Posted by
lambsev on Monday, October 02, 2006 3:40:04 PM
I am of a “generation” brought by God’s providence into the world at a time of crisis. I was born in 1949. Eleven months prior to my birth, a very historic “rebirth” took place when Israel was mandate her homeland in “Palestine”. This is seen by many as a “sign” from God, or if you prefer, an indicator of things soon to come. The jury will remain out for most of us regarding God’s timetable, as tomorrow is a mystery to mortals. And I offer my “history” not as a sign from God, though it might be received as an indicator of what some part of the crisis of “my generation” has wrought in me, and to one degree or another, wrought in so very many men of “my generation”. For I confess my sinfulness and my sins, but will go to my grave believing that I am part of a group of many men of the U.S. of A. who have met with similar “opportunities” for evil doing, and have done them.
The following list might be seen as a poll. How many of the following can you identify with? Perhaps a scale of one to ten might be useful. I don’t expect too many who have gotten this far to go much further, for my story is neither unique nor attractive. It might make a better movie, with a theme running somewhere between Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Midnight Cowboy. But I proceed hoping that some good may come of confession, that some might avoid learning the hard way what I have learned, and avoid the paths I have regrettably trod upon. I’ll preface it with this title:
By age _______ I was: _______________.
5…..terrified of my own Dad
7…..learned to live with fear of parents yet…
7…..learned to hide my misdeeds and…
7…..became exercised in disobedience
8.….began on a path of daily sexual self abuse courtesy of a “friend’s” education and…
8.….began a daily search for pictures of women in whatever state of undress available and…
10…began stealing money from my Mom’s purse
12…began on a path of tobacco addiction by stealing my mother’s cigarettes
16…became addicted to one pack (20) cigarettes a day funded by allowance or theft and…
16…consuming beer purchased for me by 18 year old friends in Wash. D.C. and…
16…consuming beer in bars in Washington D.C. though underage
18…begun habit of marijuana consumption daily when possible and…
18…pursued pornography more openly and successfully
19…had my first relationship and sexual experience with a girl which lasted 2+ years
21…began again to use pornography
22…girlfriend dumps me and …
22…had first experience with prostitute and…
22…pursued hard core pornography and…
22…visited topless/bottomless bars for the first time
I’m 57 now. If you were born between 1946 and 1964, you are called a “boomer” a member of the post WWII baby boom generation. My guess is that 50% of male boomers would respond that they do identify with more than 50% the list above. They might not have experienced these things in the order or the magnitude of my personal experience, but I believe many would say “been there, done that”. And it didn’t stop in 1964. If anything, the ball which started rolling over my generation kept right on rolling and is rolling today, rolling over many if not most men, and to an increasing extent over women as well.
This ball, this crisis I refer to is not the rebirth of Israel, which I referenced above, although it may be a reference, or a benchmark some will consider for reasons relative to their faith in God. The ball, the crisis I refer to is the mass production, distribution and reception of pornography! It began in December 1953, with the first issue of Playboy Magazine, whose founder Hugh Hefner looks exceedingly healthy for an 80 year old cancer survivor. In my Google search for accuracy I have found that Hefner and I share the same birth date, April 9th, he being 23 years older than I, to the day!!! (uuggghhh… One good thing did happen on April 9th [1865], the armistice was signed between Lee and Grant ending the US Civil War) Now I am not going to say that all my sin, or any of it can be Hefner’s fault, or the fault of those who lost the battle against pornography in the courts. But I am of the view that this was an event which marked a new and more damaging flood of iniquity into the nation, a flood that continues today to be a major factor in what many are calling the “coarsening” of American “culture”.
I have had occasion to meditate much on the matter of pornography’s ongoing inroads into the souls of North American men and women. I was 5 years old in 1954. What the nation had allowed to happen that winter of 1953-54 was became this “ball” rolling in the direction of every man and some few women in the US. My own father eventually had some involvement with pornography, as my younger brother did find a Playboy magazine at home. What year that was, I do not know. I saw my first issue around 1959 at my cousin’s home, it belonged to my uncle. But I know from my own experience, which began sexually around 1957, the desire to view pornography was mounting in the hearts of many, many men. Additionally, I believe the inhibitions against doing this were under great pressures to be abandoned. Temptation and availability, and a new look of glamour (see http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/glamour) made this pressure a constant fact of life for predisposed souls, and an unholy consideration for those standing against such things. I say that from the intuition of my 57 years lived in this generation.
I want to make some comments on “culture”. Culture is though of as a “good thing”. I have come to think of culture as the things which grow in a Petri dish. From Wikipedia one may learn: Petri dishes are round shallow glass or plastic dishes that biologists use to culture cells, cells which can be bacterial, animal, plant, or fungus. It was named after the German bacteriologist Julius Richard Petri. It was invented in 1877. The dishes are filled with various substances called media which provide food to the cells “cultured”. The “American culture” which is so much in discussion is perhaps best seen as cells : citizens who are introduced to various media : venues and derive food : fine to coarse arts by which they grow : become “cultured”.
As I see it pornography is a venue of very coarse art. Again from Wikipedia this very cogent definition of pornography: Pornography (from Greek (porni) "prostitute" and (grafi) "writing"), more informally referred to as porn or porno, is the representation of the human body or sexual activity with the goal of sexual arousal. "The explicit artistic depiction of men and/or women as sexual beings." It is similar to, but distinct from erotica, though the two terms are often used interchangeably. It should be note that it is used for more than arousal; it is used for sexual gratification, as an adjunct or aid to the achievement of sexual orgasm.
Nobody against pornography likes to talk about it. We all get, or ought to get very squeamish when this topic is broached. But too frequently we titter (to laugh in a nervous, affected, or partly suppressed manner), or worse: get titillated (to be excited pleasurably: aroused by stimulation). So we assiduously avoid the topic, and we ignore the peril to our sons and daughters and our community from this obvious and truly devilish strategy on our souls. But if we do admit that pornography is wrong, and damaging to everyone it touches, and in fact can lead one to a real and eternal place called h-ll, then we ought to seek strength to resist it’s lures, to protect our loved ones, and to fight it’s perpetrators, human and spiritual.
If you have read this far and do not believe pornography to be a most evil and damaging venue of the basest “entertainment”, you cannot really believe any human activity to be evil. The basis for determining wrong from right is not your possession. YOU need to think that through very carefully. You are likely one taught that YOU are the one who determines wrong from right. If you believe this, then I want to tell you there are more than 6 billion other people you must allow the same liberty. The conflicts which result every day, in myriad upon myriad of ways, because we will not accept the Absolute Truth; these conflicts will be with us until our dying day. But this does not mean we need to consent to them by defaulting to moral relevancy. Acts are judged, and have been judged by men since the beginning of time. The Absolute Truth is given to make it easier to live, and easier to judge correctly, but we flee Absolute Truth’s presence preferring our own (6+ billion) brand(s) of “truth”, which are no truth at all.
But if you have read now on, believing in our Truth Absolute for every man, then what shall we say? And to whom shall we say it? I fear that what needs to be said must be said to those who lead. We, or at the least I, wish, want, deeply desire and plead with leaders everywhere, political and religious, to lead us back to an environment conducive to moral self control, and particularly to the protection of our sons and daughters from an environment which makes merchandise of their sexual “talents”. Today it is still illegal by civil law to have even consensual sex with a woman under 18 in all but 3 states (USA). But once she (your, my daughter?) has her 18th birthday, she is legally permitted to disrobe for the pornographer, and to engage in any form of sexual behavior, hetero, h-mo, sado-masochistic, bestial, what else is left? AND BE PHOTOGRAPHED IN THESE ACTS, WHY? So the pornographer can profit by the sale of the still and moving images of this girls behavior.
Why do I spell this all out? Why review these unseemly acts and related matters? These behaviors are found rampant in Government and in the church TODAY. A man who counseled men at a recent Christian “Men’s Retreat” told me that 80 %, one in every five men he spoke with was viewing pornography. This sin ran my soul down starting around age 8, when my pornography, my “images”, my idols were found in the Sears and Roebuck’s catalog, and in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. But before I was 20, they were from Playboy. Today Playboy is running right along side every other “mainstream” pornographic magazine with full blown and fully completed sex acts photographed. I will not describe them further than that, except to say they are mild compared to the internet “offerings”.
I want to tell you, both the church and the civil Government, that both “your houses” are imperiled by the toleration of the pornographer and his work. It will bring the house down, either simply by and sure moral decay over the years, or by the judgment of God in an instant. Witness the tsunami which wiped out the coast of Thailand and other Far East Asian locals where the sex “industry” and sex “tours” (or those wealthy enough to play there) had been a mainstay of tourism for three or more decades. I frankly do not understand the churches lack of activism here, and lack of preaching/teaching, except that it’s own “house” is filthy. Nor do I understand the civil government’s permissiveness, except that it is under no moral mandate, and is subject both to the bribes of the pornographer and demonic influence.
Are men beyond caring? I care. I have care enough to have fought this sin (and woefully to have lost many battles) for nearly one half a century. I regret to say that perhaps? there is very little that can be done. We may be near or at the place where there is a Divine withdrawal of grace regarding what might have been done in past times. The thought of that makes causes my soul to feel as if dead. But there is a time coming (come already?) when “no man can work”. And also a mandate coming (come already?) when the church shall receive this word:
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. Revelation 22:11
Are we there yet? I don’t know. This I do know: Jesus Christ alone can save from h-ll.