Unfortunately we live in a world where pornography is everywhere. It’s on the internet, and you can access it by picking up your phone. It’s found at the adult bookstore or in the neighborhood video shop. You can access porn on your local cable or satellite network.

Yes in today’s world if you want porn you can get it in a matter of seconds. Now some would say that pornography adds value to life. Some would say that it is art or artistic expression. But is it? Let’s look at this issue once again through the eyes of reason, scripture and experience.

Let’s start with reason. When you look at the facts you can’t help but notice a glaring pattern between those who use pornography and those who commit aggressive acts and deviant behavior.

In fact in almost every case of where someone commits an act of violence or deviant sexual behavior you will discover that pornography played a role in that act. For example in Los Angeles in a recent 6 month period the LA police department handled 40 cases of child molestation and in every case pornographic literature often exhibiting sexual child abuse was found to be present in the home of the accused.

Some of you might remember an incident that made the news a while ago where a 20 year old man watched two porn flicks with some of his friends. After watching these flicks the young man told his friends that he was hot and needed some action. Well the young man went home and raped his mom.

The man accused of killing 8 prostitutes in Milwaukee, was a user of porn. The defrocked Mayor of Racine was a user of porn, many defrocked priests were users of porn and the list goes on and on.

There is a strong link between those who use pornography and those who commit heinous sexual acts. Police departments see this time and time again and so do trained clinicians who treat offenders. Dr. Christopher Wenzel, a psychologist, who used to sit on the US commission on Pornography, writes this: “There are a lot of negative effects from watching and reading porn, the effects include increased aggression, less sympathy for rape victims, and an increased belief that women actually want to be raped or abused. Those who use porn are much freer to act out what they read and see.”

Now of course the pornography industry would disagree with Dr Wenzel and others arguing that there are many who use porn and never act out in deviant ways and I’m sure there are, but none the less one cannot ignore the strong correlation between those who use porn and those who do act out with deviant or unacceptable behavior.

Now another fact about pornography is that users soon become addicted to it and they progress on to using harder forms of porn. A person will usually begin with soft porn, like Playboy or X rated films, but then in time they will move on to double X films or magazines like Hustlers. They’ll move on to films showing sexual bondage and torture and death. There is a dangerous progression seen in those who use porn, a progression that cannot be denied. Now another fact about pornography is that avid users become desensitized to reality. Users of porn warp their minds into believing that others are possessions or toys to satisfy their sexual needs. Those who regularly digest porn actually believe that it is normal to have group sex, or to have sex with animals. They believe that it is normal to use chains and other toys and inflict pain while having sex.

Now some would argue that pornography is art and is just an expression of freedom of speech. Interestingly enough the Supreme Court doesn’t see it that way, for our high court has ruled that obscene material is not protected by the 1st amendment.

So a quick look at the facts surrounding pornography, I think, clearly suggests that pornography is a cancer to our society.It’s something that brings out the worst in people rather then the best. I believe that scripture would also make this same conclusion about porn. In the church in Corinth there was a segment of the population who believed that any kind of human behavior was acceptable. Those who believed this had the motto “if it feels good do it.” So there were people in that society who felt that sex with animals and prostitution, and homosexuality and group sex was fine and normal. But what did the Apostle Paul say in the reading from Corinthians that Jerry read for us earlier in worship? Everything may be permissible, said Paul, but not everything is beneficial.

So Paul goes on to tell the Corinthians that the human body was not meant for sexual immorality but for serving the Lord. There is a wonderful dignity to the human body, said Paul, a dignity that was intended to reach out in gentle and compassionate and loving ways. Our body is like a temple of the Holy Spirit, it is sacred. So don’t take what is sacred said Paul, and abuse it or bring to it dishonor.

Like Paul, Jesus also recognized the sacredness of the body. That’s why he told his followers to strive to keep their bodies and their hearts clean. Eating certain foods doesn’t make a person clean or unclean said Jesus, but what makes a person unclean comes from poor life choices. It comes from choosing to put smut into your brain and heart. It comes from filling your soul with lust and immorality. It comes from frequenting places of dark temptation.

So be on guard said Jesus to avoid those things that can corrupt you and desensitize you from what is true and noble.

Although you won’t find the word pornography in the bible there are all kinds of scriptures like the two that we read in worship that strongly suggest that the things usually associated with pornography should have no place in a Christians life or in society.

You can make a strong case that reason and scripture suggests that pornography is not helpful to life. But what about experience, what does this resource suggest? Unfortunately life is full of a countless number of examples where persons experienced dramatic negative experiences because it was discovered that they were into porn. In my ministry I have seen marriages end because a spouse got caught up in porn. Right now my cousin’s sister is separated from her husband because his lust for porn has caused him to do disgusting things. As we all know people have lost their jobs because they were into porn, while others have been sent to jail or prison because their addiction to porn caused them to act out in harmful and destructive ways.

If pornography adds value to life as the porn industry says it does, I certainly have not seen that in my pastoral experience. I also have never come across any research or literature extolling the redeeming virtues of porn. So to me the resource of experience seems to suggest that like the resource of scripture and reason pornography adds no redeeming qualities to life.

Now again you might disagree with me on my assessment of porn and that is your choice. But I believe that a proper faith response to this issue is clearly one of rejection. As a faith community I believe that we are called to speak out against this issue and to lobby and do whatever we can to purge our society of this dark influence.

As you can tell from reading the insert to your worship folder, our denomination is also strongly against pornography and urges its members to take action against this industry. Porn, it’s all around us in life and its influence is growing. So what are you going to do about it?

Next week we conclude our sermon series by looking at the topic, same sex marriages. I hope that you will be with us next Sunday in worship.