Robert writes about the progressive degrees of adultery. While initial experiences of pornography may come to us unbidden, there are forces that provoke us to justify and identify with it to a greater and greater extent unless we guard ourselves against them. He writes that pornography seeks to destroy the most precious gifts the Lord has given us, which are both the love in marriage and the care of young children. -Editor
“Then I saw that she was defiled, and that they took both one way; and that she increased her whoredoms ; for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, draped in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes of appearance, after the manner of the sons of Babylon of Chaldea, the land of their nativity; and as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her in the bed of love and they defiled her with their whoredoms.” (Ezekiel 23:13-16)
This passage portrays a woman being led into whoredom through doting on images of men portrayed upon a wall. This text is over two thousand five hundred years old. The evil of pornography has been around for a long time. There have been times in the past when lasciviousness acted secretly due to fear for reputation or fear of the law (Spiritual Diary 386). Sadly today we live in a different time when such imagery is relentlessly and openly beamed into our homes, threatening the ideals of our children, and even of marriage itself. It is important that we recognize the origin of this evil – pornography - and how it operates, and how we can combat it. It represents an open abuse of some of the Lord’s most precious gifts to mankind.
As one of those gifts, the Lord has provided the wonder of human imagination. Imagination allows us in our mind’s eye to draw together sense experiences into living mental pictures. Human inventiveness depends upon the ability to picture things in new and creative ways. Imagination supports our hopes and allows the Lord to lift our understanding to visualize heavenly life and compare spiritual truths, and so to nurture and support freedom itself.
But like all such Divine gifts, the imagination can be abused: evil people abuse imagination to create pictures that inspire lust. They encourage the viewer to fantasize and visualize the delights that the actual evil would bring. This is what happened in the passage from Ezekiel. Doting on the pictures on the wall led to actual whoredom in the bed. We cannot always help the images that thrust themselves into our view, but we can determine whether we welcome them or not. We can make up our minds and set our hearts that they will not lead us any further; they will not lead us into greater evil.
Because when there is nothing internal to lead and keep us in the way of truth, we are then carried wherever cupidity and fantasy lead (Arcana Coelestia 1212). Many of the pornographic images beamed into our lives are made to appear beautiful and harmless. Harmless because they often have become so commonplace! But appearing harmless, as many young people will defensively tell you that they are, can be the beginning of their deception. They attract our attention or we would not feel any need to defend them. What is it that makes us turn our heads to focus on them rather than to turn away? What makes us smile when the same suggestive image appears again? If we are not careful unwittingly we can gradually be led to dote upon such images (Apocalypse Revealed 926:2). The path from the commonplace to an accepted habit is not easily distinguished. And those in the grasp of evil will do all in their power to cloud the distinction.
Not all definitions need be indistinct. There are degrees of adultery, which suggest steps in the way pornography, or any other evil, can take hold of us. The first degree is adultery of ignorance (Conjugial Love 487). We may fall into an evil when we are young and don’t know any better, or in circumstances where we are not thinking straight. In such a case the issue is not clearly defined and can be compared to initial and unintended exposure to pornography. How responsible we are depends on how much we know and understand it. As parents, we have a responsibility to instruct and establish a moral climate that makes falling into the evil from ignorance as unlikely as possible. The easiest time to resist an evil is to say, “No” when it first appears (Heaven and Hell 533). It is not easy, but removing it from sight should be the first line of defense against pornography.
A person is led into the second degree of adultery through being carried away by lust. The desire is so strong as to become irresistible to those who are not prepared or in a situation to resist. It can be compared to those who are so enticed by looking at pictures that they do not realize that they are being caught up in them and losing control. Notice such evil becomes part of a person according to whether AFTERWARDS the person, in their intellect, justifies it or not (Conjugial Love 488–489). It is a question of consent. The shift is subtle, but in today’s world how often do we hear, “What harm does it do? They’re only pictures.”
Such justification is not too far from the third degree of adultery where it is confirmed that it is not sinful (Conjugial Love 490). The more the justification is confirmed, the more the evil becomes a part of the person involved, for by confirming it they take responsibility for it. They saw the issue and could have chosen otherwise. With pornography this could be likened to those who refuse to see it as filthy and actually chose to seek it and invite it into their lives.
The fourth degree of adultery involves not only justification, but also commitment of the will. Adulterers of the third and fourth degree are those who have made themselves adulterers through purposely willing it and confirming it with their understanding. Clearly they are natural; and they gradually become sensual and corporeal, because they immerse both the love of their will, and at the same time their understanding in the unclean things and take delight in them (Conjugial Love 495). It is a sorry path, but when we surrender our wills to evil, we become addicted to it. In the beginning there is a general perception of truth with all. Parents and even young people, if they reflect, recognize how wrong these fantasies are. They know it, particularly when such thoughts recur when they are alone.
“There is a general perception of truth with all. But the love of what is lower casts a man down from this height into a perception from his proprium” (Charity 123).Pornography feeds the proprium and distorts our understanding.
Pornography is an abuse of the Lord’s gifts and an adulteration of the truths of married love. Maintaining a clear picture of the progress of pornography towards greater and greater evil can help us be more aware of its destructive power and our need to fight it.
Robert is a minister, going on 58 years. He has served as Pastor in Denver, Secretary General Church, Principal of B.A. Elementary, ANC Teacher, Dean of the Theological School, Pastor of Ivyland, Visiting Pastor to West Africa, Japan, and Korea, Interim Pastor in Kempton, Visiting Pastor Baltimore and Visiting pastor Central PA. Resting (in peace?) Robert looks forward to seeing his wife again who has been in the other world going on 34 years. They have 24 grandkids and 12 great grandkids.