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Is Pornography a Sin?
This is taken from Purerotic.com. Do you agree?
Is Pornography a Sin?
Whether the use of porn is sinful or not is a simple issue to tackle. Porn is never even talked about in the Bible, unless you count the fact that many Biblical scholars believe the Song of Songs in the Old Testament to be ancient Jewish erotica.
Porn was simply not an issue during Biblical times. The main reason being that people married at a very early age, so they had a proper sexual outlet (marriage) immediately after puberty. The pornography that was around was limited to the written word and paintings. If you consider the fact that most people were illiterate, and realistic paintings were very rare, porn as we know it simply didn't exist.
Today we have a problem with sexual desire because of our culture. In the New Testament Paul's answer for a person burning with desire was to get married. Marriage was much different 2000 years ago. Any 13 year old boy with a bit of silver to pay a dowry could be married. There was no dating, no courtship, and no romantic love required.
Paul's answer to “just get married” doesn't hold water today. You can't simply get married at the drop of a hat... finding a spouse can take years!
So what do we do with our sexuality during our unmarried adult years? This is where pornography comes into the picture.
Porn = Lust?
The Biblical issue with porn isn't the porn itself, it's lust. We all know that lust is a sin, but is porn really connected with lust?
I don't think that it is. Porn is linked to sexual desire, and there is a big difference between sexual desire and lust. Sexual desire is healthy and God-given, lust is neither of those things.
First you need to realize that lust is not just about sex. You can lust after many things... money, power, possessions, fame, etc. Lust, at it's most basic definition, is wanting to satisfying yourself at the expense of others. It's becoming obsessed with something and wanting to have it at all costs, no matter who gets harmed in the process.
Contrast this with the basic definition of love, which is satisfying others at the expense of yourself. Lust is the opposite of love!
You can look at porn, and satisfy your sexual desires, without falling victim to lust. In fact, I think that it's extremely difficult to become sexually lustful looking at porn. Porn is not a person, it is an image on a piece of paper or on a video screen. When you look at porn do you desire to find the woman in the picture and have sex with her? Of course not!
It is not a sin to find a woman attractive, and it's not a sin to think sexy thought about her. It's only lust if you desire to have sex with her, and are willing to harm (physically, emotionally, or spiritually) her or others to make it happen.
This happens a lot in today's society, but has nothing to do with porn. A young man goes to a bar, sweet-talks and lies to a women he finds attractive (telling her that he's rich, powerful, has an expensive house, etc) then takes her home and has sex with her. That's lust!
In fact, even if the young man is unsuccessful in wooing the woman it's still lust, because Jesus said in Mathew that "if you look at a woman to lust after her, you have committed adultery with her already in your heart." This is the true meaning of the passage... even if you fail to get what you lust after you are still committing a sin. It does not mean that normal sexual thoughts and desires are lustful!
Conclusion
As long as your use of pornography does not come at the expense or harm of other people (any type of harm... physical, emotional, or spiritual) then you are not being lustful.
There are, of course, people who will use the "slippery slope" argument and say that viewing porn leads to lust. I agree that viewing porn can lead to lust if you have the wrong attitude and spiritual base, but for those viewing it for the right reasons, such as providing a sexual outlet to help avoid pre-marital sex, it can actually help you avoid lust by giving you a safe, sin-free outlet for your natural, God given sexual desires.
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