A long time ago, in what now seems like a galaxy far away, the general consensus was that the only appropriate context for sexual activity was within marriage defined as one man and one woman committing themselves to each other for life. This viewpoint was derived from the Bible and 2000 years of christian tradition.
Marriage provided a safe place for people who loved each other to engage in sex acts in an atmosphere of mutual respect. “Consent” could be negotiated by partners who knew each other intimately and were committed to pleasing one another. Marriage also provided a safe place for children to be raised, which was important because in those days sex and reproduction were hard to separate.
The system was not perfect as people were involved. Rape was an uncommon but real crime and generally despised by the public. Domestic violence was a reality that marred some marriages. People were unfaithful at times, and divorce on these grounds occurred.
Then in the 1960’s came the birth control pill and the Sexual Revolution. Sexual activity was divorced from childbirth and also from marriage. More diverse forms of sexual expression came to be tolerated and “no fault” divorce became all the rage, leading to much higher rates of marriage breakdown.
Sixty years on, we have a very weak institution of marriage being constantly undermined to accommodate same sex marriage and threesomes.
More worrying, but entirely predictable, we have people opining about the issue of consent in sexual encounters. Self-styled “experts” claim that consent must be enthusiastic at every stage of the process. If you so much as look at a person without this consent you can be accused of harassment or assault.
The NSW Police Commissioner suggested a phone app whereby people can register their agreement before hand, only to be shot down by the feminists who claim it was just a patriarchal ploy to continue the repression of women. What happens if “Yes” changes to “No” part way? If you are playing with your phone prior to sex, you might as well just cut all the risk and go straight to the porn sites.
Men have their reputations trashed by people alleging unwanted sexual approaches that took place decades before. Even the death of a complainant years ago is not enough to stop the outrage and the name calling.
We don’t need consent apps and education in primary schools. We don’t need culture change in Parliament or diversity training in corporations.
Just one simple rule will fix it: if you are not married to a person you don’t have sex with them, kiss them, touch them or do anything remotely sexual with them.
An additional rule would be: you love your spouse with all your body, mind and soul until death parts you. Those words you spoke at the altar are supposed to be a binding life-long promise.
If society honoured marriage, practised the “sanctity” of marriage and taught children and youth to do likewise, many of the scandals and problems that keep cropping up would be done away with.
This is another area where God’s intention for people works out a lot better than the wisdom of mere humans.
SYDNEY, NSW – Christian app developer, MoBibleTech, has announced they have designed a “Godly sexual consent” app specifically catering for the Christian market.
MoBibleTech founder, Simon Eckles, took the Damascus Dropbear through some of their app’s unique Christian features.
As expected, it opens with the important question “Do you consent?”, but this is immediately followed up with “Yeah, but are you married?”
If you answer yes, the app continues with a series of 40 helpful questions ranging from “Will this be a loving act of service?” to “Do you have any unresolved conflict that you need to pray about together first?”
They even have a question specifically for husbands, asking “Have you done the dishes?”
We asked what happens if the couple answers “no” to the “married” question.
Mr Eckles explained that this unlocked a special random feature that was different for each user.
For some, their mobile device bursts into an all consuming fireball. For others, the ground beneath them opens up and swallows everyone in a five metre radius.
They are also working on a third possibility involving your pastor receiving a fornication alert with your precise GPS location, though the general feedback from beta users was apparently a preference for being burned alive or having the ground swallow them whole.
We asked Mr Eckles whether he thought introducing this sort of technology into the bedroom would be a romantic mood killer.
“We had anticipated that,” he replied.
“Fortunately, the form should only take three hours or so to complete and, once submitted, we’ve added a special feature to set the mood again.”
“The app will start playing a complete audio recording of Song of Solomon read by David Suchet – or as we like to call him, the Christian Barry White.”
The “Godly sexual consent” app will be released later this month and the team at MoBibleTech are confident that its uniquely Christian features will ensure couples can honour their one flesh union in a way that is sensual, consensual and godly.
Piece credited to contributor Simon Camilleri, composer of the viral Nazareth – A Hamilton Parody. For further information around the place of consent in a Christian sexual ethic, see this piece by ThinkChristian.
The Damascus Dropbear exists to develop satirical news which helps people laugh, then think, about theology, culture, church and politics from a biblical worldview. Our mission is to help others to engage with the Bible, explore questions around religion, and ultimately see Christian principles and ethics inform our society. If you would like to support our project click here.
10 Reasons Why Porn Is Unhealthy For Consumers And Society
In our world today, we have seemed to assimilate a toxin into our understanding of a healthy life, and primarily, a healthy sex life. Can you guess what it is?
This toxin is none other than pornography. In recent years, pornography has been deemed a normal, healthy aspect to human sexuality, and that the taboo and shame around it should be obliterated.
Though we agree that shame has no place in a discussion on porn consumption, we (and a whole lot of scientific research) disagree that modern pornography promotes healthy sexuality. To be honest, we not only think that it doesn’t promote healthy sex lives—we think you simply can’t be pro-pornography and pro-sex. They are incompatible, at their cores.
If you don’t think so, check out our list of the top 10 reasons why porn is the worst for consumers and society:
The act of consuming porn alone can hurt the consumer’s partner, [1] but on top of that, porn consumption can lead people to feel less satisfied with their partner’s physical appearance and sexual performance. [2] Similarly, other research has found that porn consumers are not as intimate or committed to their partners, [3] and are less satisfied with their romantic and sex lives. [4]
2. Porn objectifies people.
The entire premise of porn is based upon seeing people as objects or tools for the consumer’s sexual gratification. Men and women both are seen as merely parts, not as whole people; men’s faces are rarely seen and women are just a collection of body parts and orifices.
Something tells us that training ourselves to see anyone—even strangers on a screen—as mere objects isn’t the healthiest habit to get into. Research would agree.
3. Porn normalizes violence and abuse.
The “softcore” pornography of previous decades is gone, and the violent, abusive pornography of today is in full-force and completely mainstream.
In a 2010 study of the most popular porn videos, 9 out of 10 scenes contained physical and/or verbal aggression, and the victim in these scenes responded either with pleasure or indifference. [5] Some common, and popular, categories of porn include rape scenarios and incest.
Is “fantasy” really harmless when it involves fantasizing assault and other harms that would never be seen as acceptable in real life?
4. Porn promotes racism and sexism.
Porn thrives off of stereotypes: by displaying women as submissive objects willing and eager to do anything for men, and by displaying men as aggressive, power-hungry beings who long to take advantage of vulnerable people, the complexity of gender and individuality are already reduced to gross misrepresentations.
Porn changes a consumer’s expectations of sex, especially when these consumers’ are young, impressionable, and without firsthand experience in the realm of a sexual relationship. In porn, people look perfect, can (and will) have sex at any moment, and everything will be catered exactly to how the consumer wants it. In real life? Not so much.
Our brains our able to change aspects of their structure throughout our lifetime, and some things are better at doing this than others. Unfortunately for us, pornography is one of those things. Because of how strongly porn triggers the reward center in our brain, neural pathways are built easily and get stronger, leading to the potential for the reward of pornography to be greater than sex with an actual partner. [6]
7. Porn can fuel extreme sexual tastes.
Because of how readily porn changes the consumer’s brain, porn consumption is an escalating and sometimes addictive behavior. As the consumer becomes desensitized to a certain type of porn, they will gradually turn to different, and oftentimes more extreme, types of pornography.
8. Porn leads people to disengage from their lives.
A porn habit or a porn addiction can pull people away from the things they love and care about most. Whether it’s their romantic relationships, their social lives, or their hobbies, porn can lead to a more isolated life for a multitude of reasons. Be it shame, depression, disinterest, addiction, etc., porn is not proven to be a tool for enhancing your quality of life—it’s shown to do the opposite.
Porn warps a consumer’s expectations of sex, re-shapes their sexual tastes (usually for the worst), leaves them less satisfied with intimate sexual encounters and with their partner, and oftentimes leads to less sex overall. [7]
10. Porn facilitates sex trafficking.
The connections between pornography and sex trafficking are daunting. Consider the facts: pornography increases demand for trafficking by providing an outlet for people to imitate what they’ve fetishized in porn, porn consumption is linked to violence, victims of trafficking are often “groomed” and desensitized with pornography, [8] and people who grow up where porn is regularly consumed are more likely to be trafficked in their life. [9]
Most importantly than all that, though, porn and sex trafficking are often the same thing, and there’s no real way to tell if the porn you’re consuming is of an individual who has been a victim of human trafficking in some way or another.
Multiple research studies, similar conclusions
Ultimately, the research is clear: porn is harmful to consumers, relationships, and society at large. If you’re interested in living a healthy, full life, free from contributing to sexual exploitation or an industry that profits from sexualizing illicit and exploitative behavior, steer clear from porn.
New Life Narrabri 