Ban Porn Now

Though the modern world has better amenities than pre-modernity, it routinely does not foster human flourishing, and has left many men feeling pointless, adrift, rootless, chronically-stressed, and with little opportunity to demonstrate honor or valor in any meaningful sense. Though pornography use is by no means solely to blame for declining birth rates in the modern world, surely it has sedated at least some men who might otherwise overcome their sense of inadequacy or complacency to learn skills that are useful to others, find a mate, and assume the mantle of identity, belonging, and responsibility historically cultivated when men became husbands and fathers. For men who feel adrift at sea in liquid modernity’s confusion about masculinity, and for a society in search for a vision of what it means to be a man, pornography throws out a rope. It pulls us all down into the menacing and shadowy abyss, rather than onto solid ground. In lieu of state action, the church has a unique opportunity to nevertheless forge men of character; it takes a community to form virtue in any person, and the Christian life is described in the New Testament in metaphors ranging from the battle ground to the household to a beacon, bride, body, refuge, pillar, and buttress of truth. Read Full Article »