Pornography An Ancient Sin Repackaged (Part 1)

Porn and What It's Done To Women

Just mention the word “porn” or “pornography” and observe the silence, unease, and anxiety in a room.¹ But the range of emotions is so much more complex. Some feel disgust, embarrassed, or ill-equipped to participate or even to listen to such a conversation. Interestingly, something that is so inappropriate is so very accessible and consumed at alarming rates. This is a significant cultural crisis that many are now calling a “porndemic.” Yet, it’s rarely being addressed in christian spaces.

Popular pornography sites are seeing continual upticks in viewership. Pornhub had over 42 billion visits in 2019 according to a Forbes article. With the increase in viewership creates immense opportunity to commercialize around pornography. NBC news reports that Pornography has a global revenue in the area of $97 billion, with anywhere between $10-12 billion coming from the U.S. It’s no wonder that our modern culture has gravitated and clung onto pornography.

Additionally, the impact of pornography has traditionally been associated with consumption by men. However, the data as early as 2009 show ⅓ of consumers of porn are women. At least 70% of those women kept their porn watching secret. In 2003 a study that included Christian women presented 1 in 6, “acknowledged a problem at some level or another with pornography.” The data in front of us affirms and reinforces the term “porndemic” as no exageration, but a serious problem in our society and culture at large.

As a result of the industrial revolution and the rise of humanist philosophy, an ideology that places the individual’s needs first, porn is increasingly viewed by secular culture as normative. But It’s not just secular culture, even those who attend church are very much included in all of these figures.

If you are being impacted or possibly even traumatized by a loved ones participation in pornography this paper is for you.

If you are currently caught in the addictive cycle of pornography this paper is for you.

And even if you just occasionally view pornography and think it’s no big deal and everyone is doing this, this paper is for you.

Pornography is affecting us all and costing us more than we think.

Because this paper is written from a Biblical standpoint, the difference between the church and the culture is the place we will start our discussion. At first glance this may seem like something new in our history but a closer look at Biblical times in the Ancient Near East (ANE) and the Greco Roman World at the time of Jesus show us a different story. Pornography or at least a sexualized environment was very much part of the social fabric of society simply packaged in a different way. Our aim is to first discuss sexuality in the ancient world (ANE and Greco-Roman). Second, to discover how Biblical ethics intersected and attempted to transform and change the culture in the ancient world, specifically with the first century church. Third, how the church today should respond to the pornography pandemic that is no longer hidden in girly magazines or in XXX stores or the adults only at the local video store. Instead of a person having to look for pornography, it’s now hunting us down within our very own homes and electronic devices. And it’s not just going after the seedy individual, porn preys on both the very young and vulnerable to the adult men and women regardless of their religious affiliation or morals.

Porn is no longer outside our neighborhood, it’s within our houses and according to recent data, in our very own pockets. Mobile devices accounted for 83.7% of Pornhub’s viewership in 2019 globally. The mobility of pornography and ease of access in our society are all reasons for Christians to not simply be aware of the various issues surrounding porn, but also be equipped biblically, theologically, and therepuetically to provide and present the light of Christ in the dark chambers where pornography roams.

Pornography is a modern renovation of an ancient sexual sin.

As Christian’s our new life in Christ changes our desires.

Many people think the issue is the person using pornography but the real root issue is the condition of the heart desiring the pornogrpahy.

This theological truth is affirmed through the chemical responses of our body as it engages porn. The neuro-chemical release of “feel good chemicals” such as dopamine show us what the heart loves it will continue to long for. This is the case with pornography. The heart bent towards these sexual images and videos will continue to long for it.

Sexuality in the Ancient World: Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) and Greco-Roman

The evolution of what we now have at our fingertips and mobile device screens we’ve labeled as “pornography” was much different in the ancient world. In the cultural setting of the Bible pornography had to do with an environment that was sexualized. The Bible clearly shows a contrast between the sexual exploits and values of the Ancient Near Eastern and Greco Roman world versus the Biblical vision of sexuality the Bible portrays. First we will start with sexuality in the ANE and then move on to the Greco-Roman context.

Ancient Near Eastern (ANE)

It’s interesting that in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) we don’t find an explicit story (positioned in a positive way) of sexual manipulation through the use of “erotic attraction” as a weapon to control, manipulate, or overcome men. The stories that comes close (such as Tamar in Genesis 38) present sex and sexuality in almost a neutral context that deals primarily with the benefit of sexual intimacy such as having children and the establishment of a family. Therefore the value of the Bible, especially in the OT is a, “a respect for the power of sexual attraction.” How is it respected? By containing the power and bliss of sexual intimacy and erotic relationships within the context of covenant marriage. The Old Testament gives us examples of sexual environments that promote lust as destroying the order of society.

The Pentateuch (first five books of the Old Testament) give us two categories to place sexuality within in order to preserve the ideal and goodness of sexuality as God intended through His creation as well as warning us of the misuse and abuse of sexuality. First, sex/sexuality is a divine blessing given to us from God. Second, sex/sexuality serves as a symbol of what is clean and unclean.

Sex/Sexuality As a Divine Blessing:

It’s important for us to first acknowledge that God created humanity in the context of all that is good. In other words, the very first picture we have of human sexuality (and implied sexual union) is good. There is no negative connection to it until after the fall. In fact, God’s decision to create Eve with sexual distinction is in reponse to the Adam’s loneliness. So the presence of sexual distinction was in response to alleviate any potential bad. Therefore, sexuality and therefore sex must first be seen as good. It is not something to be hidden or run away from. However, it is something to be understood in the context of God’s will and His vision. It seems the distinction of gender and procreation was connected to the fulfillment of the covenant promise and responsibility of Adam and Eve to spread the image of God and thus the glory of God out and into the world (Gen 1:28). Interestingly, Adam alone is unable to fulfill the divine commandment and thus is in need of Eve.

Eve’s name in Hebrew, “ḥawwâ” is connected to the idea of “life” or “living” and the author of Genesis explicitly states that she is the “mother of all living things/ kî hı̄ʾ hāyĕtâ ʾēm kol-ḥay.” It is only through the “help” of Eve that Adam is able to accomplish the divine mandate to “be fruitful and multiply” and thus God gives Adam a divine blessing in Eve which is made manifest in the presence of two genders that are co-equal in value and worth and yet distinct in function and role. The return to “oneness” for man and women takes place within the context of marriage when they, “become one flesh” (Gen 2:24). The gift of gender and sex are given by God for a purpose to be realized in the context of marriage. Kleinig summarizes this well saying, “So both [man and women] their sexual status and their gender are aspects of their creation in God’s image.

Men and women were designed to reflect God’s character, his qualities, and his activity, each seperately in their devotion to Jesus and together in their conjugal sexual union with each other.” Gender, sexuality, and sex are all good gifts given by a good God for very specific good reasons. However, as with all things in creation after the fall there is the possibility of good things to turn into sinful things and sex/sexuality are not exempt from this tragedy.

Sex/Sexuality As a Symbol of Sin/Uncleanness:

The last sentence of Genesis chapter 2, verse 25 reads, “Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.” This was the intended vision of marriage and male to female relationships. However, sadly Genesis 3, what is often referenced as “the Fall” broke both humanity and creation. Sprinkle says, “There was an unholy exchange from a relationship that was honest and open to hidden and filled with shame. The ideal of love was broken by the presence of pain. The intimacy of controlled and holy sexual “lust/desire” was overwhelmed with domination.” After the Fall God’s vision of honset, holy, and mutually beneficial sexual unity within the context of marriage is horribly shattered. Controlled and bridled love and desire is overwhelmed by unhindered and overwhelming passion that drives humanity towards sexual, emotional, and phsycial self destruction. In the Old Testament, sexuality takes on a new symbolic role of showing what is clean and unclean. Clean referencing what is holy, controlled, and submitted to God. Unclean referencing the uncontrolled, domineering, and unholy desires. If in Eve the context of sexual union with Adam was to produce life, the imagery of the Old Testament after the fall connected to sexuality is often connected to a loss of life. Examples found in Leviticus 15 with a women’s period or abnormal bleeding may symbolize a loss of potential life. The discharge of men (exhaustion after sexual intimacy) can be seen as a movement towards death. God’s vision of sexuality and marital union is intimate bliss confined and controlled in holy union that produces life. However, the undoing of creation by sin inverts sexuality and turns it in on itself bringing about destruction.

Stay Tuned For Part 2

1. This essay comes from the Therapy and Theology episode “Pornography and What Its Done To Women” | Episode 4