I’ve noticed it. My husband has noticed it. Have you noticed it yet?
I’m talking, of course, about the newest trend to make porn a punch line in many jokes in movies and television. It’s getting more and more difficult to find a prime-time comedy show or movie above a PG rating that doesn’t mention porn at least once! And in almost every circumstance I have seen it used to add comedic effect. Because porn is just a big joke, right? WRONG.
Pornography is not a joke. Pornography is devastating.
But the world seems to think there’s something comical about a man looking at pornography and masturbating. Why?
Humor is often used to disguise a painful truth. My husband likes to observe that when someone makes a joke about something you said or did, there is often a little bit of truth hiding behind their words. Sometimes this is a passive-aggressive way for people to say what they really mean without sounding derogatory or to hide their discomfort.
While I don’t believe the writers on these shows are uncomfortable with porn, I do believe they are disguising a painful truth: pornography destroys.
Porn destroys everything.
It destroys families.
It destroys the performers who make it.
It destroys your ability to have genuine intimacy with your spouse.
It destroys your ability to look at men and women in the image of God.
It destroys your sensitivity to cruelty and aggressive behaviors.
It destroys your satisfaction with real-life sex with your spouse.
If porn is a joke, it’s a cruel one that has been played on humanity (Tweet This!). We’ve been convinced that this great thing called pornography will enhance our sex lives when in reality, all it has done is destroy it. Scripture tells us that “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). This thief has used pornography – among other things – as a global effort to steal innocence, kill godly sexuality, and destroy families.
Anyone who’s been hurt by porn doesn’t think it’s funny. Anyone who is in the process of overcoming pornography addiction doesn’t find the humor in it. We’re not laughing.
Have You Heard The Least Funny Joke on the Internet? by XXXchurch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.