Tripel
Puritan Board Senior
Even advertisements have become intolerable causing me to change the channel or mute the sound.
And that's the best type of censorship.
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Even advertisements have become intolerable causing me to change the channel or mute the sound.
Even advertisements have become intolerable causing me to change the channel or mute the sound.
And that's the best type of censorship.
I think we have to acknowledge we are living in the days of Sodom in the Old Testament.
Covenant Eyes is good for internet accountability. But, if you have children in the house or struggle with the temptation yourself it is not enough. Use a server based filter like American Family Online provides. You can still have sites visited sent to an accountability partner, but the do a very good job at filtering sites and eliminating spam if you use their email service. If you can't get there you can't see it.
This is one area where I support censorship laws. I would love to see p0rnography banned and decency laws enacted in all public places and domains. ID verification and password protection should be required by law to access it on the internet, and it should never be placed on a billboard or in any public area.
My point is I don't want the secular government drawing the line between was is obscene and what isn't. I should be the one deciding what my family watches based on biblical principles, not the government based on some arbitrary standard. If they can allow too much obscenity they can outlaw too much of what is good and right - I would rather them not regulate the airwaves at all. I suppose that's the libertarian in me coming out again.
I once did landscaping for a new Canadian of Singaporean origin. He was not a Christian and he told me that one of the biggest differences between Canada and Singapore was the great difficulty in getting **** in Singapore. He told me of a former Prime Minister of Singapore who was very Victorian in morality and firmly believed and publicly stated that p0rnography would destroy any civilisation. Looking around here in Toronto, the Sin Capital of Canada, I would agree with that Prime Minister.I am rather glad for the censorship laws in my land, though it could be better.
Covenant Eyes is good for internet accountability. But, if you have children in the house or struggle with the temptation yourself it is not enough. Use a server based filter like American Family Online provides. You can still have sites visited sent to an accountability partner, but the do a very good job at filtering sites and eliminating spam if you use their email service. If you can't get there you can't see it.
I would recommend this if accountability alone isn't enough. However, I know of few who won't change their ways if they are met with a sobbing wife with good cause.
So I'm curious, in y'all's experience, what are some of the best resources/practices available to combat this deadly temptation?
I have personally found these (from the New Horizons and Ordained Servant of the OPC) helpful:
The p0rnography Trap by David Feddes
Pastor to Pastor: The Peril of p0rnography by William Shishko
Pure Sex by Larry Wilson
I want to organize a group of 50-70yo ladies from our church to have tea at our local strip club every Friday and Saturday night. How long do you think this would be allowed?
For those who want federal censorship on such things... your hearts and minds are in the right place(morally speaking) but your direction is(in my opinion) not. Christ did not come here to set a moral standard but to seek and save the lost from eternal severance from God.
You're absolutely right. It's out of control. The only part I disagree with is having password verification to access it - It should be illegal to put it on the internet or publish it at all.
For those who want federal censorship on such things... your hearts and minds are in the right place(morally speaking) but your direction is(in my opinion) not. Christ did not come here to set a moral standard but to seek and save the lost from eternal severance from God.
He came to, among other things, reinforce a moral standard; even to the point of making it more difficult, as per the subject of this thread.
Mat. 28: 27"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.'[e] 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Christ wanted a Federal ban on buying and selling at the Temple, and He got really nice and direct.
Mat 21:12 And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of he money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves;
You're absolutely right. It's out of control. The only part I disagree with is having password verification to access it - It should be illegal to put it on the internet or publish it at all.
I thought there were talk about adding .xxx to Internet. Someone suggested that all p*orn should rest at .xxx instead of .com and make it illegal to use .com for p*orn site. What happened to that idea?
-----Added 12/13/2009 at 09:23:41 EST-----
The Chinese hermits explains it better. To improve health, spirit and mind, one must contain their sperm. They claim that the spirit rests in the kidney and is in direct link to the genital area. To spill the sperm too frequently will harm the kidneys and create poor health and possible death. "Too much of it would cause one the be blind" might ring true. Hermits and possibly monks contain their sperm for maximum heath. That's why I feel better
Andrew,
I think the issue is a bit more complicated than this.
I'm a firm believer in the notion that God's authority on this earth exists within different spheres but those spheres are not precisely divisible. The Magistrate is God's instrument for the suppression of evil within fallen human societies while the Church rules within the sphere of the visible people of God. I say it's not precisely divisible because we can't simply stand by at times and allow the destruction of other lives but, at the same time, the real Power that the Church wields is the Preaching of the Word and does not bear the Sword.
p0rnography is wrong not because it is wrong merely for those united to Christ to engage in un-Godly practices but because it is against the Law of God written on men's hearts. Magistrates will one day answer to God for all manner of permitting and promoting evil because they were ordained to be God's ministers of restraining evil on this earth.
p0rnography objectifies and destroys the image of God that men are created in. Men know and understand that this is evil because they bear the image of God whether or not they claim Christ as their Savior. Magistrates do not have the authority to do injury to the image of God in objectifying man created in God's image any more than they have the authority to destroy a human life.
The problem with society as it has degrade morally is that it has continued to recede philosophically. Modernism made man believe that he was the measure of all things and that God could be pushed to the corner of faith while human reason would determine what was true based on the physical phenomena or reasoned from within the will of man.
Philosophy took a predictable route in greater and greater skepticism and, eventually with the Nihilists, determined that the logical end to this philosophy was meaninglessness. Naturalistic existentialism tried to resurrect meaning by placing it within man but post-Modernism has most recently challenged any objective standard on the basis that all meta-narratives (ways to understand reality) are essentially power plays.
If man is the measure, they reason, then why must I agree to history or law or science that is the preference of any given society? In other words, without God, any view of reality proposed by a man or a group of men, has no bearing upon me and is an arbitrary set of norms cooked up by those who have the power to make those norms.
This is where we find the state of Law within our culture. The current norm for laws is stated this way (in so many words): We have grown beyond the point where we can appeal to any transcendent standard for law and the only validity for any law is the prevailing view of any culture.
Consequently, p0rnography is only bound in our laws insofar as our society generally agrees it ought to be bound because man is the measure and there is no appeal to anything outside of human power to set a more. There are no ethics (transcendent values) but only mores (what society is willing to accept).
Thus, as soon as the society degrades to the point where pedophilia and other sick objectifying behavior becomes mainstream, we will see laws relax in that direction.
I guess what I'm saying is that we ought not be too quick to defend the notion that the State has some sort of independent power to determine its laws. The laws that permit moral evil are evil themselves by the only standard that is not completely arbitrary. God's people may not always be in a position to change the laws but neither ought we to assume that we can simply ignore that which is an evil law and assume that the State has no authority or responsibility to enforce moral good. It is a judgment upon our culture that we have the laws and the magistrates that we do and reflects the captivity to Sin that permeates: man will be as God and so the State will wield the sword as if it is God.
After reading this post, I've been trying to think about the implications of what you are saying. We are not to lean upon a fallen government for moral fidelity. This is a topic I'm somewhat having a difficulty with. The government is to protect the people from evil, but at the same time the government is not a guide for morality. We as believers can't and are not called to transform a nation but rather we are called to proclaim the Gospel of our beloved Lord.
This is definently a topic I want continue.
In other words, there is no transcendent standard but public sentiment itself becomes normative.
This is one area where I support censorship laws. I would love to see p0rnography banned and decency laws enacted in all public places and domains. ID verification and password protection should be required by law to access it on the internet, and it should never be placed on a billboard or in any public area.
Ancient Chinese medical scientist held that "To conserve health one should practice abstinence. The practice of sex is suggested as follows: once in several days at the age of twenty, once in ten days at thirty, once in twenty-eight days at forty, and once in forty or fifty days at fifty. When one is sixty, his life has come to the final stage: he should stop practice of sex and subject himself to nonaction and the seeking of peace and quietness. Emission is to be abandoned." It is worth our while to learn that the ancients believe the abstinence of sex is very important in conserving health.(clipped) . . . There is no evidence that retaining sperm is healthier. A fulfilling marriage might be the most healthy of all.
Ancient Chinese medical scientist held that "To conserve health one should practice abstinence. The practice of sex is suggested as follows: once in several days at the age of twenty, once in ten days at thirty, once in twenty-eight days at forty, and once in forty or fifty days at fifty. When one is sixty, his life has come to the final stage: he should stop practice of sex and subject himself to nonaction and the seeking of peace and quietness. Emission is to be abandoned." It is worth our while to learn that the ancients believe the abstinence of sex is very important in conserving health.(clipped) . . . There is no evidence that retaining sperm is healthier. A fulfilling marriage might be the most healthy of all.
Ancient Chinese medical scientist held that "To conserve health one should practice abstinence. The practice of sex is suggested as follows: once in several days at the age of twenty, once in ten days at thirty, once in twenty-eight days at forty, and once in forty or fifty days at fifty. When one is sixty, his life has come to the final stage: he should stop practice of sex and subject himself to nonaction and the seeking of peace and quietness. Emission is to be abandoned." It is worth our while to learn that the ancients believe the abstinence of sex is very important in conserving health.(clipped) . . . There is no evidence that retaining sperm is healthier. A fulfilling marriage might be the most healthy of all.