Christian Attitudes Towards Sex, Pornography

One of the more fundamental aspects of conservative Christian ideology is the perspective on sex, sexuality, and pornography. This underlies so much else that it's very important to better understand how Christians treat sex and pornography in order to better grasp how they treat other social issues. This isn't easy because the Christian attitude towards sex can be so twisted, bizarre and contradictory that it's really not easy to comprehend, much less uses as a basis for further understanding.

Jen McCreig writes about a trip she and other non-theists made to "Porn and Popcorn," a Christian anti-pornography event. Here are some of the "scare tactics" they tried to use:

• Senior citizens are the highest porn users. Doesn't that make you want to throw up? Wow, way to marginalize an entire group of people for being sexual. Oh wait, that's the whole point of this presentation.
• A mother called us saying her 8 year old son stumbled upon a porn site. Yeah, he "accidentally" found it. Rigggghttt.
• Porn destroys the economy because you're wasting your money on it. This said right after they tell us how porn is a multi-billion dollar institution. Doesn't that mean it would be stimulating the economy? (EDIT: Apparently even Gingrich agrees with me)
• When this anti-porn Christian group went to a porn convention, everyone there loved and accepted them. Therefor they're doing the right thing. Could you imagine a Christian convention accepting a porn group? Or maybe people at porn conventions are more liberal and open minded, and accepting of people who are different than them?
• Men feel terrified and guilty that they have to hide porn from their wife. Maybe you shouldn't marry someone who's so uptight and anti-sex that she's not cool with you watching porn. Some great communication you have in your marriage there.
• Porn is a gateway drug to child porn. What. No.

There are, of course, liberal criticisms of pornography but they are radically different: liberal critics are concerned with how pornography might contribute to the lower social status of women whereas conservative critics are concerned with keeping that social status as low as possible -- but in different ways.

And as an important side note, this whole beginning piece came off as very demeaning towards women. All women were painted as fragile children who couldn't make their own decisions and were duped into porn. I never heard the pastor or the porn producer refer to females as women or ladies - they always called them "girls." Whether you were a helper in their movement, a porn actress, or the producer's wife - you were "Girl." Way to show some respect to adult women.

The misogyny of Christian anti-porn activism was made even more clear by Shelly, a former porn actress who said a variety of apparently incoherent things. Jen listed some as best she could and I'll quote a few:

• "Women were created as helpers." Isn't it lovely how Christianity can brainwash you into subordination? Why do women take this shit?
• "If he can't pay for the movie, he can't pay for the rent! You don't want him!" What the f*ck? So that's all women want in a man - support? I rarely have had guys pay for dinner because we usually split, but if he does, I'll usually pay for dinner sometimes to. I can't imagine the idea of a boyfriend paying my rent. My parents raised me to be able to take care of myself without a man, thank you very much.
• "Think of a clean glass of water. Now imagine greasy finger prints all over it, like I was just eating fried chicken. That's what masturbation is." ...I don't know what's more disturbing here, the fried chicken comment, or the fact that masturbation is considered dirty.
• "Women were created to receive." ...Feminist rage in 3...2...
• God created sex so you could be one with your partner. Every time you have sex, you're creating oneness with that new person, so you're fracturing your soul into pieces. OMG SEX CREATES HORCRUXES. That's really how Voldemort was doing it, but Rowling had to keep the book rated PG-13. Man, so does that mean when I reach 7 sex partners I'll become all powerful? Sign me up!
• Do any of you watch soap operas? *looks at audience* A DUDE watches soap operas? Man, we're going to need to have a talk. Yes, because you're not conforming to your gender stereotypes! Oh, she then went on to say soap operas were evil, which I guess I'll agree with to an extent.
• "Non-married sex is fake, it's counterfeit. The devil came up with it." ...Yeah, around this point she started invoking the devil. I have to admit this made me really uncomfortable. I mean, I've heard a lot of ridiculous religious things before, but just something about someone going on about the devil's influences and truly believing he exists unnerves me. It's such a convenient excuse for all the bad things you do that it absolutely absolves you of personal responsibility or control.
• "Protective sex is a joke." Wow. I can't think of a more horrible thing to be telling a crowd of 18-25 year olds. This is just plain irresponsible and dangerous. Again, I can't believe PSUB would sponsor an event that could have a severe detrimental affect on the health of students at Purdue. I...I'm really left without words.

Perhaps most salient to atheists is, of course, the attitude towards atheists:

"To connect with an unbeliever is to connect with the devil. and "If he can't be a faithful to God, he can't be faithful to you." Yep, can't go a whole Christian event without bashing the atheists. This quote made me fume. I just listened to a bunch of Christians go on about how they cheated, had promiscuous sex, kept giant secrets from their spouses, got STDs, did drugs, had abortions, etc etc - but that's all okay because they found Jesus. But those atheists? They have no morals, so they're all going to cheat on you.

What a bunch of fu**ing sh**. Our whole group was sitting their in awe of how morally bankrupt these people were, because we're actually good, honest people, and then they go and say we're the cheaters. Or as my agnostic friend said, "My current girlfriend (atheist) is the first one to not cheat on me, compared to all the Christians I dated." PSUB is going to get quite a few unhappy emails about how they're sponsoring events that slander non-believers with unfounded lies.

I yet again had the wonderful feeling of being an outcast; that if I introduced myself to random people at Purdue and they found out I was an atheist, the vast majority would instantly not like me.

Conservative Christians oppose pornography for much the same reason they oppose so many other things: it undermines their ability to exercise control over individual's sexuality and, by extension, their persons. Whatever one might think about some of the social consequences of pornography, the fact remains that the ability to do it not only represents a sort of freedom, but it can also communicate to people other sorts of freedoms they can exercise in the bedroom, in their relationships, and in their private lives.

In a sense, porn gives people ideas and while some of those ideas aren't attractive, their all ideas that the Christian Right opposes because they all allow too much personal autonomy. Notice how all of the complaints above basically reduce to people generally and women in particular exercising personal autonomy in their lives. That's not a coincidence, it's the whole point of this issue. Autonomy is sexuality and sexual behavior may be the most personal, intimate, and fundamental sort of autonomy that you can exercise. If that can be controlled, then the rest of your life will be easier to control. Why do you think that pornography, sexuality, and sexual expression are always among the most repressed things in any totalitarian dictatorship, whether secular or religious?