CIP
The Christian Institute of Philosophy
Principle 3: Don't over react.
Pornography is an ancient problem. It is no coincidence that men who have aquired power and wealth throughout the history of the world have also aquired harems. Not just one woman, but many women.
Part of the addictive power of pornography is that it allows all men to become virtually powerful. In the technology age every man can become a Solomon. Solomon had 900 women in his harem. Think about this - almost any male can establish a virtual harem greater than Solomon's. And, because males are so sexually aroused by the visual, a man who is single can go home every night and summon up his favorite woman or women on a 72 inch tv screen that has an incredibly clear picture and crystal clear sound. No other generation of men in the history of the world have had to face this kind of temptation.
Jesus told the Church of Pergamum, "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is ..." Rev. 2:13. Jesus had compassion for the unually strong temptations the Church at Pergamum had to deal with. It is not hyperboly to propose that the Throne of Satan in the twenty-first century is in video and especially pornography. So although this article will emphasis the destructive nature of pornography, it will also seek a wise and Spiritually balanced approach to the subject. There is indeed a place of Spiritual depth where pornography is conquered and controlled in the New Man, but there is also a wilderness that most Christian men have to go through inorder to get there. And that journey may take many years .
An Example of Over Reaction
There is a saying that nearly all males will understand and nearly all females will not understand. The saying goes like this: " Studies have shown that 97% of males masturbate and the other 3% have a bad problem with lying". The same can be said regarding pornography. Pornography and masturbation are strongly linked in the male mind.
Perhaps the greatest problem with eliminating pornography from one's life is its availability. With the invention of the internet and the cell phone, porn is available 24 hours a day at the touch of a screen. This presents an unprecedented temptation, especially for young males. And, if you are a young Christian male with a desire to follow the Lord in every aspect of your life, the availability of porn presents a real struggle.
The fact that porn is so readily available and that men are so powerfully attracted to it, does not excuse anyone from the sin and degradation it causes. But every Christian should have compassion for the difficulty men face in dealing with it - especially at this time in history. If you are a Christian woman who catches her husband viewing pornography, it is not a time to be horrified and over react. It is a time to pray and go deeper with the Lord and to help your husband work to solve this problem. And remember, it is a problem which virtually all men deal with in the age of movies, internet, and cell phones.
Editor's Note
While cleaning a building years ago with a wise Christian woman in her 50s, we were discussing the problem of porn and I commented that the availability of pornography was a tremendous problem and that our parents did not have to deal with that. She smiled and responded, "my father was a farmer in the 1950s on the plains of North Dakota, no, he did not have much access to that type of thing." This is a difficult time in history for young Christian men to understand and work out their sexual feelings. They need to know that God understands and will stand with them to seek an answer.
If you have a strong genetic predisposition to alchoholism, it will never cause you a problem - if you never have access to alchohol. However, if alcohol is readily available to you, you are in for a real struggle. When it comes to porn, nearly all men have a strong genetic predisposition, and with porn so readily availabile, you should expect a struggle. But always know that the Lord is in the fire with you. He will lead you to the anwser that you are looking for. Never ever give up.
Editor's Note 2
It is good to remember that the extream pornography of today is a realitively new phenomenon. Porn has been around since ancient times, but the hard core extream porn and the vividness of its presentation by video is very new to the human race. And we have no idea of its long lasting effects on the human mind.
A Story:
When the author of this site was 12 years old, my friends and I discovered that just up the street at a mechanics shop we could look in a window and see a picture of a nude woman. It was a calender girl - any man who was 12 in the 1960s knows exactly what I am talking about. We frequently walked by the mechanic shop and always stopped to look in the window. We were all amazed at our relatively new attraction to such things and we laughed about the feelings. All was well until one day in a laughing mood I told my father about the calender in the window. He smiled and did not say anything, but a week later the calendar was gone. (Christian men of that period were much more willing to protect their children from such things and felt free to ask other men to take action to protect children. And the other men - Christian or not - were inclined to make adjustments to protect the children, because it was a social norm. (A social norm born of Christian culture.) But it is important to note that the inclination to protect children from porn disappeared almost completely with the coming of the internet.
By the way, want to know how powerful porn is to a 12 old boy? I can still see the picture of the woman in my memory as though it were yesterday. "Oh that is hilarious - right?" Or is it a warning? Nothing wrong with the human body, but lets at least be honest enough to admit we are dealing with a very powerful psychological force, and we should not approach the subject flippantly - especially when children are involved. And lets admit that the pornography that 12 year old boys are looking at today on their cell phones is far more damaging to the male psyche than was the calender girl of 60 years ago.
Principle 4: The Law of Diminishing Returns
The law of diminishing returns is an economic principle. It tells us that stimulation has a normalizing affect on the human body and the effect of the stimulation decreases over time. For example: You may have a sudden urge for you favorite ice cream so you go to the refrigerator and you get a big bowel of chocolate ice cream. The first two bites are heavenly but as you continue to eat the big bowl of ice cream you start noticing that each bite is decreasing in satisfaction. When you have eaten the whole bowl, you decide that your not interested in another bowl. The returns of satisfaction have decreased and you are not getting the same stimulation as you did in those first two bites.
Pornography (and drugs) have a high rate of diminishing returns. The pornography that turned you on a few months ago seems to be old hat now and your mind will want something else to keep the same level of stimulation. This makes porn highly addictive to most men.
Principle 5: Why the Addiction
It is critical to understand why pornography is so addictive inorder to effectively deal with it. CIP proposes there are a number of reasons why pornography is so addictive, and that all these reasons come together to reinforce each other. This forms a complex network of interrelated forces that make porn extremely habit forming.
1. The chemical reaction in the male mind. If you were a farmer 150 years ago, it is very likely you were more aware of the connection between chemical reactions and sexual attraction than the vast majority of people living today. After all, if your animals did not breed you would starve. So every farmer was aware of animal breeding and how strong the sexual drive can be. He also knew that if you wanted to calm down a bull, you would make him a steer. Rural people of that period were much more aware of the similarities of the sex drive of animals and people because they saw it every day.
But we are not animals! No, we have soul and spirit, but we are also fellow creatures of the earth created by God to exist in the same environment and to procreate. And although the fall of man certianly has corrupted these drives in a number of ways, we can easily see that the chemical forces acting on animals are at work in our lives too. So CIP proposes that the first thing you need to realize if you are going to break the porn habit, is that you are dealing with a chemical reaction in the brain. "Oh, so that means I cannot help myself!" Funny how we take that attitude about sexual feeling and not other bodily functions such as eating.
Perhaps the closest a man can ever come to explaining the male sexual drive to a woman is by using the analogy of hunger. Have you ever been at a bakery and stared at the donuts or pies and noticed that your mouth was watering? This means that chemicals are firing off in your brain telling you to eat that food and eat all you can. Does this mean that you should follow this chemical reaction in the brain and eat a food that you know is not good for you? No sane person would tell you that, at least no person who cared for your physical health. A person who cares about you would never tell you to partake simply because your body is responding to a chemical reaction.
Hunger is a bodily function to keep you alive. Sex drive is a bodily function to keep the human race alive. It is natural, it is powerful, it is mysterious and it is chemical.
As mentioned previously in this article, men are highly attracted to the female form. This mysterious chemical reaction in the brain sets us up for a strong attraction to pornography. After all, pornograph is not about touching a woman, or loving a woman, it is about looking at her and getting that chemical reaction of pleasure - especially in combination with masturbation.
The second reason porn is so addictive is because it causes the man to change worlds. Most men are restless by nature, some men more than others. Men have chemicals running through their bodies that causes them to want to build, conquer, protect, and procreate. Once again we see similiar traits in male animals which tells us there is a strong chemical base for these feelings. Because men have these feelings, periodically they need to change worlds - to leave the everyday world of stress and competition and find a world of rest and relaxation. To find a world where their minds are washed from the cares of the day and they can finally rest - if only for a short period - finally rest. The chemical reactions of sexual arousal and orgasm temporarily washout everything else in the mind and provide that needed rest. This is why men usually fall asleep right after sex. The changing of worlds and the rest it provides is one of the bonding forces of marriage.
But this need to change worlds is also one of the forces that make pornography so attractive. A man can change worlds faster and easier with pornography than he can with a real woman. After all, the woman on the big screen never has a headach, never requires mutual stimulation, is always ready for you, she always makes you feel like a powerful man and she never grows old. And the greatest thing of all, you can turn her off until the next time you need to change worlds. In other words, porngraphy is all about carefree lust, and nothing about sacrificial love. And the fact is, for a man seeking a change of worlds, carefree lust makes a whole lot more sense than does sacrificial love.
third, pornography can mimic a religious experience of meaning. If you are a woman, imagine that every day your subconsious mind is recieving chemical signals of low grade sexual stimulation. You notice the female form every where you go and there is a slight stimulation each time. But, society and morality counter this stimulation by telling your mind "behave yourself". Just like it does at the bakery. But then you go home, turn on your big screen TV and the females are taking their clothes off for you. All the accumulated micro sexual frustrations of the day are suddenly washed away in your mind. And there seems to be no consequences. No need to behave youself. Which world would you prefer?
The fourth reason pornography is so addictive is because it flatters the male ego and self-esteem. There is a male ego, and it needs to be flattered to respect itself. This is especially true of the Old Man. (A good wife knows this and tells her husband often how she respects him.) One of the great addictive forces of porn is the woman on the screen is submissive to him. She requires nothing of him and he controls her completely. These are subconsious forces but they are real. It is by no accident, that nearly all the powerful men of history have had not just one woman but a harem. Soloman had 900 women at his disposal, and if you read ecclesiasties, you will see it was still not enough. The more women a man has, the more powerful he feels in the Old Man and pornography offers a man the ability to escape into a make believe world where he can be a Soloman.
The fifth reason pornography is so addictive is because it mimics the religious experience of meaning. Human sexuality is a great mystery. And if you have not developed a deep Spiritual life, the mystery of sexual feel can take on religious overtones. You become aware of the mystery when certain feelings arise within you that you have never felt before. Then you try to figure out the implications of those feelings.
