Pornography distorts the gift of human sexuality

In the United States, the pornography industry annually grosses more money than the combined revenue of the “Big 3” professional sports of football, baseball and basketball.

Long painted as a problem that begins in the teenage years, pornography can begin to permeate the lives of children as early as the primary grades, and access to it is being made easier than ever through the Internet and other media.

The sen­sitive topic of pornography is addressed in the middle school edition of the “Theology of the Body for Teens: Discovering God’s Plan for Love and Life,” a supplementary religion curriculum that received the imprimatur of Archbishop Gregory Aymond last spring.

Discussion tips for parents

Brian Butler, the curriculum’s Metairie-based co-author and a parishioner of St. Christopher, offers the following information to help parents broach this topic with their children:

• Pornography includes photographs, videos, Web sites and magazines that display images for the purpose of arousing lust.

• Pornography trains us to see others as a collection of body parts for our own pleasure, instead of as someone worthy of respect. It is sinful because it reveals body parts, but not the reality, of the whole human person.

• The actors and models involved in pornography, like all human beings, were created in God’s likeness and image. They are denying this great dignity by participating in pornography. Pornography mocks, distorts and hides the dignity of each person involved. No one should ever be used as an object or tool.

• Even if a person is willing to be viewed in pornography this does not make it moral (anymore than a woman who willingly sells her body in prostitution). The person posing in the pornographic image is using and being used. The viewer is also using and being used. No one is ever truly satisfied or loved in this equation.

• Using others is the opposite of love; hence, viewing or participating in pornography is completely counterproductive to having truly loving relationships. When one focuses on lust, he or she is actually practicing how not to love.

• Pornography distorts sex by making it all about selfishness, and not about self-gift.

• Over time, pornography can become a vice – a strong and destructive habit – that can be difficult to break. Scientific research has shown that the brain changes when one looks at pornographic images. Pornography impairs one’s ability to bond with others and alters his view of the opposite sex.

• Often, the reason middle-schoolers are struggling with pornography is because they have a parent who openly views pornography in the home or leaves pornographic materials in places where children can access them. Men struggling with an addiction to pornography have a local resource in the archdiocese called the My House Men’s Group.

Information on this confidential 12-Step program can be obtained by e-mailing   [email protected] or by calling (504) 430-3060.

• The habit of viewing pornography can be difficult to break, but with the proper professional counseling, support and recourse to the sacraments – especially reconciliation – it is possible to overcome this addiction. With God’s grace, all things are possible!

Remind your children

• The body is a beautifully made gift from God. As Blessed John Paul’s writings on the “Theology of the Body” suggest, the problem with pornography is not that it shows too much, but that it shows too little (by reducing a person to his or her body parts).

• Pornography is not victimless. The people hurt by pornography include models in pictures and actors in videos; the spouses of those who are addicted to it; the children abused by those who act out as a result of their pornography addiction; and the people who view it themselves. The viewer of pornography is hurt because his ability to love is being crippled. He is training himself in a cycle of titillation and boredom.

• Think about your future spouse. Would you want him or her to be looking at online pornographic images right now? Would you want your future son or daughter involved in the pornography industry? If not, why? Follow up by asking your child, “If there really is nothing wrong with pornography, why do you have a negative reaction to it?”

Source: The middle school edition of “Theology of the Body for Teens: Discovering God’s Plan for Love and Life,” published by Ascension Press and written by Brian Butler, Jason Evert, and Colin and Aimee MacIver. For more information on the curriculum, visit www.TOBforTeens.com.