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[If your search for pornography led you to this site, read the post and then check out how God offers you the better life]
For the rest of you: Do I have your attention? (By the way, Rhoda okayed this post and title)
The Adult Entertainment industry (much of it in the form of [tag]pornography[/tag]) rakes in over $8 billion a year. And much of that industry takes place in the San Fernando Valley—where I live and minister. The “Daily Sundial” (California State University, Northridge’s college newspaper) reported an article today, raising a few disturbing facts about my campus and community.
Considering the billions of dollars that these production companies, producers, and actors are earning every year, that money is coming back into our community in form of taxes. Take out the [tag]Adult Entertainment[/tag] industry (and/or if consumers stop paying for this filth) and the state and our community will have to deal with some budget shortfall. The revenue from taxes of people’s homes, the products they are delivering, and the purchases they make in our community, helps pay for things like firefighters and teachers (hence why they contribute to my wife’s salary).
Taxes are a weird thing—our tax money goes to things we may not support and to which we may have objections. At the same time, all sorts of people and companies to which we object contribute to tax revenues that eventually comes to bless us (i.e. my wife’s salary).
What is most disturbing to me are two things that the article addresses: 1. CSUN graduates are involved in the community. The industry hires CSUN students and graduates; 2. CSUN hosts the Center for Sex Research and our campus library has the largest collection of pornography in the country. Now I know that I have access to the largest collection of pornography every time I bring up my web browser, but our tax dollars are also hosting filth in the name of research.
I recognize that sex research can be an honorable field of study, but I find it repulsive that collecting pornography is necessary. The demonic exploitation of people in the industry, the way it brings harm to families, and it’s addictive nature make this a gross use of our tax dollars and a gross use of research.
The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 6.12-13, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand” (NIV).
- This is not a societal problem, this is a spiritual problem. The way that pornography is embedded in this culture and in my mission field is a spiritual problem. There are spiritual forces at work behind the filth.
- As a minister, I need to put on the [tag]full armor of God[/tag], particularly because of the destructive and addictive nature of pornography.
- My campus and community needs the hope and healing of God. Jesus offers more than what the fantasy of pornography offers.
May the Lord bless my household to be a witness of the things of God. May our community on campus be a witness to the healing power and the satisfaction that is found only in Jesus.
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I think you’re right about how taxes for companies whose products we find deplorable help pay for a lot of what we as a society needs. If memory serves, because of law suits and taxes, tobacco companies actually foot the bill for most of the anti-smoking curriculum and literature we give to children and the rest of the country. The government is actually the biggest money-maker on a pack of cigarettes. I don’t think the state of Nevada has a state income tax. So who pays for all the universities, schools, roads, health care, etc. in that state? The casinos mostly.
You said, “This is not a societal problem, this is a spiritual problem,” and I’m thankful that you’re calling it a spiritual problem. But I wonder if this is also a false dichotomy. I wonder if those “rulers of the age” can include those societal forces, those cultural norms that are so broken and unlike God’s kingdom. What are your thoughts on this?
I agree that the spiritual manifestations of evil work themselves through society. I don’t believe we should sit back and pray against the spiritual forces and look beyond the individuals and institutions that keep oppression (in this case pornography) alive.
I think the false dichotomy lies if we relegate spirituality to the unseen. When I say it’s a spiritual problem, I mean that there is only a spiritual solution–i.e. Jesus bringing hope and transformation to hearts. We can change institutions which will be temporary fixes, but will never defeat the evil. Police, media and government authorities have failed to address the spread of pornography and especially its impact on children. it’s time the church steps in and fight the evil that it is.
Gotcha. Thanks for clearing that up, and nicely put. I agree with you.