Book Review: Purity in the Age of Porn

It's a hard topic to raise in Sunday conversations at church. We know the impact, but we fear the implications on sin at work in our churches. If you're like me, you might fear the paralytic hold this sin has on people.



Matthias Media has produced a Mini-Magazine (Minizine) on pornography, which exposes the true effects of pornography (James Warren), the centrality of Jesus' death and resurrection in dealing with sexual sin (Gordon Cheng) and practical points in resisting viewing of pornography on the Internet (Simon Roberts). It's a simple and gracious exploration on the topic, one which I would feel confident in giving away to any brother or even non-Christian friend to read.

What the Minizine does well is to dispel some lies on pornography with Biblical insight and social research. Lies such like: viewing pornography is harmless, it brings real or even superior sexual fulfilment, or that it's within our nature and we cannot stop it. I was made more confident of my convictions after reading James' segment, that pornography can and does cost a lot more than what most people imagine, in terms of relationships, marriages, self-esteem and even the ability to enjoy sex.

James makes it clear that there is a good way - the best way - for our sexual desires to be fulfilled in accordance with God's plan for marriage. It is the most happy place for other-person-centred sex and one where there is most enjoyment. We are encouraged to proclaim that God designed sex and knows how we can best enjoy it. Any other material designed to elicit desire is pornography and is a far cry that takes away more than it offers.

There is a place of the Good News of Jesus' death and resurrection in combating pornography, indeed all other immoralities. Gordon's illustration from Paul's letter to a very immoral Corinthian church is relevant to us in the 21st century. What we excel in sexual sin, they probably did better and earlier by more than a millennium. It was delightful to hear that there is good news and forgiveness for the sexually immoral and that in Jesus' resurrection there is certain hope that this guilty, shameful body with its emotional and physical scars of sexual immorality will be restored for good.

But for all its practical help, especially in the section on Internet usage, its clear expose of pornography's harms and the deliverance from sin in Jesus, the Minizine does not mention how we can use the gospel to help break the "pornography cycle".

The addiction cycle, begins with viewing, then continues in sexual climax, then results in depression from guilt and finally the need to feel good again. And it is this need to feel good that requires an antidote of the God of Good News. We need an alternative, a relationship, a person, that holdouts fulfilment and the promise of comfort, right at the point where we have failed and are filled with guilt after consuming pornography. Practical inhibitions will reduce the amount consumed, understanding the ills of climaxing to pornography will help us control the self, knowing Jesus forgives our guilt and shame, but it is a desire for fulfilment in God alone - that will alone prevent anyone from having to find contentment in pornography, and from many other immoralities like greed, ambition and gluttony