Thoughts on Pornography

[Chitchat]

Sr. Lucia, when a child asked the Blessed Mother how a girl who had died was doing. The Blessed Mother said she was in Purgatory until the end of the world for reading bad books.

(Very said story, but I hope that after millions of Catholics have heard this story, their prayers may have mitigated the girl’s sentence in Purgatory).

Nevertheless, what a dreadful judgment just for reading the books. I can’t conceive what will happen to people of today who willingly look at soft porn on tv on a regular basis.

Mary Magdalene was exorcised by Jesus and had 7 devils cast out. What of the woman today who participate in pornography. It’s an unbearable thought.

 

[Lorrie]

miguel:

If I want to throw trash out my car door window in Yosemite, that’s my business. No one holds a gun to anyone’s head to make them look at it. If you don’t like seeing trash on the side of the road in Yosemite, don’t look at it.

I guess you missed what I’m saying. We all have a choice to watch it or not. I know its all over the internet, get a spam/pop up blocker so it doesn’t just appear (there’s an idea). If you see a video at your local video store and the title is “Debbie Does Dallas” don’t be naive and think its about someone named Debbie who is wanting to show you all the different places to eat and all the historical sites of Dallas.

There are steps to take so one is never exposed to porn.

 

[Bobby_A.Greene]

Here, kids laugh at the word “underwear” because theyve been taught that that kind of thing is dirty and private.

Just as I was taught. So you could imagine my consternation over viewing photographs in the 1960s found in various geographical and anthropological magazines of full adult men in hot arid and tropical countries wearing only their “BVD” brand white jockey underwear and nothing else. Some of these guys were playing soccer, driving vehicles, or pushing wheelbarrels in their white skivvies.

This may have been a cultural feau paux but not at all pornographic.

 

[Bobby_A.Greene]

???

Did I miss something here?

Hi,

I myself can make a big distinction between pornography and prostitution. Just as I advocate the legalization of drugs since I acknowledge the fact that law enforcement cannot legally stop the drug trade, and sometimes delves into it; I also acknowledge that legally stopping prostitution is practically unenforcable so by legalizing both drugs and prostitution they can be both controlled and taxed. Pornography on the other hand is so invidious as containing zero socially redeeming qualities, absolutely none. Pornography indicates the presence of perversion in society, and nothing else.

 

[Peace-bwu]

Even worse is “The Girls Next Door” a reality show about Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion. He has three girlfriends who live with him… I guess they all share him. This is on our basic cable, folks!

 

[Peace-bwu]

In our last base house my husband found all kinds of porn from the 70’s hidden all over the basement. First he found playing cards in the wall while he was looking at the hotwater heater…then as we were moving out he looked up in the basement ceiling rafters and found far far more. YUCK!!! HE didn’t want to touch it, so just left it there. He also didn’t know what kind of porn it was and didn’t want anyone to find it in our trash. It took us five years to find it, so hopefully the next ppl won’t find it at all.

 

[StratusRose]

Peace-bwu:

Even worse is “The Girls Next Door” a reality show about Hugh Heffner’s Playboy Mansion. He has three girlfriends who live with him… I guess they all share him. This is on our basic cable, folks!

Ugh. Gross. No offense to the 70 and older crowd here, but that’s just…ugh.

 

[felra]

Bobby A. Greene:

Where? I can find intellectual and scholarly arguments for pornography but I have never found any intellectual or scholarly justification for pornography!

There really isn’t any ‘justification’ for pornography.

What is your “intellectual and scholarly” argument for the degradation of the God given dignity of women (and men)? Again, the argument (whatever your rationale) is spiritually void and one that a serious Catholic should never propose as legitimate. It evidences a mind that is not enlightened by the Truth.

 

[felra]

Bobby A. Greene:

Hi,

I myself can make a big distinction between pornography and prostitution. Just as I advocate the legalization of drugs since I acknowledge the fact that law enforcement cannot legally stop the drug trade, and sometimes delves into it; I also acknowledge that legally stopping prostitution is practically unenforcable so by legalizing both drugs and prostitution they can be both controlled and taxed. Pornography on the other hand is so invidious as containing zero socially redeeming qualities, absolutely none. Pornography indicates the presence of perversion in society, and nothing else.

Too bad that you are not that absolute in your resolve over prostitution and illegal drug use, which are all from the same bucket of spiritual malady. Yes, let’s offer societal structure to “clean up” and tax the vice of __________ (fill in the blank).

 

[miguel]

Lorrie:

I guess you missed what I’m saying. We all have a choice to watch it or not. I know its all over the internet, get a spam/pop up blocker so it doesn’t just appear (there’s an idea). If you see a video at your local video store and the title is “Debbie Does Dallas” don’t be naive and think its about someone named Debbie who is wanting to show you all the different places to eat and all the historical sites of Dallas.

There are steps to take so one is never exposed to porn.

The problem with this is that there are alot of people in our culture, not motivated by Catholic morality, who do look at this stuff. And the more all these people do that, the more it becomes acceptable in the culture, and the more the culture becomes debased as a result. Turn on the TV. See Paris Hilton ads for Carls Junior, listen to the kind of talk on these dating shows. Turn on the radio. Hear Howard Stern, hear loose talk on the rock stations. Yes. I can turn this stuff off for myself. But young people are just being inundated with this stuff. And we are powerless to restrict it because the courts won’t let us. That’s why I view pornographers the same way I view people who throw trash out the window. It’s pollution in its worst form.

 

[miguel]

And I can’t turn the culture off. It’s something we all share and live in together.

 

[Genesis315]

miguel:

The problem with this is that there are alot of people in our culture, not motivated by Catholic morality, who do look at this stuff. And the more all these people do that, the more it becomes acceptable in the culture, and the more the culture becomes debased as a result. Turn on the TV. See Paris Hilton ads for Carls Junior, listen to the kind of talk on these dating shows. Turn on the radio. Hear Howard Stern, hear loose talk on the rock stations. Yes. I can turn this stuff off for myself. But young people are just being inundated with this stuff. And we are powerless to restrict it because the courts won’t let us. That’s why I view pornographers the same way I view people who throw trash out the window. It’s pollution in its worst form.

It’s getting to the point where we are all like St. Thomas Aquinas when he was locked in the tower with a woman of ill repute. Unfortunately, for those who are not anchored to Jesus Christ, it is near impossible to resist these things.

I remember being in college and of the 30 guys on my baseball team, I think I was the only one who wasn’t into porn. It’s become so pervasive and commonplace it’s scary.

 

[miguel]

Genesis315:

It’s getting to the point where we are all like St. Thomas Aquinas when he was locked in the tower with a woman of ill repute. Unfortunately, for those who are not anchored to Jesus Christ, it is near impossible to resist these things.

I remember being in college and of the 30 guys on my baseball team, I think I was the only one who wasn’t into porn. It’s become so pervasive and commonplace it’s scary.

It is scary. And it leads people to acts of sexual immorality, which then leads them to disease, abortion, etc. Since we’ve killed 40 million babies in this country, that means there are 40 million murderers loose…not very comforting.

 

[Bobby_A.Greene]

felra:

What is your “intellectual and scholarly” argument for the degradation of the God given dignity of women (and men)? Again, the argument (whatever your rationale) is spiritually void and one that a serious Catholic should never propose as legitimate. It evidences a mind that is not enlightened by the Truth.

You do realize that there is a big difference between legal and moral?

The legalization of prostitution is not the moral condonation of it.

 

[jzepi]

Bobby A. Greene:

You do realize that there is a big difference between legal and moral?

The legalization of prostitution is not the moral condonation of it.

It isn’t?

What message do you think the prostitutes and prostitute-users will take from it being legalized then ?

Wouldn’t such a legal structure be our collective encouragement, however subtle, for these poor people to continue to degrade and destroy themselves ?

It is irrelevant that law enforcement may never stamp it out completely. Murder will probably never be stamped out completely either, that’s not the point !

 

[AlanFromWichita]

StratusRose:

Ugh. Gross. No offense to the 70 and older crowd here, but that’s just…ugh.

Somewhere in my secular sex-ed class in high school in the 70s, they taught us that men were generally “fertile” until their death. Of course, there sometimes may be problems in the delivery, but not in the potential product.

As I rapidly approach 50, I try to find ways not to fear the future, as all of a sudden 70 isn’t sounding so old!

Alan

 

[Bobby_A.Greene]

jzepi:

It isn’t?

No it isn’t!

What message do you think the prostitutes and prostitute-users will take from it being legalized then ?

A big fat economic message that now they will have to pay taxes for their immoral gain.

Wouldn’t such a legal structure be our collective encouragement, however subtle, for these poor people to continue to degrade and destroy themselves ?

No it wouldn’t, because we know that morality and law are not interchangable.

It is irrelevant that law enforcement may never stamp it out completely. Murder will probably never be stamped out completely either, that’s not the point !

Murder is not a billion dollar a year criminal enterprise that funds other criminal enterprises and pervades society at every level as does prostitution. You can find prostitution everywhere from college campuses to suburban households to the higher levels of government.

 

[Bobby_A.Greene]

felra:

What is your “intellectual and scholarly” argument for the degradation of the God given dignity of women (and men)?

I do not have any intellectual or scholarly argument for the degradation of the God given dignity of women (and men)? But I have heard those arguments given in a court of law and by the ACLU, usually porn is defended under ‘freedom of speech’ .

I also do not have any intellectual or scholarly justifications for pornography as do the lawyers of the ACLU or the justices of the Supreme Court.

But my opinion of the legalization of prostitution is based on economics and reality, the reality that the law is incapable of stopping prostitution and the economics of taxing it and reducing the criminal element which mostly benefits from the profits from prostitution.

 

[jzepi]

Bobby A. Greene:

A big fat economic message that now they will have to pay taxes for their immoral gain.

Don’t you think keeping women out of prostitution is more important than any economic concern? If it was legal, don’t you think even more women would be getting into prostitution? (in addition, of course, to the ones who would continue to do it in the illegal realm - let’s not be naive that making it legal means all the pimps will declare they are pimps, report their income and pay taxes on it)

Isn’t this preventative aspect of it being illegal, which prevents some women (and pimps) from doing it simply because they know it is illegal, more important than the economics of getting the tax money?

If it was legal, the clear message, from the secular government to its citizens, is that it is an acceptable occupation for American women, as long as the taxes get paid. That is unacceptable, even from a purely rational, secular standpoint. You don’t have to be a Christian to know this is a bad idea. I’m kinda bummed you espouse it. You are a serious Catholic, right ?

 

[felra]

Bobby A. Greene:

I do not have any intellectual or scholarly argument for …

I also do not have any intellectual or scholarly justifications for …

But my opinion of the …

I think that this about sums up the basis and essence for you opinion. :nope: