The Pro-Porn and the Pro-Sex Workers are Inaccurately Depicting Standard Christian Views about Sex to be “Anti-Sex” (re: “OnlyFans” Headlines)
In light of the fact that “OnlyFans” is no longer allowing its members to post pornography on it site (which may have something to do with MasterCard credit card company refusing to accept payments on any site that may involve human/sex trafficking), some porn supporters, “sex workers,” or free speech advocates, are, unfortunately, inaccurately depicting any and all Christian sexual ethics as being “anti sex.”
Believing that sex is a sin outside the confines of marriage is a pretty typical Christian position going back decades to hundreds of years; believing that sexual behavior should have some kind of limits is not inherently “anti sex,” and as an adult celibate, I very much resent the portrayal of sexual abstinence outside of marriage as being “anti sex” or “sexual repression.”
As a celibate myself – and my preference would still be to wait until I marry to have sex, and I am now middle-aged – I am not opposed to sex.
However, I do believe that pornography and prostitution devalues the act of sex itself, and yes, both objectifies women, and women are already objectified in non-porn culture as it is.
Half-naked, or scantily clad women, are already used to advertise cars, beer, and hamburgers. That I disagree with this sort of thing – or prostitution or porn – does not make me a prude or “anti sex.”
Here is just one example of what I mean:
I think it’s over-reach to say that Christians who are trying to eradicate porn “don’t care about sex trafficking or non-consensual videos.” I am sure they do care about those things. It’s pretty unfair for this person on Twitter to act otherwise.
I am not a “Christian dominionist” nor a “Christian Reconstructionist,” by the way.
In so far as I remain a Christian at all any more, I am a pretty moderate one.
It is my understanding that Christians who believe in one or both of those ideologies (dominionist / reconstructionism) want Americans today to live under Old Testament law, or want to make the United States a theocracy.
I have no interest in living under Old Testament law or turning the USA into a Christian theocracy. I don’t think most Christians are interested in either one, either.
The individual in that thread mentioned Nick Kristof, so I ran a web search on him and found this:
(Link): Nick Kristof and the Holy War on Pornhub
Excerpts:
Having declared victory in its war on Backpage and sex work, the liberal-conservative coalition has pivoted to porn.
by Melissa Gira Grant
…Morality in the Media, an anti-porn group founded in the 1960s, has rebranded as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. It is among the religious right groups that have added sex trafficking to their more traditional agendas targeting abortion and LGBTQ rights.
…Some of these groups, like Shared Hope International, were founded by former lawmakers with explicit religious right agendas and now operate as national think tanks advising anti-trafficking policy. Other national groups, like Operation Underground Railroad, bill themselves as “modern-day abolitionists”….
…Exodus Cry has followed a similar trajectory to such groups. It appears to have been incubated in IHOPKC, the Christian ministry led by pastor Mike Bickle, a dominionist, believing, as Political Research Associates describes it, that “God has called conservative Christians to exercise dominion over society by taking control of political and cultural institutions.” The group’s tax filings, as reported by OpenDemocracy, have Exodus Cry listed as a “related tax-exempt organization.”
[The article mentions that Exodus Cry went on to produce a movie or two, such as a film about sex trafficking called Liberated]
The films are one part of a religious right media strategy to reframe conservative ideas of sexual purity as something progressive and fresh, connected to issues like sex and consent, ones young activists are already concerned with.
It is a smokescreen.
“The fundamental concern for these organizations isn’t healthy sexuality,” Cole Parke at Political Research Associates told a reporter in 2018, as the Exodus Cry film Liberated was gaining broader attention. It’s “control … adherence and obedience to a Christian fundamentalist worldview, which limits sexuality to the confines of married heterosexual unions.”
Mickelwait is the link between IHOPKC, Exodus Cry, and the Traffickinghub campaign.
[The author goes on to contest Mickelwait’s statement that porn is at the root of all sex trafficking]
…His [Senator Josh Hawley] grasp of trafficking is equally weak: He has claimed, as Missouri attorney general, that sex trafficking could be blamed in part on “the sexual revolution.” The problem for Hawley and his co-sponsors is that a law already exists that will allow people who have been trafficked to pursue legal action against platforms they say are responsible.
Note the part I placed in bold-faced type above:
It’s “control … adherence and obedience to a Christian fundamentalist worldview, which limits sexuality to the confines of married heterosexual unions.”
That is what this is ultimately all about: it all comes down to a Non-Christian, a secular, resistance to Christian sexual mores.
It’s not about defending the safety or rights of people to enter into consensual sex acts to make a profit; it’s all about denigrating Christian sexual ethos.
Limiting sex acts to hetero marriage is not “Christian fundamentalist” only – Christians from other flavors of the faith (including evangelicals, among others) historically have also held to the view that sex should take place only between a married man and woman.
There’s nothing wrong or inherently prudish about believing sex should be reserved for marriage.
It’s hypocritical for leftists, liberals, and progressive Christians to expect the rest of us to embrace homosexual sex acts, lesbianism, polyamory, open marriages, transgenderism, the supposed existence of hundreds of “gender identities,” and all the rest, and yet, they refuse to respect the fact that some adults, such as myself, choose to be sexually abstinent and that we choose to advocate for this position and/or to speak out against theirs.
Almost every time I read a “pro sex” article (or pro-porn, or pro-prostitution article), it always comes down to this resistance to a biblical sexual ethic of sex being intended for marriage only.
There’s nothing wrong with having sexual boundaries. The world could actually use more of them.
August 25, 2021 Updates
(Link): OnlyFans says it will no longer ban porn in stunning U-turn after user backlash
(Link): OnlyFans suspends proposed ban on sexually explicit content
(Link): OnlyFans scraps plans to ban sexually explicit material
U-turn comes after resolution of issues with payment processors, says chief executive of user-generated adult content site
(Link): OnlyFans founder blames banks for ban on porn
Excerpts:
by Patricia Nilsson
OnlyFans’ founder Tim Stokely has blamed “unfair” treatment by banks for forcing him to ban pornography on the platform, a decision that caused an outcry from the site’s users and sowed doubt over its future.
“The change in policy, we had no choice — the short answer is banks,” Stokely, who is also the company’s chief executive, told the Financial Times.
Since it banned explicit content last week, the UK company has faced accusations of abandoning the adult performers who helped attract its roughly 130m users as well as scepticism over whether it could prosper under new rules that banned sex acts, though it will permit nudity.
Stokely said the change came in response to an increased level of obstacles from banks, which would “cite reputational risk and refuse our business”.
…Opposition to the porn industry has taken on new life in recent years, with a string of high-profile media investigations into the prevalence of child pornography and other non-consensual footage on so-called tube sites.
Related Posts:
(Link): OnlyFans Isn’t A Safe Platform for “Sex Work.” It’s A Pimp.
(Link): When Adult Virginity and Adult Celibacy Are Viewed As Inconvenient or As Impediments
(Link): We’re Casual About Sex and Serious About Consent. But Is It Working? by J. Zimmerman
(Link): Eight of the Most Shocking Cases of People Who Died During Sex
(Link): You’re more likely to die during sex than the numbers suggest (article)
(Link): Woman Dies of Flesh-Eating Bacteria After Sex Game Goes Wrong
(Link): Woman Paralysed after Orgasm During Sex Caused Brain Haemorrhage
(Link): Conservative, Church-Going Christian Guy Participates in Threesome, Jumps To Death
(Link): An Example of Mocking Adult Virginity Via Twitter (Virginity Used As Insult)
(Link): Couple Fall To Death Having Sex Against Window
(Link): French Couple Having Intercourse In Castle Lose Their Balance, Fall 40 Feet To Their Deaths
(Link): CDC Report: Virgin Teens Much Healthier Than Their Sexually Active Peers (2016 Report)
(Link): A Day In The Life Of An Abstinence Ed Teacher by S. Gomez
(Link): Why Aren’t Millennials Having Sex Anymore? via Relevant Magazine
(Link): More Than 40 Per Cent of Japan’s Adult Singles are Virgins, Says Study
(Link): Living Myths About Virginity (via The Atlantic)
(Link): On ‘Late’-In-Life Virginity Loss (from The Atlantic)
(Link): Why Some People Become 30 Year Old Virgins (Article / Study)
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