Pornography is everywhere. It’s in advertisements for everything from automobiles to fast food. In fact, pornography is so common that many people have come to believe that there is no harm in it. However, pornography is extraordinarily damaging to society. Some experts believe that pornography may be one of the most prevalent mental health problems in America today. I’ll not bore you with a bunch of statistics, but it is clear that pornography affects most people you know.
Some of the effects of porn are obvious. Marital discord, self-esteem issues, and the objectification of women are commonly stated costs of pornography. For a few minutes let’s move away from the consumer of pornography and take a look at the producers of porn. Like the shady drug dealers who inhabit the corners of major American cities, purveyors of porn know that they have a powerful tool that brings them great income. Their cost of production is quite low. An inexpensive camera and a link to the Internet are all they need to begin making big money off of other people’s addictions.
But where do the porn models come from?
Are there really that many women willing to participate in sex in front of a camera just to make a few dollars? Probably not. We are beginning to learn that there is an especially dark side of pornography. An aspect of porn that is even viler than what we can see. You see, many pornography models are actually slaves. The Northwestern University Law Review in 2017 said it this way:
“the unfortunate reality of pornography production is that, often, the production of pornography is neither harmless nor consensual. Rather, pornography plays a unique role in fueling the human trafficking industry by both contributing to the demand for more traditional forms of sex trafficking and creating another route to profit for traffickers who enslave victims for the production of pornographic media.”
Read that middle line again, it says, “pornography plays a unique role in fueling the human trafficking industry…” Human trafficking is the 21st-century phrase for what the 19th century called slavery. Young women are effectively kidnapped by unscrupulous people and brought to this country where they are forced to participate in the production of pornography. Sometimes, these Third World women are promised a better way of life in America. And sometimes, they are brutally and violently kidnapped and forced to participate in despicable videos. To be sure, there are some women who participate freely and with a desire to make a few dollars and hopefully break into the entertainment industry. Among the problems associated with pornography, you cannot choose whether you are supporting women with free will or women who have been kidnapped from their homes.
The International Justice Mission works to rescue people from slavery. They work across the world to end slavery from forced labor in brick factories in India, fishing boats in Ghana, and from perverts who run porn sites on the internet. They say:
“Cybersex trafficking is a growing and devastating form of modern-day slavery. It involves the live sexual abuse of children streamed via the internet, set up by adults who receive online payments from predators and pedophiles located anywhere in the world. We have rescued children as young as 2 years old in the Philippines who have been sexually abused in their own homes, sometimes by their own families.”
In February of this year, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat it called for banning pornography. In his reasoning, pornography is a service that is bought and sold and therefore can be regulated or restricted. We agree. We do not impinge on anyone’s First Amendment rights. We do however regulate what they sell. [bctt tweet=”Does anyone doubt that our world would be a better place without pornography?” username=”Preachers_Study”]
Does anyone doubt that our world would be a better place without pornography? Surely the Christian knows that pornography has no place in his or her life. The Christian is called to be holy (Leviticus 11:44; 2 Timothy 2:21). Let us do all we can to fight this scourge.
I wonder what you think about pornography. Your comments are welcomed.
