banal. They need something higher, more sizzling in order to get them aroused and what that is about is how much more you can debase the woman’s body.
“So what you have now is a landscape of pornography that is based on hardcore, debasing images which men are becoming more desensitised to. And the question is where the pornography industry going to go now. And I think they’re in trouble because they can’t think of anything else to do.”
And it does not help when mainstream media personalities such as Oprah Winfrey effectively glamourise and promote it: “But what Jenna Jameson did was basically act as a recruitment tool for the pornography industry. Because previously, I would say, the vast majority of women who went into pornography had histories of sexual abuse.
“But today what you’re seeing is I think more and more working class women who are looking at minimum wage jobs for the rest of their life, turn on E entertainment, turn on Oprah Winfrey and they get to see this Jenna Jameson’s house, her beautiful clothes, her art collection and this acts as a way to bring in young women who don’t understand what’s going to happen to them in pornography – who might consent but they don’t know what they’re consenting to.”
Money and addiction drive this whole thing: “And it’s like any other industry. Pornography is an industry. The tobacco industry, the alcohol industry – they want addicts because they pay. They’re the major consumers of the product. Now also what you’re seeing increasingly as younger and younger boys are getting into this, it’s getting encoded into their sexual DNA and they’re looking for more and more pornography. So this is the serious problem about what’s going on.
“You know, I never really used to believe in addiction. I used to think it was men’s way to not take responsibility but if you listen to psychologists, if you read what adult video news is saying – I can’t tell you how many emails I get each day from men who tell me just how addicted to pornography they really are.”
And our children are being dragged into all this: “By virtue of the fact we have advertising we know that these images affect the way you think about the world, affect your consumer choices, affect who you are in the world. Now, if advertising can do that why can’t pornography? And these images are very powerful. Remember they send messages to men’s brains via the penis which is an incredibly powerful delivery system and it’s very hard to walk away from those images.
“So what concerns me – as somebody who has studied media images for over 20 years – is, what does it mean for a young 11-year-old boy who’s got really no history of sex to compare those images to, what does it mean that this is his first introduction to pornography? And what does it mean that it’s accessible 24 hours a day?
“So what I’m saying is this is a social experiment. We have never before brought up a generation of boys on hardcore pornography and I can tell you that the studies are showing – and the anecdotal evidence from psychologists is showing – that this is not good news.
“It’s not good news for the boys because their sexuality is being hijacked and it’s certainly not good news for the women and the girls that they’re going to date because they’re insisting these girls and women perform porn sex. And my interviews with young women tell me they feel completely backed into a corner by these men and boys.”
And she is working to turn things around: “we’ve already started a group in America called stoppornculture.org, if anyone wants to go on our website. We have an incredible amount of people supporting us. We have members all over the country, all over the world. We have slide shows that people are now giving in universities, giving in churches, giving in community services.
“I have to tell you that people are fed up with the pornography industry, that they are sick and tired of pornography defining what our sexuality should be and it’s about time that people started to fight back. This is why we started Stop Porn Culture and I encourage people in Australia also to start an organisation because nobody said that pornographers have the right to come in and do a stealth attack on our culture the way they have done.”
We were saying similar things years ago but few listened. Hopefully some of these new voices will be heeded. If not, our culture will certainly not last long. No culture absolutely devoted to perversion, depravity and lust can long last. Either we get involved and seek to fight this monster, or we will be consumed by it. The choice is ours.
Peter Tatchell, has recently been awarded an honouree degree from Sussex University; plus Southwark Council have placed a blue plaque on his dwelling place. This is normally awarded posthumously to those who have contributed to society. http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/
He is of course the most famous champion of human rights in Britain, especially of the human right to make and feed off pornography. He says, “Pornography can thus be a cornerstone of sexual democracy. It gives everyone access to carnal pleasure and happiness, regardless of our age, looks, abilities or background“.
On his site there is list running down the left hand side. Select Pornography http://www.petertatchell.net/
In another article, entitled Beyond Equality he says:
“The absurd laws against prostitution and pornography illustrate this point. Securing legal equality for queer sex workers would be a limited advance. Homosexual prostitutes, and their clients, would simply face equal criminalisation and harassment as their heterosexual counterparts. What is needed is the complete repeal of the laws against prostitution, and their replacement by legislation that recognises the right of people to control their own bodies and to use them in any way they wish, providing it is with consent and no one is harmed.
A similar principle should apply to pornography. There is nothing shameful or obscene about the human body, including pricks and pussies. Sex is not dirty, but something to be shared and enjoyed. So why shouldn’t we be able to view explicit sexual acts, both hetero and homo? After all, using porn to wank with is a safe form of sex which can help reduce the spread of HIV. For people who are not able-bodied, young and handsome, and for those who find it difficult to meet sexual partners because they live in remote communities, porn is often one of their few means of sexual fulfilment. Why should it be disparaged and criminalised?
It is not good enough to only seek an end to the way gay porn is more strictly censored than straight porn. Lots of explicit images of sexual acts between men and women are also banned. Equality with heterosexuals under the anti-porn laws would thus mean only a slight liberalisation while leaving the bulk of draconian censorship intact. What is required is a revision of the laws against pornography in their entireity.
These five key ideas of queer politics represent a re-awakening of the radical utopian vision that fired the lesbian and gay liberation movement of the early 1970s. This vision was lost when civil rights and law reform came to dominate lesbian and gay campaigning in the conservative decade that followed.”
All our pro-family and culture saving efforts will be for naught if there isn’t proper pornography regulation very soon.
Again the rights claimed by full fledged autonomous [sic] adults are rights against children’s freedom from this material. And freedom from this material means being free to grow up in a society where they have a fair chance of understanding and living a sexual life marked by beauty and dignity and stable marriage formation.
Christians by our baptism are duty bound to lead the way now from our private lives into the public square. Every relationship in society stands on the male-female one and its quality determines every other – national and international, personal, commercial and diplomatic. Private chaos does not lead to public stability.
We can’t go forward from where we are.
Martin Snigg
Dines said in her interview that porn isn’t about making love to a woman it’s about making hate to a woman. That fact alone should negate all Tatchell’s ramblings about porn being a form of ‘safe-sex’. I have two boys and I hope I can get them way past 11 before their first encounter with porn. The internet age has made porn so easy to access. There should at least be some form of mandatory log on screen for porn sites that prevent people from accidentally accessing it. I’m sure the porn industry relies on accidents be we need to find a way to prevent our children seeing this stuff. If movies and magazines can be adults only, web pages need to be as well.
Kylie Anderson
I followed the rabbit trail from the links you gave. That is some very scary stuff. When will our society wake up and start telling teens to wait for sex instead of encouraging it so we have promiscuous girls and both sexes regret sexual experiences. It also seems sex ed needs to start earlier, before teens become sexually active.
Kylie Anderson
Bill, when I read this, “So what concerns me – as somebody who has studied media images for over 20 years – is, what does it mean for a young 11-year-old boy who’s got really no history of sex to compare those images to, what does it mean that this is his first introduction to pornography? And what does it mean that it’s accessible 24 hours a day?”, I was reminded of my best friend from my high school days. Some years ago, he told me of being repeatedly sexually abused by relatives as a child and also having been abused by his stepmother in another way. Apparently “Tony” was riding with his father and stepmother to an out of state event when his stepmother threw a porn book in his 11 year old face. “Tony” told me this was the beginning of his addiction to pornography and eventual engaging in sexual practices that eventually led to him contracting HIV.
So, yeah, I hate pornography Bill, not only as a woman who considers it an abasement of my femininity and humanity, but as a friend of victims of this vile plague. I also hate seeing little girls dressed in clothes that are sexually provocative and regard this as a major offshoot of the pornography business. I do hope the pendulum will begin to swing back toward modesty soon, but I’m not holding my breath.
M.E. Huffmaster
Thanks so much for raising the issue Bill.
As a volunteer counsellor over the past ten years with Settingcaptivesfree.com I know well the powerfully addictive and corrupting effect of porn on Christian men, young and old.
Without any doubt in my mind the entire world, not just Western countries, are in for diabolical strife as the next generation of men grow up saturated in pornography. And research shows that this is not just a minority of men, some 80% of non-faith men under 30 habitually use porn and over 60% of under 30’s who identify as Christian habitually use porn.
Every night as I prepare for the next batch of emails to respond to at Setting Captives Free, and I bow my head in prayer, my heart aches, not just for those precious souls who are trying to escape this bondage, but for the many millions of Christian men who are too fearful to even admit they are in bondage.
Bill, along with other men who counsel in other ways in this area, we have been praying much that the churches would wake up and begin addressing this issue.
If you ever see that opening, God willing, please let us know, because the resources are there for the churches to get the help they need to take up the fight. They just aren’t willing yet, so let us keep praying for some kind of breakthrough. (I’m sure you know also of Roundabout Ministries and others)
This links into your last article Bill, as to why non-Christians are not responsive to the gospel – because we are the gospel and we are most often no different in what we allow past our own eyes. One church I was attending a few years ago even arranged a men’s outing to the latest James Bond movie – good grief, such blindness!
Pray much brothers and sisters, and learn to speak out on this vital issue.
Rob Robertson
It seems that healing from homosexuality and addiction to pornography are not merely spiritual, emotional and mental but physical as well. From recent studies, it appears that pathways within the brain become changed and enlarged, making them superhighways that it more difficult to resist temptation when it comes. If this is the case what ramifications has this for our children who at the click of a button are injecting hard core pornography into their brains? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/677048.stm http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/02/01/hijacking-the-brain-how-pornography-works/
Hello Bill,
I have contacted many politicians about issues such as this, but thought: “Why aren’t Christians contacting church leaders about these issues and asking them to speak with a united voice against the evil in society?”
So I did! Following is the letter I sent to the church leaders of the church groups listed at the end. I wonder If I will receive a reply? Or, I pray, action?
Hello ….,
Subject: Church Unity:
I have been a Christian for over 24 years now and do not hold any office in the church. I am what you may call an ordinary Christian who loves our Lord and desires to serve Him the best I can.
Over the years I have become increasingly concerned with the way the world has become more and more steeped in sin of all types.
I try to keep well informed and watch the TV news, read newspapers and access Christian sites on the internet (which report on things not covered by the secular, anti Christian media).
I have prayed about everything that I see and hear that I feel would grieve our Lord, or threaten the family unit that God has wisely ordained.
What I observe is that there are few people or groups taking a stand for what is right, allowing evil to take control in many areas of our world. When someone does stand up for what is right they are persecuted, and, in many cases, are faced with fines or jail time just for speaking out. Freedom of speech is rapidly being taken away.
Many, many evil laws have been passed by atheistic, left-leaning or weak governments around the world after people have been brainwashed by small, vocal groups pushing their own agenda, thereby allowing evil to prevail over good.
The purpose of this letter is to entreat you to unite with all the other Australian Christian church leaders to come together in prayer for our country – and, indeed the world – and to have a united public voice condemning the evil in society.
Just some of the issues that many Christians are concerned about are:
1/ The gay rights movement: Things such as legalising Same Sex Adoption; Same Sex Marriage; IVF for same sex couples; anti discrimination laws (not allowing people to speak out in opposing these laws).
Note:
One of the main reasons for the collapse of every great civilisation in history was sexual depravity, especially homosexuality. It is also an abomination to God according to the Scriptures. (The Greens Party is pushing this agenda now that they have the perceived minority power in parliament.)
2/ Islam: Islam is spreading across Europe at a rapid pace and causing untold chaos in those Western countries where it has a stronghold. Australia is in their sights, as is the rest of the world.
Note:
Islam is not a religion, but a political entity with an agenda to bring the world under a Caliphate and Sharia law. It will do this by terrorism and fear – they will conquer by the sword! They openly declare this.
And, sadly, by using the laws of gullible Western countries to stop any protests by anyone concerned about this evil. (The same anti discrimination and religious vilification laws that these Western countries are hastily passing in the name of “political correctness”.)
3/ Euthanasia: There appears to be a majority of Australians who believe that this should become law. Thankfully, it has already been defeated in the WA parliament.
The reasons most in favour of this law give is “compassion” and “the right to choose the timing of your own death”. They call it “voluntary euthanasia (death)”.
No matter what name they give it, it is still suicide if you kill yourself, and assisted suicide (or even murder) if someone else kills you.
As Christians we know that all life is precious and that God is the only one to decide when anyone dies.
Note:
The obvious problem with passing this law is that “voluntary euthanasia (death)” will soon lead to “involuntary death” where people are killed against their will, for many and varied reasons.
This is already happening in the Netherlands where it is law.
4/ Abortion: This issue is a very emotional one, with pro abortion advocates saying that it is a woman’s choice and right to choose to have an abortion. There is even a debate as to when a foetus can be considered to be a “real person”. Many Christians believe that it is at conception.
Sadly, few of these people appear to care about the rights of the precious unborn little life. At last count over 100,000 abortions are performed in Australia each year.
Victoria has already passed an Abortion Law Reform Act.
Note:
Christians understand that every life is precious and is a gift from God; therefore only God can determine when life is to end or start.
It is well documented that a woman who has an abortion grieves for her lost child, and has pangs of guilt all her life.
Abortion is murder, even if it is made law. (Except in the case of a medical emergency where the mother’s life is in danger).
5/ Social Engineering: This involves most of the above, and is done mainly through the education system, the atheist/secular media, vocal minority groups and that enemy of free speech, “political correctness.”
What is happening is that people are being brainwashed or desensitised into believing what is wrong, or evil, is alright. Such as same sex marriage; taking Christianity (i.e. God or Jesus) out of every aspect of public view – the list is long and I am sure you know what most of them are – Islam is a religion of peace; science has the answers to all our problems etc, etc, etc.
I think you get the picture.
Note:
e.g. In a recent newspaper survey, pupils in six Sydney and Wollongong high schools were asked if same sex marriage should be made lawful. 95% said “yes”!
Of course there are many, many other issues that are of concern to Christians, so this list is just a small sample.
We must love these people, but hate their sin.
I pray that you will take this letter from a concerned ordinary Christian to heart and unite with other Christian leaders – putting aside perceived differences – and speak out publicly as one voice and condemn those things that are an affront to God.
May God bless you and give you wisdom and discernment in this matter.
Regards,
Mailed to the following:
National Council of Churches in Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia
The Assemblies of God in Australia
Australia Baptist Ministries
Churches of Christ in Australia
The Foursquare Church, Australia
The Presbyterian Church of Australia
Salvation Army Australia Eastern Territory
Uniting Church in Australia
Paul de la Garde, Sydney
As I wrote once before, will there be enough millstones to go round? God have mercy on us and on our children.
Anna Cook
With thanks to David Skinner for enlightening us on Peter Tatchell’s activities. I thought he was more serious-minded in his quest for rights for homosexuals but the articles on his website, esp. pornography, show a hedonistic obsession with sex – the message being “even if you’ve been hit with the ugly stick you can still have a share of the action”. Surprised also (as I think he was) at Southwark Council awarding him a Blue Plaque for his human rights activities. Pornography and drug-taking all seem to satisfy an emptiness inside and must be tremendously addictive but these habits could definitely be superseded by something more spiritual – a realisation of human potential for nobility as opposed to base profanity. Look at the case recently in the UK of the uncle who violently sexually tortured and strangled his own niece with a guitar string, having gorged on lust and hard porn and he finally satisfied himself with her sexual killing. His photograph showed a depraved beast (and he will be locked up until he dies) while her photograph shows a tragic little angel. We must call a halt on the fleshpots industry and replace it with something that can be entrancing and compelling but of the spirit. The key element must be Love, of the “agape” or unselfish kind. Not the lustful, covetous type which only leads to self-disgust and despair and death.
Rachel Smith
I struggled for years with porn, and it nearly killed me. I still have deep, deep scars still to this day. I wont go into details as it is still painful and causes me lots of grief.
I will say that I went to one of Allen Meyers Valiant Man courses at my local church. Well worth it. With that and the power of Christ I was led out of it.
If anyone here is having trouble see if you can get your church to run one of these courses.
I think it says it all that the Establishment in our society (at least in Britain) – the people with all the power/wealth and influence – give their honours and plaudits to such people as Tatchell. If I’d had a degree from Sussex University, I’d hand it back, in protest.
John Thomas, UK
John Thomas, let us forget the degrees and blue plaques and instead look at the OBEs, MBEs and knighthoods that have been discharged onto to the likes of Angela Mason, Ben Summerskill, Ian Mckellen, Trevor Phillips and numerous other cultural Marxists. At least Tatchell’s posturing, strutting are a public performance, whereas the aforementioned work quietly, burrowing like worms into the inner fabric of British society.
David Skinner, UK
Good work, Paul de la Garde, for firing off your letter to various church leaders which sets out the case very succinctly. I look forward to hearing what response you got. I like your comment “we must love these people but hate their sin”. Our church leaders seem to do the loving of the people but not the hating of their sin and on that they should be more vociferous.
Rachel Smith
The television screen was blank, it was off. Yet I perceived a menacing evil emanating from it for a couple of seconds and thought it very strange and unsettling. It was like a forewarning of things to come as shortly after this I was watching SBS when they aired really disgusting brutal and sado masochistic, murderous and perverted themes in music pop clips at 5pm – children’s viewing time!! (Female impersonator was singing “You think Im wicked? Well I slit open this guts with a knife and sucked out his intestines) The same type of themes then repeated on ‘RAGE’ on the ABC, this was in the 1980’s. So evil had metamorphed from sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll into this type of depravity. I lobbied the people, the church, the ministers but it felt like a silent scream as no one would/could do anything, the rules governing SBS and ABC broadcasts were different than the ones for commercial television etc etc. We need to lobby politicians to be able to do something, put pressure on the relevant ministers and use public opinion levers as well as the time has become ripe now. Individual action is almost futile (unless you have a media profile) but the church can push these issues in a collective way. Well written articles could be published in all the local papers at the same time, buy the space if necessary, to give people (even people that are not believers-maybe we should network with the moderate Muslims?) a rallying point and keep up the pressure. For our Kids.
And Porn destroys Love.
Angie Volmensky
To anybody struggling, may I recommend that you download a program called x3watch. It is an accountability program that sends an email to a nominated person (preferably someone like a trusted minister) whenever you click onto a questionable website.
While it may be embarrassing, it is also extremely helpful since it introduces accountability when surfing the net.
Mario Del Giudice
There is no preventing the collapse of the west, it has gone too far. The internet has good uses, but it seems as if whats the point if it leads to this. People gravitate towards the darker or trivial corners of the web, while what should be read gets left. Sex and Religion are the two passions of human life, and when religion declines sex reigns. Only guarantee of virtue is religion.
“Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a “conflict between science and religion.” Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and-after some hesitation- the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end a society and its religion tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death. Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization.” -Will Durant, The Story of Civilization
Julian de Sousa
This is an area where the privatization of faith and an evangelical faith that is merely a therapeutic deism simply will not suffice if we are to be faithful. Counseling, recovery, confession, prayer, are all needed, helpful, useful and good.
But if there is an area for slowing societal decay like slowing the rotting of unrefrigerated meat by rubbing in salt, THIS is an area where Christ followers in particular and members of other faiths with some memory of the sanctity of human life, must take a stand personally, in the family, in the workplace, AND in our shopping establishments for books, food, gas, cars, sports, clothing, music, yes and even perfume, and jewelry.
Thanks for your stand over the years, Bill. And for your challenge as well. It is great that you sourced a female writer. Judith Reisman was a ridiculed spokesperson of the past. Not sure of her activities today.
Joe Whitchurch, USA
Bill, I wonder if the final stage of a dying culture is the coupling of sex and spirituality – orthodox Christianity may be disdained, but there are plenty of false teachers out there willing to embrace the rising tide of neo-paganism and eastern mystical ideas. The use of tantric sex to achieve enlightenment etc in these types of spiritualities is well documented, and I am currently holding my breath and searching the web for any evidence of this stuff cropping up in the fringe cults of Christianity. Nothing so far (has any one else seen evidence of this?) but I know it won’t be too far away.
Given the West’s rising fascination with post-Christian spiritualities, I wonder if this might be a direction that ‘pornland’ might head, promoting it as a’clean-up’ or as a ‘reformat’ of current sickening practices. Knowing too post-modernism’s disdain for ‘modern excesses’ and rampant materialistic individualism (on which pornography is based) I wonder if future generations might not only desire this, but demand it of the porn industry.
But this would be the most truly frightening reformation of all – not one from the heart, in repentance to God, but only in response to the changing and equally rebellious spiritual needs of a new generation.
A more public presence and pursuit of sex and mystical spirituality would clear the path for open fraternisation with demons, and would mark the final end of our society. Maranatha!
Danny Polglase
Dear Bill, we’d be happy to send you a copy of Pornland if you don’t yet have it.
Spinifex Press are the Australian publishers.
Best, Nikki, Spinifex Press
Thanks Nikki
If that is an offer for a review copy, I would be more than happy to write a review of it. Let me know thanks.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Whoever said “Pornography isn’t making love to a woman, it’s making hate to a woman.” summed it up.
Peter Tatchell, has recently been awarded an honouree degree from Sussex University; plus Southwark Council have placed a blue plaque on his dwelling place. This is normally awarded posthumously to those who have contributed to society.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/
He is of course the most famous champion of human rights in Britain, especially of the human right to make and feed off pornography. He says, “Pornography can thus be a cornerstone of sexual democracy. It gives everyone access to carnal pleasure and happiness, regardless of our age, looks, abilities or background“.
On his site there is list running down the left hand side. Select Pornography
http://www.petertatchell.net/
In another article, entitled Beyond Equality he says:
“The absurd laws against prostitution and pornography illustrate this point. Securing legal equality for queer sex workers would be a limited advance. Homosexual prostitutes, and their clients, would simply face equal criminalisation and harassment as their heterosexual counterparts. What is needed is the complete repeal of the laws against prostitution, and their replacement by legislation that recognises the right of people to control their own bodies and to use them in any way they wish, providing it is with consent and no one is harmed.
A similar principle should apply to pornography. There is nothing shameful or obscene about the human body, including pricks and pussies. Sex is not dirty, but something to be shared and enjoyed. So why shouldn’t we be able to view explicit sexual acts, both hetero and homo? After all, using porn to wank with is a safe form of sex which can help reduce the spread of HIV. For people who are not able-bodied, young and handsome, and for those who find it difficult to meet sexual partners because they live in remote communities, porn is often one of their few means of sexual fulfilment. Why should it be disparaged and criminalised?
It is not good enough to only seek an end to the way gay porn is more strictly censored than straight porn. Lots of explicit images of sexual acts between men and women are also banned. Equality with heterosexuals under the anti-porn laws would thus mean only a slight liberalisation while leaving the bulk of draconian censorship intact. What is required is a revision of the laws against pornography in their entireity.
These five key ideas of queer politics represent a re-awakening of the radical utopian vision that fired the lesbian and gay liberation movement of the early 1970s. This vision was lost when civil rights and law reform came to dominate lesbian and gay campaigning in the conservative decade that followed.”
http://www.petertatchell.net/Equality%20-%20Limits%20and%20Deficiencies/beyond%20equality.htm
Contrast his view with that of Miranda Smith: http://www.lifebite.co.uk/index.php/home/detail/poisoned_by_pornography/
David Skinner, UK
All our pro-family and culture saving efforts will be for naught if there isn’t proper pornography regulation very soon.
Again the rights claimed by full fledged autonomous [sic] adults are rights against children’s freedom from this material. And freedom from this material means being free to grow up in a society where they have a fair chance of understanding and living a sexual life marked by beauty and dignity and stable marriage formation.
Christians by our baptism are duty bound to lead the way now from our private lives into the public square. Every relationship in society stands on the male-female one and its quality determines every other – national and international, personal, commercial and diplomatic. Private chaos does not lead to public stability.
We can’t go forward from where we are.
Martin Snigg
Dines said in her interview that porn isn’t about making love to a woman it’s about making hate to a woman. That fact alone should negate all Tatchell’s ramblings about porn being a form of ‘safe-sex’. I have two boys and I hope I can get them way past 11 before their first encounter with porn. The internet age has made porn so easy to access. There should at least be some form of mandatory log on screen for porn sites that prevent people from accidentally accessing it. I’m sure the porn industry relies on accidents be we need to find a way to prevent our children seeing this stuff. If movies and magazines can be adults only, web pages need to be as well.
Kylie Anderson
I followed the rabbit trail from the links you gave. That is some very scary stuff. When will our society wake up and start telling teens to wait for sex instead of encouraging it so we have promiscuous girls and both sexes regret sexual experiences. It also seems sex ed needs to start earlier, before teens become sexually active.
Kylie Anderson
Bill, when I read this, “So what concerns me – as somebody who has studied media images for over 20 years – is, what does it mean for a young 11-year-old boy who’s got really no history of sex to compare those images to, what does it mean that this is his first introduction to pornography? And what does it mean that it’s accessible 24 hours a day?”, I was reminded of my best friend from my high school days. Some years ago, he told me of being repeatedly sexually abused by relatives as a child and also having been abused by his stepmother in another way. Apparently “Tony” was riding with his father and stepmother to an out of state event when his stepmother threw a porn book in his 11 year old face. “Tony” told me this was the beginning of his addiction to pornography and eventual engaging in sexual practices that eventually led to him contracting HIV.
So, yeah, I hate pornography Bill, not only as a woman who considers it an abasement of my femininity and humanity, but as a friend of victims of this vile plague. I also hate seeing little girls dressed in clothes that are sexually provocative and regard this as a major offshoot of the pornography business. I do hope the pendulum will begin to swing back toward modesty soon, but I’m not holding my breath.
M.E. Huffmaster
Thanks so much for raising the issue Bill.
As a volunteer counsellor over the past ten years with Settingcaptivesfree.com I know well the powerfully addictive and corrupting effect of porn on Christian men, young and old.
Without any doubt in my mind the entire world, not just Western countries, are in for diabolical strife as the next generation of men grow up saturated in pornography. And research shows that this is not just a minority of men, some 80% of non-faith men under 30 habitually use porn and over 60% of under 30’s who identify as Christian habitually use porn.
Every night as I prepare for the next batch of emails to respond to at Setting Captives Free, and I bow my head in prayer, my heart aches, not just for those precious souls who are trying to escape this bondage, but for the many millions of Christian men who are too fearful to even admit they are in bondage.
Bill, along with other men who counsel in other ways in this area, we have been praying much that the churches would wake up and begin addressing this issue.
If you ever see that opening, God willing, please let us know, because the resources are there for the churches to get the help they need to take up the fight. They just aren’t willing yet, so let us keep praying for some kind of breakthrough. (I’m sure you know also of Roundabout Ministries and others)
This links into your last article Bill, as to why non-Christians are not responsive to the gospel – because we are the gospel and we are most often no different in what we allow past our own eyes. One church I was attending a few years ago even arranged a men’s outing to the latest James Bond movie – good grief, such blindness!
Pray much brothers and sisters, and learn to speak out on this vital issue.
Rob Robertson
It seems that healing from homosexuality and addiction to pornography are not merely spiritual, emotional and mental but physical as well. From recent studies, it appears that pathways within the brain become changed and enlarged, making them superhighways that it more difficult to resist temptation when it comes. If this is the case what ramifications has this for our children who at the click of a button are injecting hard core pornography into their brains?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/677048.stm
http://www.albertmohler.com/2010/02/01/hijacking-the-brain-how-pornography-works/
George Verwer, director of Operation Mobilisation gives encouragement to us all, especially men, in this area.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:_oObGk4X49EJ:www.christianitytoday.com/le/2001/spring/12.52.html+george+verwer+confesses+addiction+to+pornography&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
David Skinner, UK
Hello Bill,
I have contacted many politicians about issues such as this, but thought: “Why aren’t Christians contacting church leaders about these issues and asking them to speak with a united voice against the evil in society?”
So I did! Following is the letter I sent to the church leaders of the church groups listed at the end. I wonder If I will receive a reply? Or, I pray, action?
Hello ….,
Subject: Church Unity:
I have been a Christian for over 24 years now and do not hold any office in the church. I am what you may call an ordinary Christian who loves our Lord and desires to serve Him the best I can.
Over the years I have become increasingly concerned with the way the world has become more and more steeped in sin of all types.
I try to keep well informed and watch the TV news, read newspapers and access Christian sites on the internet (which report on things not covered by the secular, anti Christian media).
I have prayed about everything that I see and hear that I feel would grieve our Lord, or threaten the family unit that God has wisely ordained.
What I observe is that there are few people or groups taking a stand for what is right, allowing evil to take control in many areas of our world. When someone does stand up for what is right they are persecuted, and, in many cases, are faced with fines or jail time just for speaking out. Freedom of speech is rapidly being taken away.
Many, many evil laws have been passed by atheistic, left-leaning or weak governments around the world after people have been brainwashed by small, vocal groups pushing their own agenda, thereby allowing evil to prevail over good.
The purpose of this letter is to entreat you to unite with all the other Australian Christian church leaders to come together in prayer for our country – and, indeed the world – and to have a united public voice condemning the evil in society.
Just some of the issues that many Christians are concerned about are:
1/ The gay rights movement: Things such as legalising Same Sex Adoption; Same Sex Marriage; IVF for same sex couples; anti discrimination laws (not allowing people to speak out in opposing these laws).
Note:
One of the main reasons for the collapse of every great civilisation in history was sexual depravity, especially homosexuality. It is also an abomination to God according to the Scriptures. (The Greens Party is pushing this agenda now that they have the perceived minority power in parliament.)
2/ Islam: Islam is spreading across Europe at a rapid pace and causing untold chaos in those Western countries where it has a stronghold. Australia is in their sights, as is the rest of the world.
Note:
Islam is not a religion, but a political entity with an agenda to bring the world under a Caliphate and Sharia law. It will do this by terrorism and fear – they will conquer by the sword! They openly declare this.
And, sadly, by using the laws of gullible Western countries to stop any protests by anyone concerned about this evil. (The same anti discrimination and religious vilification laws that these Western countries are hastily passing in the name of “political correctness”.)
3/ Euthanasia: There appears to be a majority of Australians who believe that this should become law. Thankfully, it has already been defeated in the WA parliament.
The reasons most in favour of this law give is “compassion” and “the right to choose the timing of your own death”. They call it “voluntary euthanasia (death)”.
No matter what name they give it, it is still suicide if you kill yourself, and assisted suicide (or even murder) if someone else kills you.
As Christians we know that all life is precious and that God is the only one to decide when anyone dies.
Note:
The obvious problem with passing this law is that “voluntary euthanasia (death)” will soon lead to “involuntary death” where people are killed against their will, for many and varied reasons.
This is already happening in the Netherlands where it is law.
4/ Abortion: This issue is a very emotional one, with pro abortion advocates saying that it is a woman’s choice and right to choose to have an abortion. There is even a debate as to when a foetus can be considered to be a “real person”. Many Christians believe that it is at conception.
Sadly, few of these people appear to care about the rights of the precious unborn little life. At last count over 100,000 abortions are performed in Australia each year.
Victoria has already passed an Abortion Law Reform Act.
Note:
Christians understand that every life is precious and is a gift from God; therefore only God can determine when life is to end or start.
It is well documented that a woman who has an abortion grieves for her lost child, and has pangs of guilt all her life.
Abortion is murder, even if it is made law. (Except in the case of a medical emergency where the mother’s life is in danger).
5/ Social Engineering: This involves most of the above, and is done mainly through the education system, the atheist/secular media, vocal minority groups and that enemy of free speech, “political correctness.”
What is happening is that people are being brainwashed or desensitised into believing what is wrong, or evil, is alright. Such as same sex marriage; taking Christianity (i.e. God or Jesus) out of every aspect of public view – the list is long and I am sure you know what most of them are – Islam is a religion of peace; science has the answers to all our problems etc, etc, etc.
I think you get the picture.
Note:
e.g. In a recent newspaper survey, pupils in six Sydney and Wollongong high schools were asked if same sex marriage should be made lawful. 95% said “yes”!
Of course there are many, many other issues that are of concern to Christians, so this list is just a small sample.
We must love these people, but hate their sin.
I pray that you will take this letter from a concerned ordinary Christian to heart and unite with other Christian leaders – putting aside perceived differences – and speak out publicly as one voice and condemn those things that are an affront to God.
May God bless you and give you wisdom and discernment in this matter.
Regards,
Mailed to the following:
National Council of Churches in Australia
The Anglican Church of Australia
The Assemblies of God in Australia
Australia Baptist Ministries
Churches of Christ in Australia
The Foursquare Church, Australia
The Presbyterian Church of Australia
Salvation Army Australia Eastern Territory
Uniting Church in Australia
Paul de la Garde, Sydney
As I wrote once before, will there be enough millstones to go round? God have mercy on us and on our children.
Anna Cook
With thanks to David Skinner for enlightening us on Peter Tatchell’s activities. I thought he was more serious-minded in his quest for rights for homosexuals but the articles on his website, esp. pornography, show a hedonistic obsession with sex – the message being “even if you’ve been hit with the ugly stick you can still have a share of the action”. Surprised also (as I think he was) at Southwark Council awarding him a Blue Plaque for his human rights activities. Pornography and drug-taking all seem to satisfy an emptiness inside and must be tremendously addictive but these habits could definitely be superseded by something more spiritual – a realisation of human potential for nobility as opposed to base profanity. Look at the case recently in the UK of the uncle who violently sexually tortured and strangled his own niece with a guitar string, having gorged on lust and hard porn and he finally satisfied himself with her sexual killing. His photograph showed a depraved beast (and he will be locked up until he dies) while her photograph shows a tragic little angel. We must call a halt on the fleshpots industry and replace it with something that can be entrancing and compelling but of the spirit. The key element must be Love, of the “agape” or unselfish kind. Not the lustful, covetous type which only leads to self-disgust and despair and death.
Rachel Smith
I struggled for years with porn, and it nearly killed me. I still have deep, deep scars still to this day. I wont go into details as it is still painful and causes me lots of grief.
I will say that I went to one of Allen Meyers Valiant Man courses at my local church. Well worth it. With that and the power of Christ I was led out of it.
If anyone here is having trouble see if you can get your church to run one of these courses.
http://www.careforcelifekeys.org/aus/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=11&Itemid=12
Jeffrey Carl
I think it says it all that the Establishment in our society (at least in Britain) – the people with all the power/wealth and influence – give their honours and plaudits to such people as Tatchell. If I’d had a degree from Sussex University, I’d hand it back, in protest.
John Thomas, UK
John Thomas, let us forget the degrees and blue plaques and instead look at the OBEs, MBEs and knighthoods that have been discharged onto to the likes of Angela Mason, Ben Summerskill, Ian Mckellen, Trevor Phillips and numerous other cultural Marxists. At least Tatchell’s posturing, strutting are a public performance, whereas the aforementioned work quietly, burrowing like worms into the inner fabric of British society.
David Skinner, UK
Good work, Paul de la Garde, for firing off your letter to various church leaders which sets out the case very succinctly. I look forward to hearing what response you got. I like your comment “we must love these people but hate their sin”. Our church leaders seem to do the loving of the people but not the hating of their sin and on that they should be more vociferous.
Rachel Smith
The television screen was blank, it was off. Yet I perceived a menacing evil emanating from it for a couple of seconds and thought it very strange and unsettling. It was like a forewarning of things to come as shortly after this I was watching SBS when they aired really disgusting brutal and sado masochistic, murderous and perverted themes in music pop clips at 5pm – children’s viewing time!! (Female impersonator was singing “You think Im wicked? Well I slit open this guts with a knife and sucked out his intestines) The same type of themes then repeated on ‘RAGE’ on the ABC, this was in the 1980’s. So evil had metamorphed from sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll into this type of depravity. I lobbied the people, the church, the ministers but it felt like a silent scream as no one would/could do anything, the rules governing SBS and ABC broadcasts were different than the ones for commercial television etc etc. We need to lobby politicians to be able to do something, put pressure on the relevant ministers and use public opinion levers as well as the time has become ripe now. Individual action is almost futile (unless you have a media profile) but the church can push these issues in a collective way. Well written articles could be published in all the local papers at the same time, buy the space if necessary, to give people (even people that are not believers-maybe we should network with the moderate Muslims?) a rallying point and keep up the pressure. For our Kids.
And Porn destroys Love.
Angie Volmensky
To anybody struggling, may I recommend that you download a program called x3watch. It is an accountability program that sends an email to a nominated person (preferably someone like a trusted minister) whenever you click onto a questionable website.
While it may be embarrassing, it is also extremely helpful since it introduces accountability when surfing the net.
Mario Del Giudice
There is no preventing the collapse of the west, it has gone too far. The internet has good uses, but it seems as if whats the point if it leads to this. People gravitate towards the darker or trivial corners of the web, while what should be read gets left. Sex and Religion are the two passions of human life, and when religion declines sex reigns. Only guarantee of virtue is religion.
“Hence a certain tension between religion and society marks the higher stages of every civilization. Religion begins by offering magical aid to harassed and bewildered men; it culminates by giving to a people that unity of morals and belief which seems so favorable to statesmanship and art; it ends by fighting suicidally in the lost cause of the past. For as knowledge grows or alters continually, it clashes with mythology and theology, which change with geological leisureliness. Priestly control of arts and letters is then felt as a galling shackle or hateful barrier, and intellectual history takes on the character of a “conflict between science and religion.” Institutions which were at first in the hands of the clergy, like law and punishment, education and morals, marriage and divorce, tend to escape from ecclesiastical control, and become secular, perhaps profane. The intellectual classes abandon the ancient theology and-after some hesitation- the moral code allied with it; literature and philosophy become anticlerical. The movement of liberation rises to an exuberant worship of reason, and falls to a paralyzing disillusionment with every dogma and every idea. Conduct, deprived of its religious supports, deteriorates into epicurean chaos; and life itself, shorn of consoling faith, becomes a burden alike to conscious poverty and to weary wealth. In the end a society and its religion tend to fall together, like body and soul, in a harmonious death. Meanwhile among the oppressed another myth arises, gives new form to human hope, new courage to human effort, and after centuries of chaos builds another civilization.” -Will Durant, The Story of Civilization
Julian de Sousa
This is an area where the privatization of faith and an evangelical faith that is merely a therapeutic deism simply will not suffice if we are to be faithful. Counseling, recovery, confession, prayer, are all needed, helpful, useful and good.
But if there is an area for slowing societal decay like slowing the rotting of unrefrigerated meat by rubbing in salt, THIS is an area where Christ followers in particular and members of other faiths with some memory of the sanctity of human life, must take a stand personally, in the family, in the workplace, AND in our shopping establishments for books, food, gas, cars, sports, clothing, music, yes and even perfume, and jewelry.
Thanks for your stand over the years, Bill. And for your challenge as well. It is great that you sourced a female writer. Judith Reisman was a ridiculed spokesperson of the past. Not sure of her activities today.
Joe Whitchurch, USA
Bill, I wonder if the final stage of a dying culture is the coupling of sex and spirituality – orthodox Christianity may be disdained, but there are plenty of false teachers out there willing to embrace the rising tide of neo-paganism and eastern mystical ideas. The use of tantric sex to achieve enlightenment etc in these types of spiritualities is well documented, and I am currently holding my breath and searching the web for any evidence of this stuff cropping up in the fringe cults of Christianity. Nothing so far (has any one else seen evidence of this?) but I know it won’t be too far away.
Given the West’s rising fascination with post-Christian spiritualities, I wonder if this might be a direction that ‘pornland’ might head, promoting it as a’clean-up’ or as a ‘reformat’ of current sickening practices. Knowing too post-modernism’s disdain for ‘modern excesses’ and rampant materialistic individualism (on which pornography is based) I wonder if future generations might not only desire this, but demand it of the porn industry.
But this would be the most truly frightening reformation of all – not one from the heart, in repentance to God, but only in response to the changing and equally rebellious spiritual needs of a new generation.
A more public presence and pursuit of sex and mystical spirituality would clear the path for open fraternisation with demons, and would mark the final end of our society. Maranatha!
Danny Polglase
Dear Bill, we’d be happy to send you a copy of Pornland if you don’t yet have it.
Spinifex Press are the Australian publishers.
Best, Nikki, Spinifex Press
Thanks Nikki
If that is an offer for a review copy, I would be more than happy to write a review of it. Let me know thanks.
Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch
Whoever said “Pornography isn’t making love to a woman, it’s making hate to a woman.” summed it up.