Pornography - Who is it a sin against?

[IAmTheWork]

Viewing porn may have an effect, (even a negative one) on his future relationships, and family life.

(Bold added in the quote above by me).

Interestingly (without going back and reading every word) we generally talk of porn in relation to men. I know from experience with women friends, pal's partners, etc., that women are in general very much into porn too. They just keep it under wraps, like many other things. But stand near an Anne Summers shop and count the genders...

A bit OT but related, is paedophilia. On a psychology and sociology course some years ago we looked at government figures for various things, and compared them to media and public representations. In the case of reported incidents of child sexual abuse in the UK were people were arrested, 33% of such crimes were committed by females. That's recorded incidents only, ie., where police arrested someone and so had to complete paperwork. It's estimated that more than half of women suspected of sexual abuse on children were 'dealt with at the scene' by police, who refused to believe accusations, or didn't want to become involved in case of a backlash. In other words, it's always been hushed up.

I'm not trying to paint a dark picture here, but I do feel it's somewhat short-sighted, if not unfair, to say 'him' and 'his' constantly with reference to various sexual practises and/or excesses.

All in all, regarding who we sin against, the one you hurt the most when you hurt another is yourself, though many just don't see that.

Edited January 5, 2011 by IAmTheWork
Punctuation.

[FunkyTown]

I'm uncertain about how pornography is a sin against all women.

I think it dehumanizes people in general, regardless of sex. When someone - Anyone - Is turned from a son or daughter of God exclusively in to a tool for your own pleasure, it dehumanizes them. It takes away from who and what they are and turns them in to something less than human. It offends the viewer, because the thing going through their mind is not 'This is a wonderful man/woman/son/daughter'.

When Heavenly Father created us, he gave us the world. To some, he provided us with gold and those who obsessed with it found themselves wrapped in golden chains. To some, he provided us with wine and bread and we became drunkards and gluttons. To some, he provided silk and ermine and they became bound up in the pride of showing up his neighbour.

All goodly things came from God. Every pleasure. Satan, in all his wiles, has never been able to manufacture one that didn't come from God. He only can pervert the pleasures and make us partake of them in ways that are contrary to God's will.

Pornography is nothing more nor less than perverting love, the greatest virtue to mere lust.

[hordak]

(Bold added in the quote above by me).

Interestingly (without going back and reading every word) we generally talk of porn in relation to men. I know from experience with women friends, pal's partners, etc., that women are in general very much into porn too. They just keep it under wraps, like many other things. But stand near an Anne Summers shop and count the genders...

I used him, because my example was a he. But yes it is not unique to men.

[NeuroTypical]

I think of it this way:

Part of repentence is making resitution where possible. Part of the atonement is making things whole when they can't be made whole in this life.

I don't really see the repentence process for sin, involving someone apologizing to every female he'll ever meet for his sin against her. And I don't see every single female in the world reaching the afterlife knowing that she's been made whole through the atonement, because some guy she's never met looked at naked pics of some girl she's never met.

I do see the atonement making the lives whole of those in the porn industry.