My posts are usually not personal, but with occasionally I will make an exception.
I am having to face the fact that I can hardly "share" most articles from secular sites, or YouTube videos, without the risk of also inadvertantly sharing a side thumbnail image and/or article which happens to be pornographic.
Let's face it: What we call innocuous today is, in fact, objectively PORNOGRAPHIC. Our society has just become accustomed to the perverse and profane. Now, what is considered "obscene" is the worse of the worse, as if there is such a thing as some porn that is not so bad --- even rated watchable. Even PG-13 animations targeting children is ridiculously graphic and advertising exaggerated female sexual parts (namely the chest). Why is this even necessary? It's not!
When society lowers the bar on what is acceptable, it lowers the bar on all values, starting from the top: charity. It cuts away charity because it lowers man to an object --- as his sexuality is separated from his entire being. Man is also of spirit, and has a soul. |
| Millstone, anyone? |
Whenever anyone comes upon perverse material, one must say the simple, one-word prayer within himself, "MERCY!" Jesus, have mercy on the scandal mongers of this nature, for they know not what they do to others, let alone themselves! But even for those that accept and even seek out such scandal: You say you "love God", yet you would willingly and violently rip His supernatural Life of grace from your heart and mind. I realize this is hard to hear, but this is the spiritual reality of the affect of pornography on a soul who is a practicing Catholic, isn't it? But you also destroy your ability to relate, and your self-esteem. And you perpetuate the hurt that this brings to the culture, by the victims of this societal monster by proxy --- as even those who do not 'use' this are hurting from being reduced by culture to more of an object that a human --- judged by things such as "sexual appeal" and "viability" within a society --- even "PAWNS" that are no more of use that that which they contribute in the material sense. Yes, all this utilitarianism is fostered at its very root by a lack of charity that often has as its direct relative --- the lack of chastity and the abuse of God's graces. This is one of the reasons our society now is succumbing to Socialism and eventually Communism.
More and more as the natural moral virtues of charity are confused as "justice", people are growing in avarice and away from full compassion. Envy, fear, anger and greed are taking over ... all introduced with lust by a broken society. This is occuring as even those who would be fighting against these social evils are mixing the practice of the one, true faith with sins against purity. This, in turn, causes the soul to separate in his mind and heart the RIGHTS OF GOD firstly, and secondly, the rights of others. If you flip the priority of those two, as humanists tend to do, then your religion is in VAIN. Purity is the essential element to recognizing God's rights firstly, and secondly, the AWARENESS of one's obligation and the STRENGTH OF WILL (fortitude) to execute the difficult, but right effort to choose and execute. Man thereby becomes a person of both weak understanding and weak will, reducing both his understanding of his own dignity and that intrinsically of others. Man's dignity is firstly in God the Father, who created him in His image, and secondly, in God the Son, who sacrificed his Life that man may have supernatural life, that thirdly, God the Holy Ghost gives through the means of supernatural life of sanctifying grace (ex.: as in Baptism). Yes, it can be restored through Holy Confession, but it weakens the will, and restitution is still wanting for each mortal sin ever committed. A man whose will is thus broken, loses his understanding of justice and value of truth, not just from the weakening of holy, filial fear of God (who is Truth Itself), but also of justice. Even when he has good intentions, since the supernatural Gift of the Holy Ghost, namely, to this point, that of understanding, is subverted by mortal sin, he will fail to perceive the natural rights belonging to him or to others. This indoctrination always occurs by sins against chastity, namely with the use or pornography, because these abhorrations are based on the premise that a human (man or woman --- usually a woman) can and even should be reduced to a perverse function --- a function for utilitarian purposes, and a person reduced to a mere object, whose sexual being is separate from their humanity and likeness of God. Does it matter that there are some poor depraved souls that actually will, for one reason or another, to be reduced to such a perverse function? No, not at all. I dare to say that if anyone is in Hell, before even Judas Iscariot, Immanuel Kant is most likely there --- because it was he who proposed and promoted the demonic concept that if a person consents to an immoral act with another, that the other is not guilty of the sin of scandal. This is AGAINST the teachings of the Church, both Divine and natural moral laws, since each of us is culpable for our own choices by the gift of free will. But such scounderals affected by having drowned their consciences in perversion cannot even allow themselves to ascend to accountability, as any person above the age of reason ought to; they even go so far as to excuse others' accountability due to broken consciences. But remember, they are broken because they first willed it. So MERCY! We implore MERCY on such people, in part, yes, still victims of not merely concupiscence, but the Spirit of the World and the devil --- who is a cowardly but highly intelligent and resourceful opportunity. "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do!" Those of us who do know better have an obligation to show love in this mercy, by not mistaking that there is SIN, otherwise, there would be no NEED for MERCY. Chosing to acquiese to the spirit of the world in our wording or approach is acuqiessing to the lies. If one is sick and needs medicine, how would they accept medicine if they do not know to approach the Doctor in the first place? They must acknowledge they are sick first. We have an obligation to tell those we love, in a loving manner, that they are sick --- when the sickness if mortal. Now, I wonder to myself, since I have often shared YouTube videos and articles from secular news sources, how many people I have unwittingly scandalized by cooperation with these media outlets. How often I have seen an obscene thumbnail from a video or article on a page or at the end of a video that is completely innocuous --- but these scandal monger sites are increasingly barraging us with this poison. So, while it is not (thanks be to God) an occasion of sin for me --- am I forgetting about my brothers in Christ? Those images might not even be there at the time I share an article or video, but may later appear, or I might not have noticed it. What then? There is too much expedience and less discerning in all this social media. It is too easy for a grave mistake to occur. I am thinking of no longer using secular media. It's just not really necessary, not compared to saving souls.
But back to how perversion/porn promotes Socialism and Communism: These are economic concepts based on materialism, they looks to promote a social good by employing a utilitarianistic view and egalitarianistic view. It accomplishes this by saying that charity is justice, that it is right for the government to take what property is one person's out of justice, to give to those who need it more. In fact, it does this by putting man's view of his 'rights' over God's, as God is the Creator and decides upon Providence. This is NOT suggesting that it is good to hoard, or to not share, but this is a matter of CHARITY, NOT of JUSTICE.
So to tie in perversion: pornography, the spirit of licenese over liberty and freedom* (*the ability to chose the good), are all promoters of stealing from others, and overall utilitarianism, to one degree or another.
Now, this is not meant to be a political blog, but, I have something to say in terms of what Holy Mother Church teaches on this subject, in my next post...
Meanwhile, feel free to submit comments.
