Pornography is a deception of the senses. At it’s core is a taking away of the appreciation of beauty, of seeing the aesthetic creation of the Lord, and stripping it of it’s wonder and mystery. We reduce ourselves to animals, looking on beauty to gratify function, just like a wolf looks on a the carcass of a deer. Pure carnal appetite.
But we are not animals. We have the ability to see and appreciate the beauty of this world, to be inspired by nature and be transformed by its loveliness. Animals on the other hand do not have the capacity to be inspired, nor can they respond artistically to aesthetic beauty. Animals see the world, see nature, as function – an indifference to all but the physical appetites – food, drink, shelter, and sex.
When we look at pornography we are quenching an animalistic function, specifically our basic physical appetite. In this perspective we may be roused by beauty, in a literal sense, but not transformed by it. To be transformed by beauty – this is the difference that God has made in us, for we are not animalistic in nature, rather, we are a spiritual being incorporated within the physical. We cannot deny that in every person there is an intangible, mystical, transcendental being, personified or made tangible by the gift of choice. We have the gift of selection – the sacred or the profane, the good or the bad, and this ability to choose is what separates us from the beasts of this earth.
Genesis 1:28 – And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Dominion is the idea of supreme authority – sometimes taken out of context leading to a false presumption that domination and subjugation of the world is our right as humans. But this is a misleading interpretation as there is an element of responsibility that pervades the Creation story. A meta-narrative that leads the reader to see the beauty in his/her surroundings not as something to be consumed, but as something to be upheld.
And in protecting the sacred, the beauty of nakedness cannot be a stimulant towards the gratification of our physical appetite. Rather beauty must be a reminder of our fragility, for in our nakedness we are vulnerable to the elements. [Which again reminds us that we are not animals, for animals are naked and suffer no shame... have you ever seen a dog blush because he is unadorned?]
And this vulnerability is the lynchpin to intimacy.
The addiction to pornography short circuits our normal brain function, for there is no vulnerability between you and the page, between you and the screen. Intimacy is lost and this lack of oneness produces a conduit of selfishness that desires instant gratification. In return your relationship with God and with your spouse suffers… for these relationships are built upon vulnerability and intimacy. Togetherness steeped in wonder and mystery, and mutual appreciation of beauty in each others nakedness.
