Time to get rid of the porn

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edwest2

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To all Christians and men of good will -

It is time to act. And it is also time to ignore opinions. I speak as a sinner with hope. Hope that we can stop the porn one person at a time. With God’s help, we can do this. For some, it won’t be easy. Some suggestions:
  1. Delete whatever you have on your hard drive, and bookmarks.
  2. If you have DVDs, break them and deface them, and put them in a garbage bag. Pour in some paint. Throw them out.
  3. If you have magazines, put some in a garbage bag and pour in some paint. Then put in some more and pour in some paint. In some cases, more garbage bags will be required. Throw them out as soon as you can.
I spoke with a Christian who works on a regular route dumping the contents of people’s trash cans into a garbage truck. He told me, “You wouldn’t believe what some people throw away.” He even ‘rescued’ a few Bibles which he then gave to people.

Don’t let this porn get retrieved in one piece, undamaged, and get resold or just taken to fuel the addiction of others. I’m open to suggestions from anybody else on this.

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
I’m open to suggestions from anybody else on this.
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Prayer and lots of it. Daily. Multiple times per day.

Contemplate that giving in to these sexual sins is one of the most common ways that souls are damned to Hell for all eternity. And for what? A few minutes of pleasure?? Just consider what a stupid trade that is.

Pray again. Realize that as human beings we’re too weak to conquer our sinful, fallen natures, but that with God nothing is impossible.

I like to remind myself to “think big”. In other words, don’t just ask God to save you from pornography for one day or one week. Ask Him to make you one of His saints. Ask Him to make you perfect in every way. When Elijah was about to be taken to Heaven, he asked his disciple, Elisha, if he could leave him any gift. Elisha replied, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” He wanted to be twice as holy as Elijah…and God gave him exactly that.

Perhaps most importantly, until the day you die…don’t ever think you’ve beaten the temptation. It’s always waiting to pull you back in, even after years of holy living. That’s the cross we’re called to pick up and carry. Carry it humbly and joyfully, knowing that Christ is right there, carrying it with us.
 
Ive got a big box of dirty magazines in my basement. Im just waiting for a decent weekend so I can burn em 🙂
 
mgoforth said:
Prayer and lots of it. Daily. Multiple times per day.

Contemplate that giving in to these sexual sins is one of the most common ways that souls are damned to Hell for all eternity. And for what? A few minutes of pleasure?? Just consider what a stupid trade that is.

Pray again. Realize that as human beings we’re too weak to conquer our sinful, fallen natures, but that with God nothing is impossible.

I like to remind myself to “think big”. In other words, don’t just ask God to save you from pornography for one day or one week. Ask Him to make you one of His saints. Ask Him to make you perfect in every way. When Elijah was about to be taken to Heaven, he asked his disciple, Elisha, if he could leave him any gift. Elisha replied, “Let me inherit a double portion of your spirit.” He wanted to be twice as holy as Elijah…and God gave him exactly that.

Perhaps most importantly, until the day you die…**don’t ever think you’ve beaten the temptation. ** It’s always waiting to pull you back in, even after years of holy living. That’s the cross we’re called to pick up and carry. Carry it humbly and joyfully, knowing that Christ is right there, carrying it with us.
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I can attest to that. Do not EVER think you have won. With God’s help, I have been able to resist that temptation. In my overexcited “I FINALLY CAN RESIST” mindset, I interpreted this as “I won! I don’t have that problem anymore!”

Because of that mindset, I have brought down my defenses. I find myself on the slippery slope again, not going totally into the sin, but there have been MANY near occasions, more times then I would like to admit to.

Lust and carnal desire is a sin best running away from instead of fighting, ESPECIALLY when you are starting to feel overwhelmed. It’s one of those cases in life where a “tactical retreat” is necessary.
 
nfreak141 said:
I can attest to that. Do not EVER think you have won. With God’s help, I have been able to resist that temptation. In my overexcited “I FINALLY CAN RESIST” mindset, I interpreted this as “I won! I don’t have that problem anymore!”

Because of that mindset, I have brought down my defenses. I find myself on the slippery slope again, not going totally into the sin, but there have been MANY near occasions, more times then I would like to admit to.

Lust and carnal desire is a sin best running away from instead of fighting, ESPECIALLY when you are starting to feel overwhelmed. It’s one of those cases in life where a “tactical retreat” is necessary.
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ditto except there was no slope just a cliff for me.
 
An alcoholic is always an alcoholic. There’s a bar or liquor store down the street. Yes, pray, but I believe we need to remove the temptation and not pass it on to others. We need to pray and act appropriately.

We need to empty the liquor cabinets in our homes. Yes, there will always be temptation. I know. It is a cross that many of us bear.

menagainstporn.com/

Peace,
Ed
 
edwest2 said:
To all Christians and men of good will -

It is time to act. And it is also time to ignore opinions. I speak as a sinner with hope. Hope that we can stop the porn one person at a time. With God’s help, we can do this. For some, it won’t be easy. Some suggestions:
  1. Delete whatever you have on your hard drive, and bookmarks.
  2. If you have DVDs, break them and deface them, and put them in a garbage bag. Pour in some paint. Throw them out.
  3. If you have magazines, put some in a garbage bag and pour in some paint. Then put in some more and pour in some paint. In some cases, more garbage bags will be required. Throw them out as soon as you can.
I spoke with a Christian who works on a regular route dumping the contents of people’s trash cans into a garbage truck. He told me, “You wouldn’t believe what some people throw away.” He even ‘rescued’ a few Bibles which he then gave to people.

Don’t let this porn get retrieved in one piece, undamaged, and get resold or just taken to fuel the addiction of others. I’m open to suggestions from anybody else on this.

Peace,
Ed
Click to expand...
I got rid of all the porn on my hard drives and internet bookmarks like last month. I knew i had to delete them in order to make progress. I honestly did not want to trash all of them but i knew it was the best thing i could do. If i had a source to watch porn i would probably give in. I still have a bunch of DVD’s laying around in my room though…i should trash them also.
 
To the OP, who defines what porn is? What’s porn to you, is art to the next guy. About 10 years ago, I had a subscription to Playboy, which I dropped. Not because of the picture spreads, which I had no problem with, but because of the ultra-left Op-Ed’ pieces which raised my BP every time I read the op-ed’s, I dropped my subscription.
 
I appreciate your heart, OP, but throwing out porn is really only a first step: It’s free online, and always accessible. It’s like throwing out your cigarettes when they grow on trees …

But yeah, it’s good to have “a clean slate” when you die, so no one finds any skeletons in your closet. Kind of like Mother Teresa wanting her diary burned so no one would know her doubts … Gotta leave a good impression.
 
garn9173 said:
To the OP, who defines what porn is? What’s porn to you, is art to the next guy. About 10 years ago, I had a subscription to Playboy, which I dropped. Not because of the picture spreads, which I had no problem with, but because of the ultra-left Op-Ed’ pieces which raised my BP every time I read the op-ed’s, I dropped my subscription.
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This is problematic: Playboy is clearly porn, not art. If you don’t recognize this fact, …
 
My battle began at age 10 When my neighbor showed me a magazine That .he found in his dads room. I never imagined What images that would lead me to look at giving me a false impression of how a woman wanted to be treated. I am 37 now And I have 5 children. Gentleman,as I read earlier prayer is the answer, fervent prayer. God has blessed me With a strong resistance to the temptations. I know the battle is not over. But with God I certainly am winning. Does anyone else deal with the issue of this **** always showing up AT WORK! Not only visual aides but the conversation . I’m so tired of it that I often find myself eating alone at lunch. They say they can quit looking whenever they want but I know without God’s grace it’s not possible. Need to get through to them. HELP!:eek:!!
 
garn9173 said:
To the OP, who defines what porn is? What’s porn to you, is art to the next guy. About 10 years ago, I had a subscription to Playboy, which I dropped. Not because of the picture spreads, which I had no problem with, but because of the ultra-left Op-Ed’ pieces which raised my BP every time I read the op-ed’s, I dropped my subscription.
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Porn is porn whether one finds artistic properties in it or not.
 
I think the problem with the above statement is that we try to justify our habits by reclassifying pornography as art. Anytime a person is reduced to an object of lust, it’s wrong. Whether it’s done as art or not. The human body is in the image of God and deserves more dignity than that. We as Catholics owe that dignity to all of those people out there, whether they realize it or not.

Another step to take is to install a free web filter, like K9 web filter (that’s the one I use) and get someone to hold us accountable. For me, it’s my wife. I had her set the password and I don’t have it. I’m sure there are ways around it, but if I’m trying to find a way around it I’m sinning and we should know that. I recently had to block a photography site that I used to frequent (I love taking photos) because it had become simply a hide out for pornography, all in the name of art.
 
edwest2 said:
To all Christians and men of good will -

It is time to act. And it is also time to ignore opinions. I speak as a sinner with hope. Hope that we can stop the porn one person at a time. With God’s help, we can do this. For some, it won’t be easy. Some suggestions:
  1. Delete whatever you have on your hard drive, and bookmarks.
  2. If you have DVDs, break them and deface them, and put them in a garbage bag. Pour in some paint. Throw them out.
  3. If you have magazines, put some in a garbage bag and pour in some paint. Then put in some more and pour in some paint. In some cases, more garbage bags will be required. Throw them out as soon as you can.
I spoke with a Christian who works on a regular route dumping the contents of people’s trash cans into a garbage truck. He told me, “You wouldn’t believe what some people throw away.” He even ‘rescued’ a few Bibles which he then gave to people.

Don’t let this porn get retrieved in one piece, undamaged, and get resold or just taken to fuel the addiction of others. I’m open to suggestions from anybody else on this.

Peace,
Ed
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You are very wise to realize this. Porn damages alot of people and marriages.
 
The Church has a specific definition of porn:
2354 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. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials.
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Depictions of nude persons is not in itself pornography, otherwise a lot of fine art, including the Sistine Chapel, could be defined as porn.

Some would argue that nudes used for the purpose of arousing lust, constitutes porn. However I don’t think that was necessarily always the artists intent (but I do think it is the Plaboy photographer’s intent), so the artist is not guilty of creating porn.

On the other hand, if someone looks at nude pictures for lustful purposes, even if that picture was not intended to arouse lust, it isn’t that the picture is porn, it’s that the viewer is guilty of, well, lust, and needs to examine his conscience with that in mind. Men are visual creatures and have been known to get aroused by the Sears catalogue… but the publishers of the catalogue are not (one hopes!) intending to arouse.

I would go so far though as to rate pictures like Playboy’s, even though they don’t depict sex acts, as being pornography, because the specific intent of the picture is not to be artistic, but 1) to arouse us, and 2) to present an unnaturally perfect and unattainable standard of female beauty (photoshop and previously, airbrushing) and sexual submissiveness. As such I think such publications are an affront to human dignity. It just doesn’t lower the dignity of women but also of men who are unwittingly degrading women and therefore degrading men in general. We are meant to be good men, good fathers, and good husbands. Porn and lustful images prevent us from that.

It’s a hard battle for men just because we are so visual. But we must keep fighting the good fight, and when we fail, pick ourselves up and avail ourselves of the healing from the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
 
bmullins said:
snip

Another step to take is to install a free web filter, like K9 web filter (that’s the one I use). . .

snip
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How well is that working in terms of keeping out the bad stuff without blocking out that not-bad stuff? I tried one filter, and found that I couldn’t access normal, ordinary news articles from the Birmingham News website; the filter was blocking them.
 
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