Abortion as Porn Accomplice

One of the recurring topics I speak and write on is the plague of pornography in our land, but one of the points that is really important to make is the strong connection between pornography and abortion. Far too many men do not see this connection, but if they did, they would be done with pornography immediately. And I believe that if all the Christian men who hate abortion walked away from every form of pornography, from the triple x websites to the soft porn offered up in many Netflix shows — if Christian men rose up and walked away from it all, it would not only deal a significant (and noticeable) blow to that entire sex industry, it would do the same to the abortion industry. The two industries are far more connected than we realize, and far too many Christian men do not see this and are therefore feeding with their lusts the very thing they hate in our land.

So let’s unpack the connections on several levels:

First, there is a literal/direct connection in the sense that many women who work in the so-called “sex industry” will often not be allowed to bring children into the world. There is growing literature on the connection between the sex trade and pornography, and abortion is the necessary accomplice to this industrial crime. Women are used and abused sexually on and off screen, drugged, abused some more, offered more drugs and alcohol, frequently under pressure by boyfriends and bosses and other perverse incentives — let us call them pimps, for that is what they are — and if pregnancy results, they are often de facto required/forced to get abortions. And even in the more mainstream entertainment industry where soft porn and immodesty is routine and expected, pregnancy is a contract killer. Sure, once you’ve made your millions, you can “choose” to have a baby or two, but the entire entertainment industry functions off the assumption that most of the time women will be “performing” with non-pregnant bodies — so do whatever you have to do to make it. None of this removes the personal agency of the women involved for the choices that they make, nor does it make a conscientious director guilty for the offscreen choices a woman might make, but men who watch pornography and the soft porn offerings on mainstream television are voting for this exploitive world to exist, whatever it takes, millions of abortions included.

Second, there is a lifestyle connection. Sinful people want sex without consequences. Or to put it another way, people want sex without responsibility. They want to have sex thoughtlessly, without thinking about the next day, the next year — it is all about the present moment and all about me. But God has created the world in such a way that sex is ordinarily meant to result in the fruitfulness of children. Pornography is practicing sex without consequences. It’s an entirely superficial situation that offers faux-sexual gratification and the false appearance of no consequences. It’s training you (and her) in selfish sex, self-serving sex, irresponsible sex. And of course there are still consequences, but abortion is one of the ways people try to hide the consequences. Abortion is the bloody and violent way people pretend that sex was not designed by God to create new human lives, families, or legacies. Of course there is still guilt and shame and loneliness on both sides of the screen. But viewing porn is helping to build a violently childless, sexually-stunted, self-centered, guilt-ridden world.

Third, Jesus says that if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out and cast it away or if your hand causes you to sin, you should cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to go to heaven blind or maimed than to go to Hell with both eyes and hands (Mt. 5:27-30). But this means in a fallen, sinful world there is always dismembering going on. In a land of cowards, the men pleasure themselves and require little babies to be dismembered to pay for their orgasms. But in a land of real men with backbones, they would rather dismember themselves than require the dismemberment of children, directly or indirectly. They would rather pluck out their own eyes than endorse or participate in an industry that crushes babies. They would rather cut off the hand that causes them to sin than have anything to do with infants having their arms and legs torn off.

But this leads to the final point and it’s actually the most important point and that is the heart of this radical repentance, the only source of this radical amputation of sin. The heart of radical repentance — the power to kill sin in your life and walk away free — is the crucifixion of Jesus the Righteous. Sin was condemned in the innocent body of Jesus on the cross; He was impaled so that you may walk free from sin and be reckoned completely innocent. The sin of lust, the sin of bitterness, the sin of despair, the sin of abortion — all of your filth was laid on Him, and He — the completely innocent one, the one who never lusted, never despaired, never lost His temper — He was crushed for our iniquities. He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). God was hard on His Beloved Son so that He could be tender with us, His wayward sons. And it is only that tenderness, that grace, that kindness of God to us in our sin that allows us to be hard on our sin in the right way.

Far too many Christians think that it is God’s wrath against sin in general that drives our repentance. But the Bible clearly teaches that it is the kindness of God that drives us to repentance (Rom. 2:4). But how can a holy God be kind to sinful, vile, disgusting men? The only way is if the wrath of God has been exhausted on a perfect victim, only if the justice of God has been fully paid for by One who didn’t deserve it at all. And so it was – in Jesus the Righteous on the cross, fully and completely without any remainder, without any leftovers. All of your grossest, darkest, vilest sin: past, present, and future — all of it, condemned, crushed, paid for by the sinless Jesus on the cross, freely and gladly.

So what will it be: the death of infants or the death of the Innocent? The murder of the unborn or the mortification of your flesh? It was the harshness of God on the cross that allowed God to be gracious and tender with you. And so it is the harshness of God on the cross that allows you to be harsh on your sin in order that you might be tender with others. How can you love your wife, your children, and your neighbor rightly? How can you address their sins in the spirit of gentleness, as God requires (Gal. 6:1)? Only if God has crushed your sins in the death of His innocent Son. But if you’re carrying any of that wrath with you, it will keep sloshing out no matter how hard you try. And what hasn’t been crushed in the cross will come out and crush those around you. Either Christ was crushed for your sin, or your sin will continue crushing you and those around you. But if Christ was crushed for your sin, then kill it and walk way free. And every time the temptation arises, let your defiant cry be: not one more baby will be crushed for me, not one more woman made in the image of God will be abused for me. I would rather pluck out my eye. I would rather die.

Do you hate abortion? Do you want to see it completely abolished? Then hate all its manifestations. Hate the violent, lustful treatment of women that props it all up. Turn it off. Walk away. Abolish your participation in the bloodlust.

Not only is abortion an accomplice of porn, but porn is a great accomplice of abortion.

 

I was recently involved in creating a new resource for men fighting for purity and freedom. Check out setfreecourse.com for more information.

I’m speaking in Minneapolis this weekend. More details here.

New e-book Death by Baptism available here.

Photo by Brian Patrick Tagalog on Unsplash