When Does Porn Harm?

I wrote recently on MOC about efforts underway within the church to address the growing phenomenon known somewhat generically as “porn addiction.” And by generic I mean the slightly vague notion that when an upstanding, churchgoing male member of the congregation is discovered whanking off to pictures of Jenna Jameson and/or Dawson rather than banging their wife of 15 years who’s started to falter under the weight of middle age, he has a “problem.” But discounting for a minute that guys – all guys, gay or straight – respond visually to erotic images – there really is a line beyond which the safe, healthy desire for sexual material becomes unhealthy. Even dangerous.

I know because on Saturday night my obsession for sexual material – in this case a cute, Hispanic kid I encounter in the alleyway behind my apartment complex – would soon turn into a surreal crime scene. I’ll spare you the needless details but the plot was a bait and switch. The boy tried to lead me outside – behind the building where I wouldn’t be able to keep an eye on my front door – while his partner snuck into the apartment presumably to rob me. The plan backfired of course when, not understanding why the boy refused to meet me at the back gate and seemed to be purposefully hiding around the corner, I quickly ran upstairs only to discover – in a very creepy When-a-Stranger-Calls sort of way, that the partner had in fact made it upstairs into my place. (I noticed through the reflection in my television that the bedroom door had been closed.) Needless to say after a series of police visits, incredulous and incredibly annoyed neighbors and a nervous, sleepless night the event – which started out as a sexual obsession – passed. And I realized that maybe settling down with a partner and dealing with the weight of middle age might not be such a big deal after all.





--MOC BLOGGER