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Porn channel an abomination
Fred Henry, For The Calgary Herald
Published: Tuesday, August 26, 2008The CRTC approved a Canadian pay-television pornography channel called Northern Peaks last week on the basis that 50 per cent of its pornographic content would be produced in Canada, which in turn, will also lead to the creation of a pornography industry in Canada.
In justifying its decision, the CRTC argues that it never takes a moral perspective on the contents of the applications it reviews. This explanation is not only ludicrous in itself but simply not credible because the CRTC has been noticeably reluctant over the years to license religious broadcasting.
Without question, pornography has a devastating impact upon all of society, especially women and young children. Pornography teaches that women enjoy "forced" or perverse sexual activity; advocates prostitution, exhibitionism and voyeurism as normal behaviour; and regards women as sex objects to be used for one's self-gratification.
For some men, the regular use of pornography normalizes aggression toward women in sexual and other interpersonal encounters, and increases the tolerance for such aggression against women in the larger culture.
Sadly, the greatest impact may be on the young, especially males 12 through 17 years of age, because pornography portrays sexual activity outside of marriage as acceptable without the dire consequences of AIDS or other venereal diseases, and without the responsibility toward conceiving a human life.
These assertions are supported by criminal evidence. A proven direct correlation exists between crimes of rape, child abuse, and the physical abuse of a spouse, and the proliferation of pornographic materials and the presence of live porn and sexually oriented businesses in a community.
Pornography is not simply linked to a "one time, one action" phenomenon, but may become like a spiritual cancer that corrupts the person.
Dr. Victor Cline has posited four progressive effects of pornography: (1) addiction, where the need to view pornographic materials leads to a loss of free control over behaviour; (2) escalation, where the person delves into progressively harder pornography, usually to attain the same level of sensation and arousal; (3) desensitization, whereby the user is no longer morally sensitive to the shocking, illegal, repulsive, perverted or immoral quality of the material, but instead views it as acceptable and begins to look upon others as objects; and (4) acting out, where the fantasizing becomes overt behaviour.
Additionally from a moral point of view, there are three reasons why pornography is wrong and sinful behaviour for individuals.
First, pornography offends the dignity of the participants (actors, vendors, the public). Each one is exploited himself or exploits others in some way for personal pleasure or gain. In all cases, the dignity of the human being -- whether the person posing, the person producing, the person distributing, or the person enjoying -- is debased.
Second, those who engage in pornography immerse themselves in a fantasy world, withdrawing from reality. While genuine love always involves a self-giving of oneself for the good of others, pornography entices a person to withdraw into a selfish world of perverted fantasy which may later be acted out to the detriment of oneself and others. This problem has increased dramatically, since the Internet offers "virtual reality" sexual interaction.
