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According to Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Tenth
Edition), the English word “pornography” has its origins from the
Greek word “pornographos” which means
to write about prostitutes; from porne (prostitues) + graphein (to
write).
Specifically, “pornography” (also called “porn”) is defined as the
depiction of erotic behavior (as in pictures or writing) intended to
cause sexual excitement.
The word “erotic” can simply be defined as that intended to, or
likely to arouse sexual desire. Let me say that the only person who
has the biblical right to try to do things to excite your sexual
passion is your spouse (the person you are married to). Within the
bounds of marriage, sex is not only acceptable, but blessed by God
himself (God created sex). For references to sex, read Genesis 4:1
and I Corinthians, chapter 7.
Thus, various media such as books, magazines, videos, cartoons,
webpages, you name it, can be accurately called pornography if they
are intended to, or are likely to arouse sexual desire. So, a
publication that is produced even without the intent to arouse
sexual desire, but where the publication is likely to cause sexual
desire can still be classified as pornography.
Pornography, defined above, is much broader than its usual limited
characterization as books explicitly describing sex acts, or
pictures of people fully naked. Consider this, if a porn magazine
publisher here in the USA is restricted from producing fully nude
magazines in certain countries, the porn models are dressed up just
enough to keep from having the magazine being banned by the
government in those countries – but, you can be sure that the
magazines are not popular because of their enlightening discussions
on politics; they are still pornographic. And, if they are
pornographic, then they are ungodly as they entice people to enjoy
dwelling in thought on fornication and often even physically acting
out fornication.
Let me refresh your minds: fornication is a sexual act between
people not married to each other. I Corinthians 6:9-10 lets us know
that people who continue to fornicate cannot have part in God’s
kingdom. And, if you like to buy and enjoy pornography you are
fornicating in your mind even if you don’t act out your thoughts.
But, you may be wondering what this discussion has to do thus far
with Christians providing direct financial support straight to porn
(pornography) publishers.
First, you must remember the definition of pornography [intended, or
likely to arouse sexual desire]
Next, you must understand that those who promote pornography have
become very tricky. They know that the average person would be
embarrassed to go to the “Adult” bookstore where only
pornographic-rated material is sold. So, the new trick is to
repackage pornography as though it were something other than
pornography and to convince upstanding citizens to buy this trash in
legitimate establishments (e.g. at the checkout stand of your local
grocery market).
Let’s look at some specific examples:
1) Consider the sports magazine that produces issues related to
various sports and their top athletes. The magazine produces a
special section or special issues dedicated to showing sexy models
in swimwear so small and skin-tight that they look more like a
striptease act than a person interested in swimming.
2) The Health and fitness magazines are sometimes even worse; One
gentleman had to cancel his subscription to a health magazine
because the magazine was displaying scantily dressed people on the
cover and inside the magazine. Just because something has the
classification of being a health and fitness product does not mean
that Satan will not try to use it to slip seductive pornographic
images into your home’s magazine rack or video collection. You even
have “fitness” experts producing videos where they demonstrate
erotic, striptease/dance exercises you can do to get in shape.
3) You have many magazines that are supposed to show you current
styles and fashions; these too often are nothing more than thinly
disguised semi-porn magazines that include people in all sorts of
sexually suggestive poses.
The world at large is sinful and it is no surprise when those who do
not profess Christ use their money to support evil. However, those
who say they love Christ, who purchase and enjoy such porn should be
ashamed. Don’t think because you are an active church member that
God will excuse your viewing or reading porn, regardless of it being
re-named and repackaged. Woe unto us if we give are money to support
publishers of porn.
A passage of scripture comes to mind here that may have some
relevance; Revelations 2:20 says:
Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou
sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to
teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication...
The straightest way to put it is that one must move over to God’s
way and not seduce oneself to fornicate by enjoying porn, and one
must stop seducing others by purchasing porn (thereby giving money
directly to this wicked endeavor). There are also some other things
that one can do to strike a blow for Holiness.
1) Write a letter to the newsstand, bookstore, or grocery store,
where you used to purchase the porn and tell them why you will no
longer be purchasing their magazine.
2) Send a copy of your letter to the company that actually publishes
the magazine.
3) Thirdly, and most importantly, stop buying the magazine. Don’t be
fooled, when you buy these porn magazines, you are sending a direct
and explicit message to the publisher that you want them to keep
pumping their filth into the community and that you want them to use
your money to do so.
4) If enough Christians would stand up and let their wallet reflect
their Sunday Morning Testimony, we would dry up the revenue and
stronghold these semi-porno magazines have on our communities.
As an example of the action you should take, see the letter below
written to one of the large multimillion dollar grocery chains.
Following that, is the response from the grocery chain’s Chairman,
President, and CEO (Chief Executive Officer). This response
indicates that the grocery chain can be moved to reprimand magazines
pushing porn if enough of you will simply take action.
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Dear Mr. XXXXX:
For a period of time I have noticed what appears to be an attack
made against basic family values perpetrated by various XXXXXXX
stores. What I am referring to are the materials (e.g. magazines)
placed at the XXXXXXX checkout counters. I have observed materials
at the XXXXXXX checkout counters that range from discussions of the
most salacious details of the lives of US citizens, to individuals
scantily clad in sexually suggestive poses. Recently, while shopping
in XXXXXXX, I noticed on the magazine rack at the checkout counter
what appeared to be a magazine cover with the picture of a totally
naked woman (if you discount the ankle bracelet); one of the
captions on this same cover read: “What’s Sexy Now!” I raised my
objections to this cover with store clerks, and a manager who
could/would do little more than encourage me to fill out (and mail)
a customer comment card. I later requested to speak with the
XXXXXXXXXXX store manager: XXXX XXXXX, who agreed to pull the
magazine with the nude woman. However, while shopping at the XXXXXXX
store several days later, I noticed the same magazine in a number of
the checkout stand racks. As a last resort, I complained to the
person who fills the racks with magazines; she basically had no
comment.
At this point I am more than extremely perplexed as to why the
XXXXXXX checkout stand must convert itself into a miniature Adult
bookstore thereby offending me, my family, and so many XXXXXXX
customers.
I believe XXXXXXX is currently violating our local standards of
decency here in XXXXXXX, California, and I am investigating what
legal and political action I must take in order to rectify XXXXXXX
breach of common decency standards. I thought that you might
appreciate being notified of my intentions directly.
I am sending copies of this letter to XXXXX XXXXXXXX, Sr. Vice
President - Norcal Division Manager, and to XXXX XXXXXXXX, Store
Manager - XXXXXXXX, California.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXX
Concerned Citizen and Father
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REPSONSE FROM GROCERY CHAIN:
Dear Mr. XXXXXX:
Thank you for writing about some of the magazines sold in our
stores. We appreciate your interest as a good customer.
At XXXXXXX and its affiliated companies, we maintain a master list
of authorized magazines, tabloids and paperback books. While our
stores are not required to carry every title on the list, they may
not add new titles without approval from division headquarters. In
addition, we reserve the right to remove or relocate any single
issue of an authorized publication whose cover is in bad taste or
otherwise offensive to the majority of our customers. in most
instances, our managers opt to move the offending issue to a less
visible location.
Unlike some other retailers, we do not carry the so-called “male
sophisticates” such as XXXXXXX, XXXXXXXXX and XXXXXX. We have also
advised the publishers of certain other, authorized publications
that sexually-suggestive cover photos and headlines may result in
removal of such issues from our checkstand displays. These magazines
generate a substantial portion of their sales through these
displays, and their distributors know we can return pulled issues
for full credit, so this is not an idle threat. The publishers have
assured us they will continue to press for moderation in this
regard.
As I’m sure you can appreciate, what constitutes objectionable
material is highly subjective. While we do want to be a responsible
retailer, we do not wish to engage in censorship. Your comments will
be useful in our ongoing evaluation of reading material in our
stores.
Our thanks again for taking the time to share your views.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXX
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One more note from Holiness.com:
One thing you can conclude from the response from the grocery chain
above: if enough customers of a store voice their objection to
semi-porn sold in the store and stop purchasing the product, the
store will pull the magazines (regardless of their desire not to
properly censor wicked material) as they are driven by the desire to
make a profit on merchandise. A profit won’t be made for specific
merchandise if we don’t buy it and encourage everyone we know to
stop making such purchases.
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