The New Entertainment

J.R. from the xxxchurch.com blog sadly reports:

Porn, a 57 billion dollar a year industry worldwide. America takes credit for about 1/3 of that cash. This country is watching a big shift. What once was hidden under your Dad’s mattress and was Americas dirty little secret is now attaching itself to families and the very fabric of our lives. We must bite into the reality it is. New, as of late are the increasing numbers of Porn conventions going on around the globe. Almost every major market in this country in 2006/07 will have a porn convention to meet consumer demand... porn has become the new entertainment.

I think what strikes me as most sad about this reality is not the objectification of women, or the damage done to marriages, or the slavery of addiction. As grievously heinous as these things are, what jumps to my attention, as being the most tragic aspect of pornography is the sheer loneliness of it all. Women that are always promising and never truly delivering, always beckoning, but never really allowing one to draw near, always available, but never really there. Oh how many men suffering under the weight of this tail-chasing loneliness, but have never seen that there is another far superior way.

Praise be to God that he has provided another way. As with most things in the Christian life, it is not instant gratification driven, but the blessings that come from the fight of waiting are incalculably sweet.

What is the foundation of true intimacy? It is God himself that exists trinitarianly in a loving relationship. Thus those who are created in his image are called to love as the greatest commandment. God first, others second. This spells true intimacy. At an even deeper level, God calls a husband and wife to glorify his relationship to the church through true passionate connection that is physical, emotional, and spiritual. This is true intimacy.

May the people of God display these lives of love to a aching, lonely, and pornography pursuing world to show that there is a better way.