All
parents in every generation worry about their kids, and try to keep them
safe. They not only do this by not
letting them play in traffic or jab sharp sticks into hornets’ nests, but also
by warning them against perennial dangers.
In my gentler generation, my parents warned me about traffic dangers,
urging me to look both ways before I crossed the street, and to extend my hand
while crossing, making sure that the cars had stopped. When older I was warned against the dangers
of “taking drugs”, a warning echoed in the wider culture (“Just Say No to
Drugs”). A younger generation (my kids)
were exhorted not to talk to strangers, and not to get into a car with them,
even if they did promise you candy and they seemed nice. I even taught my kids a secret password, in
case anyone came to get them at school claiming to be sent by me; if they did
not give the password, our kids knew those claiming to be sent by me or their
mother were lying. Increasing
availability of drugs and increased reports of child abductions on the six
o’clock news told us we were living in dangerous times. We needed to teach our children well if they
were to survive, and grow up strong and healthy.
The times
have become even more dangerous for children as we descend further and further
into spiritual barbarism and as every last trace of Christian faith and morals
is banned and banished from our western culture. It was physically dangerous to live in Europe
during the time when the Black Death
raged unchecked throughout the land; it is spiritually dangerous to live
in North America now during this time of moral decay, and of these two dangers,
the latter danger is the worse. Indeed,
there is probably no more dangerous place on earth to live than in North America
right now.
The
dangers are many and varied, but here I refer to the danger that comes from the
flood of pornography which sweeps our land like a demonic tsunami—or, to vary
the metaphor, like an unchecked and raging pandemic. Lust was always a temptation for both
genders, though some would argue that the temptation affected men more
violently. Accordingly in every
generation prostitutes plied their trade, winning the dubious accolade as “the
world’s oldest profession”. (If the
Genesis creation stories have anything to teach us, they teach us that farming
is actually the world’s oldest profession, but never mind.) Also accordingly, previous generations bought
pornographic images. In my day what passed
for pornography consisted of pictures of naked women, posed coyly behind beach
balls or draped over furniture. Playboy
magazine specialized in such, and did its best to make such images mainstream
and acceptable. I remember a Hustler
magazine editor heatedly denying that what he published in his magazines was
pornography. He claimed it was
“art”. It was nonsense, of course, and
his aim was simply to make money through the commodification of the female body
(a form of visual prostitution). Even
the people buying the stuff knew that it was not art but pornography, which is
why it was often mailed to them in the advertised “plain brown wrapper”, and
which is why stores selling it kept it behind the counter. The satisfaction of lust was the aim, and no
one ever really read Playboy for the stories, no matter what they claimed.
But times
have changed, and not for the better.
Now the pornographic industry specializes not so much in coy images of
naked women, but in sexual violence and female degradation. Women are referred to by a host of names no
Christian should ever use, and subjected to practices that any sane person
would regard as torture. Such things are
not the occasional exceptions on the fringes for the pornographic
industry. They are now the norm. And all this has become freely available
through the internet. No one now needs
to steel oneself to go into a store and ask for the naughty magazine kept
behind the counter. One only needs
access to a computer and with the click of a key or two, a multitude of images
come flooding into one’s private room for free.
And with the availability of “smart phones” able to access the internet
anywhere, one doesn’t even need a private room.
One can download images in school or at McDonald’s.
The
danger and problem with this freely available porn is not just that it is
sinful. It is sinful, of course, but the
problem is graver than that. The real
danger is that our young boys are feeding on such images at a younger and
younger age, before they begin to have real relationships with girls, and these
pornographic images and practices badly skew their developing understanding of
sexuality. When therefore they later
come to relate to girls and women, they will not regard the female as a person
worthy of respect, self-sacrifice, and gallantry. The pornographic images will have dehumanized
the female, and sex will not be about relationship, but about cruelty,
debasement and the infliction of pain upon the vulnerable. Please note that I said “the vulnerable”, and
not necessarily “the adult vulnerable”.
All pornography eventually ends in child pornography, for none are more
vulnerable than children. Pornography is
addictive, for one becomes quickly and increasingly desensitized, and to get
the same psychic “kick” one requires ever more explicit and shocking images,
ever greater hardcore cruelty. The
defenders of Fifty Shades of Grey should take note, for the book and its movie
are symptoms of a new sickness, and an impetus for further descent into the
degradation of women. That the book has
been written, and the movie directed by women reveals just how badly feminism
has lost its way.
The
current availability of hardcore porn for young boys represents a frontal
assault on their healthy development as men.
It is now possible that an entire generation of men will arise who
regard sexuality simply as an instrument for debasing women, and who make “Bros
before hoes” their unspoken motto. Part
of our task as parents is to warn our children of this danger, and to help them
regard pornography as a dangerous temptation in the same way that ingesting
crystal meth or heroin is a dangerous temptation. It must be avoided for the same
reason—because it is addictive and will harm you. In this dangerous world, we must teach our
children well. And the first step to
teaching them well is to practice what we preach. If we would warn them of the dangers of porn,
we must keep our hearts clean, and have nothing to do with it ourselves.
By Fr. Lawrence Farley
Source: http://frlawrencefarley.blogspot.com/2015/02/teach-your-children-well.html
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