The One About Prostitution and Pornography. And other stuff. Part I

Phil is home sick today, and the temperature outside has been below freezing for several hours, so we’ve been taking it easy this evening.  My wonderful sis-in-law is taking our kids to their weekly MMA class so I can keep an eye on my guy who is feeling weak because a.) he’s been “flu-ish” and b.) he hasn’t eaten since Saturday night.  If you know us, then you KNOW abstaining from food for that long is not normal.  Other than Phil’s illness and lack of appetite, though, everything else at La Casa de Davis is pretty much normal. 

After watching the first five minutes of the 5 o’clock news, though, I started thinking that life in other places may be suddenly ABnormal for many other people tonight. 

So we’re watching tv and Phil tells me to turn the channel to see if a recent Facebook news post would be featured, and sure enough, there it was:  15 men and women were arrested today during a prostitution sting at a local hotel.  What really captured my attention was that the one mug shot shown on the newscast was that of a man who is a teacher and assistant coach at the high school where my son attended football camp—where some of my friends’ children are students—where people I know are employed.  

The newscast’s website showed the mug shots of the other people who were arrested in the sting, and several of them look like people who you might see at work, the bank, grocery store, or even at church. Probably, a few of them have families—children, spouses, parents—who are having a very ABnormal evening now that their loved ones have been caught and publicly exposed as a participants in a particularly (in my opinion) embarrassing criminal activity.   I’m thinking that life will never be the same for most of those involved in or affected by today’s prostitution sting. 

So I’m wondering what could’ve happened

or what choices were made

or what habits were formed that set those 15 people on a path that led to being arrested for prostitution or for solicitation of prostitution….

If you’ve spent any time at all reading my older blog posts, you know that I use this site for sharing family happenings, pictures, and random thoughts, and I have even used this blog as a “journal” of sorts.  I make no claims of expertise on ANY subject area, so keep in mind that I’m not trying to prove a point, win an argument, or pick a fight.  I’m just “thinking out loud” but not actually out loud, unless YOU’RE reading my thoughts out loud. 

Anywho. 

How does that happen, though?  The committing of acts that lead to the committing of crimes that lead to the whole thing of getting caught and being put on television and on the WWW for God (who already knew) and now for EVERYBODY ELSE to see?

I think it’s just like Jesus’ little brother James said: each one of us can be drawn away, enticed, and even baited by our own desires or lusts.  Then, those desires can give birth to sin which can grow to full maturity and then leads to death (See James 1:14-15). 

I think it’s the little things that turn into bigger things that become habits that lead to addictions that end up destroying us…. I cannot speak for those souls who were featured on the news tonight, and I’m not trying to explain why they did what they did. 

I know I’m rambling here, but the issue that I automatically think of in any instance of sexual misconduct is the issue of pornography, and pornography, I believe, is one of the most addictive, destructive, and DEADLY forms of evil that has infiltrated our culture, churches, homes, heads, and hearts. 

Pornographic images slither in like a serpent and bite with a venom that may either immediately or eventually ruin its victim…it’s different for everyone, but the results are devastating. 

Today’s news broadcast has me thinking about some conversations and confessions that I’ve heard and been a part of over the past few years…. Pornography has crept into many of our lives in sometimes subtle and oftentimes OBVIOUS ways, and we don’t always recognize its presence.  Or if we do recognize its presence, we may not immediately recognize its power or its potential for destroying our lives. 

It may have started with look at a magazine at a friend’s house. 

Or knowledge learned from someone who had NO business sharing that knowledge.

Or the discovery of erotic scenes in “romance novels.”

Or an unsolicited image that popped up while you were minding your own business on the www. 

Or websites that you visited for “informational purposes.”

Or risqué commercials or television shows or movies that no one knew you saw.  

Or the Devil knows what else. 

I know one young person who saw his first glimpse of porn in his middle school bathroom; someone had stuffed a pornographic picture into the paper towel dispenser, and he became an innocent victim who later became a willing participant….

You may think I’m overreacting here, but I’ve heard so many stories—from people I’ve never met and from some who I know personally—of how one thing leads to another.  And another.  Then another.  And sometimes, things happen that were never supposed to happen.  Hearts get broken.  Relationships are ruined.  Marriages are ended.  Reputations are destroyed. 

And mug shots could even be featured on the evening news.

Honestly, any and every addiction we have has the same potential to destroy us…. It usually begins with a desire that starts small but then becomes enormous—the thing that we fail to master becomes our master…. it isn’t just porn….it could be anything. 

The thing that we fail to master becomes our master….

We don’t have to be porn addicts to have issues, friends.  If we’re thinking, breathing, and existing on planet earth, we can have issues.  Some may be small, quirky, or cute, even.  Like having to eat M&M’s one color at a time.  But other issues…

…..like wanting and depending upon too much of anything or anyone for satisfaction or comfort…..

our “issues” can be devastating if they become our masters.

God help us.

That’s the answer.

GOD can help us.  Really. 

We weren’t created to be slaves to our desires.  We were made for more.

I’m calling it quits on this entry because I’ve rambled on for a long time now, but I’m going to post another entry where I’ll include the hope and help that is there for those who really want it.