Should pornography be legal (faithful Catholics only)?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Latinitas
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Latinitas

Guest
Hi everyone,

I’ve been thinking about this question a little bit lately. I used to think that this was a no-brainer - of course, it should be illegal. However, I thought about Augustine’s famous quote, which St. Thomas agrees with, that if harlots be done away with, the whole world would be convulsed in lust, and that therefore, prostitution should be tolerated. So now, I’m not so sure, and am open to hearing other opinions on this question.

So, my question to all of you is, do you think the government should tolerate pornography, or should forbid it, partially or entirely? I should say, of course, that I’m talking about ‘normal’ pornography, not child pornography, or other pornography that depicts rape/violence.

Please, besides answering the poll, explain your thoughts below.

As said in the title, this thread is only for Catholics who accept all Catholic teachings.

Benedicat Deus,
Latinitas
 
Prohibited.

Porn is immoral. Prostitution too. These don’t help with lust, they feed it. Want lust to stop? Turn to God. I don’t know much about the quote, but I honestly don’t think it’s right at all. Plus, the whole world is filled with lust. And we live in a world (or western world to be exact) that porn is celebrated and prostitution should be accepted.

Sin, especially porn, an industry that makes millions and hurts plenty of people, should not be tolerated.

Porn is also a toxic industry-majority of female porn stars are treated poorly, STDs are rampant and suicide is common. There are porn stars who have talked about this before. And of course, the objectification of men and women’s bodies, how they cheapen sex blah blah…

Even if I’m not a Catholic, I would be 100% against this…it’s pretty hard to understand that people who fight for social justice are pro porn (because they are afraid of hurting a porn star’s feelings?)…a decent human should be against things like this imo

Turning to porn instead of God to reduce lust just seems so…stupid. it doesn’t help at all
 
Ps it should be illegal, but I don’t think porn stars should be jailed…but the company that produces them, distributes them etc…it is a tricky thing when talking about law and religion
 
Latinitas said:
However, I thought about Augustine’s famous quote, which St. Thomas agrees with, that if harlots be done away with, the whole world would be convulsed in lust, and that therefore, prostitution should be tolerated.
Click to expand...
Porn should be done away with. It is degrading to those involved and served to train men to view women as objects.

Even if you did try to make a case for it, the above is probably one of the weaker ones. The Church fathers lived in a different time and were not infallible. Men should be able to keep it in their pants and it would be EASIER for them to do that, not harder, if they did not have access to porn.

If you aren’t married, then you have no business indulging in anything of a sexual nature.
 
Lea101 said:
Ps it should be illegal, but I don’t think porn stars should be jailed…but the company that produces them, distributes them etc…it is a tricky thing when talking about law and religion
Click to expand...
Agree with this. There is a chance the porn stars are more victims than willing participants. It should be the publishing companies, etc, that suffer.
 
Pornography is hideous, and it is almost completely unavoidable nowadays. 😦

I hope they ban it and burn all printed copies of it. :mad:
 
Where does the strong desire to watch porn come from? Is it “normal?” It’s really self-inflicted sexual abuse!
 
With the help of His grace, may the demand for these products disappear from the face of the earth.

Peace
 
Graphic depictions of sexual acts and uncovering those parts of the body that should covered are wrong. Only a husband and wife have the privilege of unveiling their bodies to each other.

The law is secondary. No faithful Catholic should allow himself to view such things. No, none of us is perfect but it is clearly wrong and all vagueness should be abandoned as false. Who controls your body? The State? No, you do. And if anyone cannot control his thoughts and his body, he should pray daily for God’s guidance and strength, and confess his sin. God’s eternal mercy extends to the addicted, so continue to pray and confess your sin.

Human dignity requires respecting others, not using them as even imaginary objects of sexual pleasure. If respect is practiced, your and their human dignity is restored as it should be.

A society built on dignified behavior toward others is a healthy society.

Pornography should be illegal.

Ed
 
Ban it. And there was time when we didn’t believe that pornography was protected by the 1st Amendment.
 
usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/pornography/index.cfm
Page 5
Defining pornography

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines pornography this way:
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intimacy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world.29
The moral status of pornography is clear from this passage: producing or using pornography is gravely wrong. It is a grave matter by its object. It is a mortal sin if it is committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. Unintentional ignorance and factors that compromise the
Page 6

voluntary and free character of the act can diminish a person’s moral culpability.30 This sin needs the Lord’s forgiveness and should be confessed within the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. The damage it causes to oneself, one’s relationships, society, and the Body of Christ needs healing. Pornography can never be justified and is always wrong.
Pornography does not consist only in visual images (which can be real or virtual, including computer-generated) but can also be in written or audio forms (e.g., certain romance novels, erotic literature, phone conversations, social media, online video chats, etc.). It encompasses what is sometimes distinguished as “soft-” and “hard-core” pornography. This is an artificial divide; all pornography is harmful and wrong, while the effects on a person may vary depending on the intensity of the content. Pornography is not art.31

Peace
 
I’m understanding this question different than others, I think. I don’t think on a Catholic board you are going to have anyone argue about whether or not pornography is immoral and sinful.

I think the question is whether it is the government’s place to outlaw it and to enforce laws against it.
 
I think I’m with the Deacon on this one.

Who decides what “porn” is? It’s VERY subjective. There IS a line between “art” and “porn”. But where is it? And WHO decides where it is?

While I feel more and more strongly that porn is VERY harmful to both men and women for a variety of reasons; LEGALLY speaking, there are numerous hurdles that would have to be cleared and more numerous questions to be answered before such a “ban” could be implemented.

Also, there is the “free will” component. Many choose to sin every day. Is it government’s mission to regulate trade, maintain schools, maintain roads, and keep up an army; or to make us “good”? I consider myself a rather faithful Catholic, and I see this as a very complicated issue with more questions than easy answers.

PS: OBVIOUSLY anything involving children, animals, or anything against someone’s will should be (and in almost every case already is) illegal.
 
rfournier103 said:
Who decides what “porn” is? It’s VERY subjective. There IS a line between “art” and “porn”. But where is it? And WHO decides where it is?
Click to expand...
Obscenity and one of its subcategories, pornography, are already legally defined in the United States, complete with their own inherent criteria of determination, and have been since various Supreme Court decisions.

But let’s put that aside.

Are you trying to argue that it’s more important to protect an artist’s freedom to paint nudity than it is to protect a society from obscenity and porn? Why?

Let’s assume we err on the side of caution, and some “art” has to be censored. Is that some sort of incredible moral evil or something?
 
I understand your point that government can go to far. Government is the expression of politics, which is the will of it’s people (might makes right for better or worse). Anything can be carried to extremes in censorship. The bible could even be banned.

On the other hand, it is really not difficult to define pornography, and the issue is of prime importance.
St John Paul 2 does a fine job of defining it in Theology of the Body. The catechism. USCCB.
I hope the government enacts laws banning the production and distribution of it. Not so people can be put in jail, but so that people can regain control of their humanity.

We should not desire it. If we did not desire it there would be no demand for it.
Conversely, if it were not easy to obtain, fewer would desire it or be addicted to it.
 
Porn leads to the objectification of the opposite sex. Porn is a big part of the reason we have people like Donald Trump saying such things to Billy Bush.

Women underestimate how wide spread “locker room” talk is among men. Porn (even soft porn like Victoria Secret catalogs) contribute greatly to locker room talk
 
The evil government can look at porn and decide nothing? Nope. Too extreme a position.

Ed
 
To quote Claire Booth Luce (a Catholic convert and strong defender of the faith) "Censorship, like charity, should begin at home. But, unlike charity, it should end there.

I do not approve of porn and applaud the efforts of entities like Mcdonalds’s to block it from being accessed in their facilities. But you can strongly oppose pornography and still feel uncomfortable with the idea of Big Brother looking over your shoulder, spying on you, going through your browsing history and telling yo what you may or may not download.

Effort to limit the harmful effects of pornography must be balanced with efforts to protect freedom of speech and expression and avoid expansion of state power into the lives of the private citizen.
 
Catholic tradition has already decided that it is a prudential judgement that civil lawmakers have the right from God to make.

Have they made a good prudential judgement in most OECD countries…probably not.
 
goout said:
I understand your point that government can go to far. Government is the expression of politics, which is the will of it’s people (might makes right for better or worse). Anything can be carried to extremes in censorship. The bible could even be banned.

On the other hand, it is really not difficult to define pornography, and the issue is of prime importance.
St John Paul 2 does a fine job of defining it in Theology of the Body. The catechism. USCCB.
I hope the government enacts laws banning the production and distribution of it. Not so people can be put in jail, but so that people can regain control of their humanity.

We should not desire it. If we did not desire it there would be no demand for it.
Conversely, if it were not easy to obtain, fewer would desire it or be addicted to it.
Click to expand...
Ask yourself, who paid for prostitutes, camera men, filmmakers, printers, distributors, salesmen and buildings when Adult Bookstores opened across the country in the US? We’re talking a lot of money. Bad enough there was Playboy and other “girlie” magazines before then but depictions of men in physical contact with women? Sexual intercourse as art? Give me a break.

Girlie magazines, which unlike Playboy, gave very little to no pretense of being “sophisticated.” They were dirty. “Get your mind out of the gutter” was a common expression.

The art shown in the Sistine Chapel is not being sold as porn.

Ed
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top