Quote:
|
Originally Posted by parable
Perhaps the steady discipline is fellowship with other believers with whom you are accountable, so they may encourage and support you in your walk. Also, if you endeavor to serve the purposes that God has in mind for you, you realize that you need His help to do those things. So, its important not to hinder your relationship with God by indulging things that alienate you from Him. I am convinced that temptation can only be resisted if there is a more appealing choice to be embraced. Otherwise, its inevitable because no one can simply resist something forever, there must be a proactive choice to do something else. For me, preserving a clean conscience is fundamental to being open to the blessings that God has for me and for others through me, and that is what I try to remember when I struggle with temptation. I believe this is what scripture is talking about when it promises that with every temptation, there is always a way out, a choice for something else.
|
Parable, it seems that we are in agreement after all, except that you're just much more compassionate than I am towards hypocritical Christians. If I get you right, you think masturbation without lust is fine (if possible), but pornography is wrong... for Christians. I can jive with that. I just don't know how many people try *earnestly* to live by it.
To me, if you (general "you," not you specifically) are going to step up and call yourself a Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, whatever... then you'd better mean it. Obey the rules, not because they're rules, but because you love the Being who made them, and because you believe they were made for your own well-being and that of others. Don't tempt yourself. Don't even go near the edge. Stay well away from it. Or am I missing something entirely about how Christians are supposed to act towards temptation?
Now, as for your comments about pornography. (Perhaps this is a threadjack, but I don't know.) I agree with them for the most part... a TON of porn is very bad stuff, and is humiliating/degrading/greedy/self-loathing etc. However, there is one porn producer I have seen whose work does not fit into any of the categories you mention. It's called Comstock Films, and their porn is basically the taping of real couples having sex, willfully, soberly, as realistic as it gets. There is no airbrushing, no scripting, no stupid music, no drug and alcohol use, no one in pain or humiliation, nothing secret or perverted. It's just plain old regular sex.
I don't know if that fits into your definition of "ethical pornography" (I am not sure if there is space for such a concept, as a Christian, for the reasons we went over earlier), but for a non-Christian such as myself who is very conscious of the abuses of the porn industry, I like this stuff. I see it as an alternative for me, though more in a secular humanist sense than a spiritual one. But that's just my perspective.
Thanks for the exchange, btw. Sometimes it's nice to have a discussion about religion and sexuality that isn't loaded down with annoying assumptions on both sides. Perhaps this fits more in "Philosophy" than "Sexuality" now, heh.