Porn on the Pod

I ran across a story in Wired Magazine about the porn industry's reluctance to start marketing their wares through the iPod medium. The reluctance was grounded in two things - public opinion and profit. Here is a quote from the story...

According to Free Speech Coalition chairman Jeffrey Douglas, the challenges the video iPod presents are the same that have been faced by the adult film industry for years.

"The real problem is, there is a small group of people who believe that any sexually oriented material is an offense to God, and they have a great sway with Congress, which is already hostile to the material," he said. "Unfortunately, citizens who like to watch people have sex -- and there are many more of them -- do not flood city hall and say, 'I don't want to make it harder to access that material.'"

There is a half-hearted acknowledgment of "safeguards" to prevent porn from popping up on devices that are used extensively by minors...

When it comes to the iPod, Fayling said there are few rewards and many risks. Fayling emphasized the pitfalls of combining a device designed for younger audiences with content they are prohibited from viewing.

"There's already a public perception that we (in the industry) are preying on youth," he said. "Without safeguards you open yourself up to more scrutiny from government and parents' groups."

...but it is readily apparent that the concern is not for the youth, but the avoidance of government scrutiny and parental outrage.

I have no illusions that, in a fallen world, porn is here to stay. I don't wish to take up arms, so to speak, and take a run at the porn industry. There are those who feel called to that but I am not one of them. I actually think that the story illustrates the need for a quite different reaction from Christians.

It is apparent that the main commenter in this story is a lost human being without any solid rock upon which to ground his thinking. He comes across as quite the socially responsible individual with his concern that young people not be exposed to porn through the actions of his industry. But he has no ethical or moral qualms about pornography per se. He thinks that the objections of the "religious" community are to be received as politically effective due to the silence of the porn-tolerant majority. For him it is a totally pragmatic question.

I don't judge the man for this. Apart from God he has no other standard by which to measure right and wrong. And apart from God his thinking - and the thinking of like-minded people - will not change. Christians who take up the political sword in order to keep porn from the world are correct only insofar as they are being "in the world" and using its means to achieve godly ends. But they surely understand that this is only half the battle. There is also the part about not being "of the world". The other half is the preaching of the Christ to the lost in word and in deed.

The individual conviction of Christians to exercise their franchise and their "rights" in a democratic society is not proscribed by the faith. But such actions are secondary to the main purpose of the church, which is to preach the gospel and to make disciples. Putting our fingers in the dyke of the vast sea of evil is a stop-gap measure that was never intended to overcome it. A good illustration was given to me once as follows...

There was a mental institution in which all the inmates were given an annual examination to see if they were fit for release. Over the years the doctors came up with a test that seemed to be foolproof. They would let each inmate in turn into a courtyard in which a wall faucet was fully open, with water gushing out. A mop and bucket were also provided. The inmates who turned the faucet off before trying to mop up were the ones that got released.

Evil springs from the heart, and it is only when hearts are changed that actions will be amended. The church is primarily a preaching and discipling organ for precisely this reason. And when Christians get this wrong they are in danger of becoming as pragmatic as the world. And if you feel the need to ask what's wrong with that you may have boned up only only part of the scripture. Many are ready to cite our being as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves (though sometimes forgetting the harmlessness) - but few embrace with the same fervour the saying that the sons of the world are wiser in their generation than the sons of light. We are to be practical in the use of the neutral things (wealth, influence etc) but never pragmatic. Pragmatism has no moral base and seeks only what "works". Christian practicality always has in sight the end of God's purpose achieved in God's way.

Suppressing or limiting the porn industry must be an effect of the faithful pursuit of the primary purpose of the church. This will show up in a number of ways; for example, the more faithful we are in preaching/bearing witness/discipling the more Christians are likely to express their societal "rights" in Biblical ways. Some unsaved souls will be reached. A few of these may be pornographers. In the grace, mercy and providence of God, one of these might be to porn what Newton was to the slave trade. Who knows?