Doctrinal Porn

The church recently released a really good video for kids about what to do if you see porn.  (You can see it here: https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-08-001-what-should-i-do-when-i-see-pornography?lang=eng).  I showed it to all my kids.

One of my greatest fears is that my kids will become addicted to porn and not be able to get free, and that it will ruin their marriages.

Why is porn so scary to me?

Many reasons, including:
 --It takes something sacred and twists it so that the sacred seems dull and the twisted version seems normal, warping a person's ability to enjoy and benefit from the sacred, natural version.

--It dulls natural sensations and emotions

--It redefines love into something selfish and unhealthy

--It objectifies an entire class of people

--It's progressive, leading you further and further from reality while simultaneously making reality more and more boring and distasteful

--It convinces you that what you do alone doesn't affect anyone else

--It's a secret, done in secret, kept in secret, and secrets aren't really healthy

--It destroys a person's ability to have normal, healthy relationships (both intimate and casual)

--It hampers a person's ability to handle stress, unhappiness, problems, and interpersonal interactions (especially the unpleasant ones) in healthy ways

--It blurs the lines between reality and fantasy, making it hard for people to live and function in reality

--It is addicting. Like the video says, we happen upon it and it feels wrong but it also makes us curious and makes us want to see more.

In short, pornography interferes with a person's ability to interact with other people, to be in tune with their own emotions, and to live a healthy, connected life.

So you know I have also been concerned for a long time about the doctrines that are becoming ever more prevalent and open in the world among my peers--especially feminism and intellectual/ progressive mormonism.  I've talked before about feminism being like a virus that infects your soul and changes your ability to see clearly.

While I think that is still an apt comparison, I'm starting to see a great comparison between these feminist and intellectual approaches to mormonism and porn.  I know this seems like a completely exaggerated and unfair comparison, but hear me out.

These progressive and intellectual mormon doctrines--the ones I wanted to just call apostasy outright in my last blog post--often feel wrong at first glance, but they make us curious and make us want to read more and hear more.  (You can see my brother's take on this here: http://www.sixteensmallstones.org/apostasy-as-conspiracy-theory-reason-logic-insanity-and-mormon-intellectualism/).

They are something we usually indulge in privately and don't like to tell those we love that we just spent time on them.

They are addicting. People go back for more again and again, even without being able to say why.

The doctrines (and blog posts espousing them) blur the lines between the gospel and flat-out apostasy, making it hard to tell where the truth ends and the lies begin.

They hamper a person's ability to deal with stress, interpersonal troubles, and unhappiness in the ways the Lord has recommended that He says will help. Somehow these doctrines make it harder for people to access the atonement and find the peace the Spirit is supposed to bring. And they make it harder to deal with the frailties, faults, and downright stupidities of local leaders in the church.

Somehow, these doctrines hamper a person's ability to have normal, healthy relationships with God. This is especially sad when a person is already struggling and their faith is already stretched to its limit.

The doctrines are progressive. Nobody jumps from the gospel into apostasy in one big leap. It's through little, progressive doctrines instead. One step at a time.

Where porn redefines love into something selfish, these intellectual and feminist versions of Mormonism redefine our relationship with God into something selfish, where we define for Him how things are going to go and how they work and what we believe is right instead of letting Him define it all.

These doctrines dull natural spiritual sensations and emotions, making them harder to feel and understand.

And, ultimately, like porn, these doctrines take something sacred and twists it into something else, making it harder for people to access the natural, healthy, sacred version of spirituality, the gospel, and our relationships with God and Jesus.

In short, doctrinal pornography interferes with a person's ability to interact with God and righteous people, to be in tune with their own emotions and the way the Holy Ghost speaks to them, and to live a healthy, connected-with-God kind of life.

I have not taken the time to figure out HOW the "doctrinal porn" does all these things. I'm just seeing a parallel between how pornography affects human emotion, relationships, and sexuality and how doctrinal porn affects human emotion, relationships, and spirituality. Porn messes up men's ability to interact with women and feel love. Doctrinal porn messes with people's ability to interact with God and feel the Spirit, as far as I can tell.

This doctrinal porn is really hard to identify. It's often mixed in with other things. I know on my mission they told us to just not watch "The Godmakers" (an anti-mormon film that was produced in my  mission), just like they tell people to just not look at porn in the first place. But certainly The Godmakers isn't the only stuff out there we should not be indulging in.

So what exactly counts as doctrinal porn, as opposed to legitimate scholarly work or honest curiosity or harmless but deeply-held belief?

I honestly don't know. It's harder to define, even, than what constitutes porn (vs art, scholarly work, etc). I'm sure it's all mixed in. But, like porn, it's becoming more prevalent in our society and more widely-seen. It's less secret, less likely to be only found if you go looking.

And I can't even tell someone what to avoid, except to say it seems it would be wise to pray for the gift of discernment so that, like porn, you know it when you see it.

And what you do with it is up to you.