A Theology of Porn

Two things must be mentioned before any discussion comes: (1) I am a Christian, and (2) I struggle with porn. This is a topic that hits home very hard with me, so I wish to open an honest discussion about it.

I have been wrestling with porn and how it relates to Christians for some time now. I don't have any final conclusions, but I have a few ideas.

Porn is a theological problem.

I once heard that sin isn't sin because it's in a list; it's sin because it is opposite the nature of God. Lying when God is truth, hate when God is love, etc. However, it has been very difficult for me to categorize porn into something in this arena. Then I placed it in my catch-all category: trust. Porn is ultimately an act of distrust in God. Trust is a recurring theme within both the Jewish and Christian Bibles. Trust, in its various forms (trust, trustworthy, entrusting, etc.), occurs more than 200 times in the NRSV, 164 times in the NIV, and 147 times in the ESV.

But how is porn distrust in God? It is as saying, "I don't think God can provide for my sexual needs." If we believe God to be capable of supplying us with the necessary means for physical sustenance and spiritual food, why not all aspects of our selves? If we are inherently sexual beings, is God prepared for all that this entails? I think so.

God intended for humans to have a sexual nature: "Go forth and multiply." I somehow do not think that when people heard God say this, they scratched their heads and replied, "But Lord, however shall we accomplish this task?" I imagine Adam hearing this, doing a fist-pump, and saying, "Yes!" under his breath.

Porn is an unhealthy outlet for a healthy reality.

I find it interesting that C.S. Lewis in The Screwtape Letters makes the claim that God's enemies have yet to create a good thing, and that all they have managed to do is to twist God's good things for their own purposes. Sex is one of these things, I wager. Over and over again, particularly in Song of Songs, sex is portrayed as being a good thing. I have to assume this to be true, particularly because humans keep doing it. If we didn't like it, we would have died out loooong ago. While St. Augustine has a decidedly low view of human sexuality, I must say I have a decidedly high view of it. In such a sexually pervasive culture, our view of culture is low in that we perceive it to be merely a means to the end of pleasure. We all know sex sells, and the whole world is buying, as Scott Stapp so succinctly puts it. If sex is natural, why not make some money of it along the way? The U.S. has the greatest porn output in the world, with its products making more money than the combined revenues of all the major sports leagues combined. 

The simple fact that pornography’s revenue in 2006 was “larger than the revenues of the top technology companies combined: Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink” should be enough to convince someone that this indeed requires genuine attention. (http://www.familysafemedia.com/pornography_statistics.html.; quote from essay Porn and the Family, by Brennan Reed Hamil)

There is much to be said, and not enough time or patience on my part to put it here, but I hope that this can be the beginning of an honest discussion concerning porn and Christianity.

Grace and peace.