This article is a summary of Aender Borba’s lecture at the Interactive Faithful Youth Conference 2020.
The theme of pornography is not an exclusive theme of the Christian faith. This sometimes makes the analysis of the problem a little hazy. The origin of human life goes beyond the phenomena observed by the senses. Human beings cannot be explained through created things; would be reductionism. The fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God means that the human person can only flourish if he is in God. We are all endowed with a spiritual inclination. It is therefore essential to know what the Christian faith says about it.
- A very strong tendency that exists in human beings is to want to oppose it in body and soul.
- However.
- Before we follow this path.
- We need the Spirit to help us see who we really are and the nature of addictions.
- With pornography being one of them.
It is common to define vices as the opposite of virtues, from a spiritual perspective addictions are the marks of fractures caused by the Fall, with it and over time sin has come to dominate man, leading him to diminish what he really is. The tendency is to treat it as a constraint, because it influences what we decide and do. Knowing that we are composed of brain and soul together, it is important to understand that these two structures have been affected by the fall, that is, by sin and, therefore, are also affected by pornography.
By practicing pornography (as well as other sins), our brains feed on happiness hormones and they find a kind of reward. In addition to possible physiological problems, pornography is an escape from reality. The costs in this field are inaccessible, and the person will never be fulfilled, because he disconnects from reality when he conceives a model that can never be real, besides having a false conception of sexuality in general and of the partner itself. , anxiety arises and then addiction occurs.
But why understand what addictions really are? Because there is a great risk of reducing the discussion only to the brain. We’re not just synaptic links. God has given us the ability to choose and react through the way we read reality; pornography gives a sense of self-realization, which can be satisfied with this; then it begins to affect the soul, that is, the essence, our character and our personality, affects: memory, making it difficult to forget the experience; intelligence, which affects intuition, perception, senses and attention; and wills, i. e. daily elections and practices.
These three faculties of the soul, which must be governed by the Spirit of God, giving it the fruits of the Spirit (virtues!), come to be dominated by pornography, which is the expression of a sin called lust. This sin begins with a passion for the object and ends with the desire to enslave it. The desire for the object begins to take over the soul and expels any other form of interest. One sees the body of the other as an object of sexual satisfaction, and you do not realize that the other is the image and likeness of God, and the result is guilt, disappointment.
Do you see the reason for understanding the origin of addictions?The addict thinks he has control over the situation and the mind, worse, the addict thinks the problem doesn’t even dominate him.
The solution? It releases control and anguish in Jesus Christ, the only one who can truly deliver us. He accepts that Jesus Himself is the one who governs our lives, who overcame all temptations, and who has the power and authority to guide us safely.