Porn-Again Christian: Introduction
I've been meaning to tackle Mark Driscoll's book, Porn-Again Christian: A Frank Discussion on Pornography & Masturbation for God's Men for a while now, but I haven't had the wherewithall to face it. I've read bits and pieces of it before, and while I don't think Driscoll is 100% wrong about everything he says, I spent most of my time reading his words somewhere between disgust, disbelief, and anger. If you're a Driscoll fan, you're probably going to defend him no matter what he says, but if you're not, and you don't like your Evangelical Christianity crude, crass, vulgar, and misogynistic, then this book is probably not going to win you over.
I'm going to take a page out of another Mark's (MarkReads.net) book, and break this down one chapter at a time, to deal with it in neat, bite-sized chunks. The book is available for free online, so you can check it out for yourself (if you dare) and determine whether my assessment of it is fair or not. The book appears to have been originally released in 2008. While it is possible that Driscoll has changed his mind about some of the content since that time, the fact that it is freely available and proudly displayed on the website suggests otherwise.
So, without further ado, it's time for skjaere to read Porn-Again Christian....
Introduction
In Paul's day, he accused some people of worshiping their stomachs as their god, and in our day it appears that our god has simply moved a short distance south.
Assumption 1: That our current culture is more sex-obsessed than other cultures throughout history. I take leave to doubt this. We may be more open and public about it, but humanity has always been fascinated by that which excites and titillates. We just have short memories, and some people seem to think that pre-/extra-marital sex was invented in the 1960's.
As the pastor of a large and growing church filled with strong men, many of them young, I have seen the secret sins of pornography and masturbation paralyze many men with shame, guilt, and embarrassment.
Assumption 2: Masturbation is sinful and unhealthy and we should be embarrassed about it. Well, without this assumption, there would be no book. And while I will agree that masturbation (like, say, videogaming or exercising), when done compulsively and obsessively, can be problematic, and can affect inter-personal relationships, I have a big problem with placing self-pleasure wholesale under the heading of "sin". Especially since masturbation is shown to have beneficial health effects. It relaxes the body, it relieves stress, it feels good, and it's free! I'm gonna tell you right now that there are not many better, more natural, or more enjoyable ways to deal with cramps!
Because I am speaking to fellow men, my tone may not be well suited for some women and, therefore, I would request that they not read this booklet, unless they are a wife whose husband has read it first and he can discuss its contents with her in love.
I'm not sure if the implication here is that women won't understand the subject matter or that our sensibilities are too delicate to handle it, but either way, I'm insulted.
Anyway, he then goes on to discuss the creation story in Genesis, and how Man was not meant to be alone, and I could write screeds on all the problems I have with that particular story, but that's really neither here nor there. Driscoll also uses this story as an example of what God intended for marriage, i.e., one man and one woman, and anything other than that is sinful.
Subsequently, by definition anything that contradicts God's intent is sinful. Thus, sinful acts include homosexuality, bestiality, bisexuality, fornication, friends with benefits, adultery, prostitution, rape, polygamy, sinful lust including pornography, prostitution, rape, polygamy, pedophilia, incest, and anything else invented next to try and escape the clear teachings of Scripture.
Except for all the instances in the Bible wherein adultery, rape, polygamy, and incest are condoned or are given a pass. And nothing anyone says will ever stop me 'shipping David/Jonathan. TheirloveissoOldTestament!
Isn't that sort of like saying apple pie is sinful because God only made apples? The whole idea that sins are sins because God says so, and not because of the harm they do really bothers me. I've watched a lot of Christians go through some very twisty reasoning to say "Well, God says it's a sin, so it must be harmful," rather than looking at it the other way around. It also leads to the false assumption that there can be no morality without God at its root. The thought that belief in God and fear of Hell is the only thing keeping someone from rape and murder is pretty scary.
Well, that's it for the introduction. At some point, I'll come up with the energy to deal with "Chapter One: A Tall Glass of Toilet Water". Yum!