Are you willing to talk about pornography?
People often ask me, "Eric, what do you do for a living?"
It's an innocent question unless you make your living like me. I usually start my answer with "I am happy to tell you, but you will probably regret asking the question." Many times I am right.
There are a multitude of reasons people don't want to talk about pornography:
- It is evil
- It is deviant
- It is arousing
- it is a secret habit
However, pornography is such a pervasive part of our culture that our silence makes the problem worse.
Silence can be interpreted as approval or at least tolerance.
Silence isolates us.
Silence makes people face their problem alone.
Silence perpetuates people keeping secrets.
An expert on youth culture wrote that "It's a good thing to be talking about pornography because it's one of the greatest threats to the spiritual and relational health of ourselves and everyone we minister to."
He goes on talk about these threats becoming reality: "the Penn State sex-abuse scandal," and "sexual-abuse reports in [Pennsylvania] had doubled," and "the growing pervasiveness, presence, and nature of pornography - are combining in a perfect storm that will only make these stories more common."
His challenge to youth ministers needs to be adopted by all of us: "We need to act now - corporately and individually - on the uneasiness in the room and the expression on our faces. I think we know. . . we've got to start dealing with this stuff as it impacts our culture, our kids, their families, and even ourselves."
So I ask you again, are you willing to talk about pornography?
Harding Academy in Searcy, Arkansas is having Eric for two days of presentations this month.