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Religious views on pornography
Religious views on pornography are based on the broader views of religions on topics such as modesty, dignity, and sexuality. Different religious groups view pornography and sexuality differently.
There is no direct prohibition of pornography in the Bible. However, many Christians base their views on pornography on Matthew 5:27–28 (part of the Expounding of the Law):
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
It contains one of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:14 or Deuteronomy 5:18, which is also used often as a supporting verse to condemn pornography.
Michael Coogan reports that, based on his past experience, the campaign against lustful thoughts had the consequence of razoring the Song of Songs from the Bibles available for seminarians.
Ken Stone cites Origen's words to say that reading the Song of Songs may stimulate lust to 'fleshly' readers: "But if any man who lives only after the flesh shall approach [the Song of Songs], to such a one the reading of this Scripture will be the occasion of no small hazard and danger. For he, not knowing how to hear love's language in purity and with chaste ears, will twist the whole manner of his hearing of it away from the inner spiritual man and on to the outward and carnal; and he will be turned away from the spirit to the flesh, and will foster carnal desires in himself, and it will seem to be the Divine Scriptures that are thus urging and egging him on to fleshly lust!" Stone adds that "the heavy use of food imagery in the book is no barrier to a positive 'pornographic' interpretation."
Richard Hess explains Carey E. Walsh's view as: "Walsh has determined that the emphasis of the Song lies in the expression of desire between two lovers. It is not sexual consummation that is most important, but the desire itself that drives the lovers together. In this she distinguishes erotica from pornography. The latter is concerned only with sex, and in this it is qualitatively different from the Song. Here sex plays a secondary role to desire. Whether there is any sexual activity at all in the poem—and as a fantasy there may be no such reality here—the key to the Song remains with the desire that drives the reader to appreciate the time of waiting. Hebrew experience placed the greatest value on passion." Saying that the Song of Songs is "erotica", not pornography, she argues that both are different in at least three ways: (1) Erotica inclines toward "emotions and internal worlds" of a subject to seek empathy, while pornography's "emotional flatness" aims at sexual gratification; (2) Erotica focuses on yearning to reach "consummation", which may occur in "tortuous delay", while pornography is only about the "acts" to reach it as soon as possible and "a frenzy of repetition"; (3) Erotica uses imagination as the "invisible and ever-active participant" without revealing the "mystery of love", while pornography is no more than an explicit story of sexual intercourse.
The magisterium of the Catholic Church interprets Matthew 5:27–28 to mean that since the purpose of pornography is to create lust, it is sinful, because lusting is equivalent to adultery. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains:
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Religious views on pornography
Religious views on pornography are based on the broader views of religions on topics such as modesty, dignity, and sexuality. Different religious groups view pornography and sexuality differently.
There is no direct prohibition of pornography in the Bible. However, many Christians base their views on pornography on Matthew 5:27–28 (part of the Expounding of the Law):
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
It contains one of the Ten Commandments, Exodus 20:14 or Deuteronomy 5:18, which is also used often as a supporting verse to condemn pornography.
Michael Coogan reports that, based on his past experience, the campaign against lustful thoughts had the consequence of razoring the Song of Songs from the Bibles available for seminarians.
Ken Stone cites Origen's words to say that reading the Song of Songs may stimulate lust to 'fleshly' readers: "But if any man who lives only after the flesh shall approach [the Song of Songs], to such a one the reading of this Scripture will be the occasion of no small hazard and danger. For he, not knowing how to hear love's language in purity and with chaste ears, will twist the whole manner of his hearing of it away from the inner spiritual man and on to the outward and carnal; and he will be turned away from the spirit to the flesh, and will foster carnal desires in himself, and it will seem to be the Divine Scriptures that are thus urging and egging him on to fleshly lust!" Stone adds that "the heavy use of food imagery in the book is no barrier to a positive 'pornographic' interpretation."
Richard Hess explains Carey E. Walsh's view as: "Walsh has determined that the emphasis of the Song lies in the expression of desire between two lovers. It is not sexual consummation that is most important, but the desire itself that drives the lovers together. In this she distinguishes erotica from pornography. The latter is concerned only with sex, and in this it is qualitatively different from the Song. Here sex plays a secondary role to desire. Whether there is any sexual activity at all in the poem—and as a fantasy there may be no such reality here—the key to the Song remains with the desire that drives the reader to appreciate the time of waiting. Hebrew experience placed the greatest value on passion." Saying that the Song of Songs is "erotica", not pornography, she argues that both are different in at least three ways: (1) Erotica inclines toward "emotions and internal worlds" of a subject to seek empathy, while pornography's "emotional flatness" aims at sexual gratification; (2) Erotica focuses on yearning to reach "consummation", which may occur in "tortuous delay", while pornography is only about the "acts" to reach it as soon as possible and "a frenzy of repetition"; (3) Erotica uses imagination as the "invisible and ever-active participant" without revealing the "mystery of love", while pornography is no more than an explicit story of sexual intercourse.
The magisterium of the Catholic Church interprets Matthew 5:27–28 to mean that since the purpose of pornography is to create lust, it is sinful, because lusting is equivalent to adultery. As the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: