人生行路 — The Journey of Life

Penthouse has been back in military exchanges for a while now, and the reaction by anti-pornography groups (example) should be no surprise, but unlike tobacco and alcohol, the military conduct no campaigning against the use of pornography. Sex-related public service campaigns seem only to include sexual harrassment/assault, abstinence promotion aimed at minors, and the prohibition against viewing pornography on government computers, the latter topic of which is never found on AFN commercials.

The Navy Times article linked says that the law does ban “sexually explicit” publications, despite that Penthouse fell out from that definition, and Playboy has fallen outside ever since the the specific law’s existed, meaning that according to the board evaluating the magazines, they do not contain “as a dominant theme the depiction or description of nudity, including sexual or excretory activities or organs, in a lascivious way.” When comparing this to barring pornography on government computers, what exactly is the definition of what kinds of sexual materials are banned? I don’t know which law bans pornography viewing on government computers, but if command policies ban “pornography,” and “pornography” is inherently “sexually explicit,” and Penthouse and Playboy aren’t “sexually explicit,” then what exactly is banned? This doesn’t mean officers should immediately stop enforcing the full intent of command policy, but somebody could try to bring this up. The specter is far more real for shore commands, which can’t force an individual into NJP.

To address those advocating a complete ban of pornography–using, of course, a much looser definition–they will end up having to address why the military doesn’t do the same for alcohol and tobacco, especially considering the content of public service campaigns as mentioned above. Those not familiar with AFN commercials, be informed that they do cover a wide range of topics other than alcohol and tobacco, covering seemingly everything from eating breakfast, to powers of attorney, to those of the Loose Lips Sink Ships variety.

A more consistent solution on both ends might be to wage a similar campaign against pornography. Sure it might be cheesy, but we ought to be consistent in our cheesiness, right? Why not broadcast testimonials against pornography? At minimum, let former porn stars tell the story of what it’s really like in there. Let men whose lives have been ruined tell their story. And to make sure we have just enough cheesiness, stick Pete the Porno Puppet in there, too.

Note: This post is edited from its original form due to the YouTube embedding messing up the layout of the page.

Maybe I could get someone out here to do it next year. Regardless, you can check it out online.

Something happened just after I made that last post. By the way, I was at a bar’s patio when writing it just as I am now, though now the bar is closed. Some guys with a few too many in their system started talking about Leviticus, and it went on from there. I had this guy wearing a strip club t-shirt going from being about to sock me (one reason being because he thought I was looking at Christian porn). to just pouring his heart out trying to help me keep my faith. He had already been a Christ follower and had fallen away. I broke down just as he did. God’s molding hurts.

What planning and execution? God just plain did it.

The last time I had a drink of alcohol was back in January. It was only a sip, but I have to say that Shiner Bock was a good choice. Quite tasty. But I don’t trust myself with beer. I did end up at a military social where I accidentally took the wrong glass and had to spit the beer back out about a month ago, but that doesn’t count.

And while externally it would be viable to take the high moral road on this one by not drinking, that isn’t the case at all for anyone who has had a problem with pornography. Simply put, with pornography, there is no such thing as responsible use. And Jesus drank. With that said, I will probably never enter a porn show to hand out bibles like XXXChurch does. Without fail, the moment that I think I’ve beaten this is the eve of a fall. There’s my humility check.
My last experience “clubbing” was back in New Caledonia. I ended up escorting a drunk guy around making sure he didn’t get in too much trouble, and then got into an argument and near-fight…with the other non-drinking guy. It took a lot of energy out of me. Still yet, is there any theological difference between being there for people in a bar and being there for people in a porn show? I’m not sure. And that’s not to discount that sexual temptations exist in bars.

I remember my skepticism when I heard about friends entering gay hangouts in Tucson on a regular basis just to be Jesus’ love to them. It’s a skepticism I now regret. The reason this post is named as such is that the primary visible commonalities between the Navy and college are alcohol and sex. Plain and simple. And the fact is that Jesus isn’t just needed in porn shows. He’s needed in the bars, too. The actual planning and execution is going to depend upon some prayer, though.