In all the furor over whether sex ought to be taught in the public schools, one fact is often overlooked: Sex is already being taught to youngsters through the wide distribution of pornography. And recent findings on the effects of pornography on the young ought to mobilize an even greater ground swell of public outrage aimed at publishers of pornography.
Since 1970, pornographers have enjoyed the support of a U.S. presidential commission report downplaying the effects of pornography.
That report “found no evidence to date that exposure to explicit sexual materials plays a significant role in the causation of delinquent or criminal behavior.” Rather, it presented pornographic material as essentially harmless entertainment that often had a cathartic influence upon those who used it. But last July the U.S. Department of Justice issued a two-volume report that reverses those findings.
The Justice Department’s report comes at a time when research has called into question most of the basic conclusions of the 1970 commission. Specifically, it raises questions about the “cathartic” theory espoused by the older report. Experimentation with pornography does not always lead to satiation and boredom (thus serving as a harmless fantasy outlet for those who would otherwise engage in rape or other forms of sexual abuse, so the theory goes). Quite to the contrary, viewing some kinds of hard-core pornography tends to foster imitation. The 1986 report notes that research “shows a causal relationship between exposure to material of this type and aggressive behavior towards women.” Rapists interviewed in prison were 15 times more likely than nonoffenders to have been exposed to hard-core pornography during the ages of 6 to 10.
Where Kids Learn About Sex
Here we are not dealing with so-called adult entertainment. Rather, we are confronted with the favorable treatment of criminal acts against children and women. What is most alarming is that this offensive material may be the most prevalent form of sex education for our nation’s youth. According to Henry Boatwright, chairman of the U.S. Advisory Board for Social Concerns, 70 percent of all pornographic magazines end up in the hands of minors. One member of the commission estimated that the chief consumers of even hard-core pornography are males 15 to 19 years old.
And what lessons do young people assimilate from such instruction? The movies, magazines, and books teach these impressionable youth that women are playthings, that sex has little to do with love and need not be tied to commitment or fidelity, and that sexual activity is appropriate anywhere, with anyone, and at any time.
No wonder the number of unmarried couples living together has quadrupled; abortions among unmarried women more than doubled (500,000 to over 1,200,000 per year); and single-parent families tripled (1,900,000 to 5,600,000). Meanwhile, teenage pregnancy in the U.S. is the highest in the world—over one million each year with more than half ending in abortion.
Though Christians have admirably joined the battle to prevent the wide distribution of pornography, more must be done to combat this calculated effort to educate our youth. Few understand just how serious the purveyors of pornography are in making their message available. The Playboy Foundation, for example, underwrote the formation of the Organization for Free Press to counter efforts against the distribution of pornography. And the public relations firm of Gray and Company proposed to members of a media coalition a $900,000 annual budget to fight the strong opposition that has risen against pornography. The underlying strategy of such efforts is to portray those who oppose pornography as narrow-minded religious bigots, ultraconservative in their attitudes toward life, hopelessly outdated, and determined to destroy freedom of speech and freedom of press in all other areas of American life.
No Time For False Modesty
What do we recommend? The first line of defense against pornography’s vile influence is to instruct our children in a sound and healthful view of sex. This is no time to retreat behind a false sense of biblical modesty. We must take for granted that our children will be bombarded with a hedonistic philosophy of sex, not only from publications recognized as pornographic, but from the flood of material that comes to them incessantly through public advertising, radio, and television (including the “family programs” run at the prime hours of the day). It is far better that our children receive their sex education within the framework of a biblical philosophy of sex as an honorable and treasured gift of God. The Christian home, Christian schools, Sunday schools, church youth groups, seminars, and youth retreats—these are the appropriate places for instructing our children about sex.
Second, we must speak out boldly in our neighborhoods, at parent-teacher meetings, and at local newsstands, drugstores, and book stores. This is an issue on which evangelicals really do have a moral majority. A 1985 Gallup Poll showed that 73 percent of the American people believed explicit sexual magazines and movies influence some people to commit rape or other sexual violence. And 93 percent called for stricter control of magazines displaying sexual violence. We must take the lead in speaking out boldly and fearlessly against this festering sore in our society.
Third, we must be willing to back others who take a stand, joining them in petition drives and boycotts in the fight against stores that display or sell pornographic materials and against television programs that carry debasing sexual themes.
Fourth, we must support studies so that our opposition is based on a clear understanding of the difference between opposition to pornography and opposition to freedom of speech. This, after all, is the final defense of most proponents of pornography. They warn that any laws that bar obscenity will inevitably lead to laws destroying our constitutional freedoms of press and speech. We can combat this defense by educating ourselves (and the public) regarding definitions of pornography and obscenity.
For too long, the public has accepted the myth that pornography harms no one, even the legions of minors who are frequently exposed to it. The Justice report effectively dashes that notion. If the church cares to enter the real sex-education battle, it would be wise to step up the attack on easy-to-obtain smut and accept responsibility for the sex education of our youth.
By Kenneth S. Kantzer.
