Here’s the too often heard scenario: An eleven year old girl, coming home from
school by herself, is met by a man who has been hiding in the shadows. As he steps out
he has in his hands some pornography which he bravely displays before her eyes. The
girl is frightened and runs to the safety of her home. Now, what do you do? (a) Do
nothing, children need to know about the world. (b) Blame it on the girl, after all she
could have taken another way home or been with others. (c) Notify the authorities, he
should be arrested. (d) Take him for a long walk on a short peer.
Sadly enough, in our society all four of these answers could be correct dependent on
your level of morality. It is refreshing to know that a large segment of our society still
holds that the protection of our children should be maintained.
Jesus said in Matthew 19:14 that we are not to forbid the little children in coming unto
Him. This would mean that, through pornography, the child is lead away from Christ and
into the outer realms of darkness and Satan. Woe unto the person that perverts the mind
of the little child.
Let us change this scenario just a little. The little girl is sitting at home, working on
her homework for school. She is using the computer to help her. She is not on the
Internet, just working alone. She can not find the file she was working on, so she begins
looking at other files. She finds a file called, “temp. Internet files.” She looks in this file
and finds other strange files. She opens one of them and is shown pornographic pictures
left there by a man who has been hiding in the shadows of her very own home.
You probably have guessed by now that these pictures were put there by someone who
wants to view such trash. The man who is showing her the pornography is her father.
What do you do in this case? (a) Do nothing, children need to know about the world. (b)
Blame it on the girl, after all she should have been minding her own business. (c) Notify
the authorities, he should be arrested. (d) Take him for a long walk on a short peer.
Strangely enough most of the people in this country will answer this question in a
different way than they answered the first question. It seems that we want to protect our
children from all evil, but see no, or very little, evil in what parents expose them to.
Wrong is wrong no matter what our reasoning could be. The home should be a place of
security, but now this little eleven year old feels very insecure. What is she to do?
Confused, she turns the computer off! For the next few hours, days or weeks she
ponders the dilemma that she is in. She does not use the computer as she is afraid of
what she will find or see. Her mother notices that she is not using the computer and ask
her why. What a spot she is in. Answer her mother and tell on good-ole-dad, or lie.
Children should not be put in this sort of predicament.
Unfortunately mom knows that good-ole-dad has had this problem with pornography
for some time. She thought that he would get it under control, but now it is effecting the
children. Mom is forced, in order to protect her children, to confront good-ole-dad. The
only problem with this is that she does not understand that he is so “hooked” on this and
that he can not stop; nor is he willing to stop. What a problem pornography has caused in
this family. Good-ole-dad has spent thousands of dollars on pornography in the past
years. Money that could have been used to buy his children cloths, shoes or food.
Faced with a deflect decision, good-ole-dad must chose his family or pornography.
Unfortunately dad chooses the pornography over his wife and children. Now alone, mom
trys to make ends meet and take care of her children. Yes dad must pay support for the
children, but it is not enough. Mom must now go to work and leave her children under
the care of others. This little family will never be the same because of pornography.
How do things like this come about? Let’s look at it from two viewpoints.
First from the scientific standpoint. The body produces a hormone called adrenaline.
When a person feels in danger, stressed or excited adrenaline is used by the body for a
short time. This sometimes gives “super” power to an otherwise weak person. This is a
normal function of the body, but this use of adrenaline is something that the body begins
to crave and becomes, in a scenic, habit forming. If you were to ask a race car driver why
they drive their cars at the point of loosing control, they would tell you that they were just
having fun. This “fun” as they call it, is the bodies craving for the “adrenaline rush”
which gives the person a good or calm feeling.
This is basically what a person, who views pornographic material, does to their bodies.
They get that “feeling good” caused by the adrenaline flow caused by excitement. This
craving of the body makes the person’s desire for more, somewhat uncontrollable. It
starts with viewing a few pictures, moves into viewing short film clips, on to viewing
X-rated movies, and then to “porno” movies. If it only stoped there. Many move on to
calling those 900 phone numbers, sexual relationships, child molestation, incest, rape,
and in some cases murder. If you think that this is reaching for extremes, just look up
some court cases and see for yourself. So much for the scientific.
Let us now deal with the spiritual. In the New Testament book of Matthew, chapter 5
and verses 27 and 28. Jesus is speaking to the multitude, sometimes called “The Sermon
on The Mount”. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not
commit adultery; But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after
her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. When another person is
looked on with lust in the heart to commit a sexual act, that is the same as committing the
act. You can not get any plainer than that. Jesus implies that just thinking about the act
is just as bad as committing the act. What is in the heart is what God is viewing, not what
others around us are viewing, or what we can hide from their view.
But this is about people not pictures, you say. I’m glad you brought that up. It’s true
that there were no pictures or movies in Jesus’s day, but that is not the point He is
making. As Christians we are to live a holy and righteous life before the world. We are
not able to do this if our life is filled with sin. Jesus is pointing out a fact of sin. All sin
starts within the heart of men and women. Yes, it’s prompted by Satan but sin lies within
the heart just waiting to be prompted.
The first sin we see pointed out by Jesus is lust. Lust is the sin that causes people to
do what ever is necessary to achieve their own personal goals. Lust causes people to do
things that they normally would never do. Lust can be found in all forms of animals. The
control of lust is what separates man from the other animals. Uncontrolled lust makes
man just another of the animals seeking to satisfy self. There are very few men that can
look at pornographic material and not cause lust to well up within themselves. The best
thing to do is stay from such material.
The second sin that Jesus points out is adultery. Just lusting after the body of another,
other than the one married to, is committing adultery. The old saying, “You can look but
don’t touch” is not true in this case. Jesus is saying that we can not touch, nor are we to
look either. Again let me say, God looks at what is in the heart, not what we are actually
doing. If looking is adultery, then we are safe in saying that looking at pornographic
material is committing the sin of spiritual adultery, or adultery committed in the spirit.
Now what do we do about this? “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and
cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and
not that thy whole body should be cast into hell.” (Matthew 5:29). If pornography is
causing you to sin, then you must take a drastic measure. You need not pluck out your
eye, but you must be willing to do what ever is necessary to stop you from your sin.
Now Jesus is not saying that the Christian will loose their salvation, but He is saying
that the non-Christian will never be saved as long as they are not willing to forsake their
sin, no matter what the cost. The mark of the Christian is the willingness to forsake their
sin when it is pointed out to them. The unwillingness to forsake sin is a mark of the
unregenerate soul. How do you stand when it comes to forsaking sin?
The Christian community does not understand just how big the problem of
pornography is today. It is easy to look at the world and say there is a problem. This is
not what I’m talking about. Pornography is within the Church. Just how bad? I know of
one Church with about 50 male members and 5 of them are having a real problem with
pornography. Families are being broken up, thousands of dollars are being spent and sin
is running unchecked within the Church. At least one of these men has been working
with the children’s program for years. This may be the down fall of a lot of Churches.
Many pastors stand on Sunday morning and preach of the sins of the world. They
point out just how many men and women in high offices are living in sin. They “bash”
the world nearly every week. Many do this for the sake of being popular and keeping
their job. (I often wonder just who their real employer is.) The congregation admires
them for their stand. How sad it is that they hardly ever address the sin that goes on in
their church. If people really were told just what sin was going on inside their church,
many would fire the pastor or go to another church. Not many Christians want to stand
up against sin. They could be called trouble makers by the others in the church. Most
will cover up the sins of others because of their own sins.
It’s time that men who pastor the Church start acting like the shepherd that they are
called to be. Sin must be called sin and not whitewashed down and made to look like the
sin cannot be controlled. Paul wrote to the Romans and told them that they have the
power to overcome any sin, if they want to overcome it. The Christian that claims that
sin has too much of a strong hold on them, may not be Christians at all. The power of
God that saves from sin is the same power available to every one that wants to overcome
and forsake sin. Come on pastors, start shepherding the sheep God has given you and
take them away from sin.
“Put your money where your mouth is,” you say. Well if you were in my congregation
you would have already heard about the sin of pornography. Let all of Christianity
remember and do the words of Paul. For in that he died, he died unto sin once but in that
he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 6:10-11). The Christian
is DEAD to the power of sin. Sin holds no dominion over the Christian, because that
vicious animal of sin is dead; never to raise it’s ugly head and threaten the Christian.
May God add His blessing to this word. Rev. Jesse Norris
