Pastoral letter decries cellphone pornography

A Shepherd Speaks

By BISHOP FRED HENRY
Calgary

My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

Pornography is a pervasive, multi-billion dollar business, with revenues generated from movies, cable and dish network television, the internet, magazines, books and other materials.

Sadly, Telus Mobility is now taking advantage of an "untapped market" by deciding to offer cellphone pornographic photos and videos to its customers.

Telus, in doing so, is also altering its corporate culture. Its website claims: "We are dedicated to becoming Canada's premier corporate citizen . . . We are committed to making a positive difference to the social, economic and environmental well-being of the communities where we live, work and serve. . . .

"With a focus on young Canadians, we look for opportunities to use our technology and expertise in ways that positively influence our communities."

Their actions, however, speak louder than their words. Socially responsible economic values include fair competitive practices, good corporate governance, sound fiscal policies, the rejection of corruption and the avoidance of the exploitation of narrow self-interest to the detriment of the common good.

It cannot simply be argued that if you don't like to watch porn, don't watch it.

Devastating impact

Without question, pornography has a devastating impact upon all of society, especially women and children. Pornography teaches that women enjoy "forced" or perverse sexual activity; advocates prostitution, exhibitionism and voyeurism as normal behaviour; and regards women as sex objects to be used for one's self-gratification.

For some men, the regular use of pornography normalizes aggression towards women in sexual and other interpersonal encounters, and increases the tolerance for such aggression against women in the larger culture.

Sadly, the greatest impact may be on the young, especially males 12 through 17 years of age, because pornography portrays sexual activity outside of marriage as acceptable without the dire consequences of AIDS or other venereal diseases, and without the responsibility towards conceiving a human life.

These assertions are supported by criminal evidence. A proven direct correlation exists between crimes of rape, child abuse and the physical abuse of a spouse, and the proliferation of pornographic materials and the presence of live porn and sexually oriented businesses in a community.

Spiritual cancer

Pornography is not simply linked to a "one time, one action" phenomenon, but may become like a spiritual cancer that corrupts the person. Dr. Victor Cline (1996) posited four progressive effects of pornography:

1. addiction, where the need to view pornographic materials leads to a loss of free control over behaviour;
2. escalation, where the person delves into progressively harder pornography, usually to attain the same level of sensation and arousal;
3. desensitization, whereby the user is no longer morally sensitive to the shocking, illegal, repulsive, perverted or immoral quality of the material, but instead views it as acceptable and begins to look upon others as objects; and
4. acting out, where the fantasizing becomes overt behaviour.

Additionally from a moral point of view, there are three reasons why pornography is wrong and sinful behaviour for individuals.

First, pornography offends the dignity of the participants (actors, vendors, the public). Each one is exploited himself or exploits others in some way for personal pleasure or gain. In all cases, the dignity of the human being - whether the person posing, the person producing, the person distributing, or the person enjoying - is debased.

Second, those who engage in pornography immerse themselves in a fantasy world, withdrawing from reality.

While genuine love always involves a self-giving of oneself for the good of others, pornography entices a person to withdraw into a selfish world of perverted fantasy which may later be acted out to the detriment of oneself and others.

This problem has increased dramatically, since the Internet offers "virtual reality" sexual interaction.

Third, pornography offends against the virtue of chastity and constitutes an assault on marriage. Each of us must respect the sanctity of our own human sexuality, which involves the integration of his physical and spiritual being.

Furthermore, conjugal love which reflects the union of husband and wife, and the enactment of their vows is sacred. The conjugal act ought to express that faithful, permanent, exclusive, self-giving, and life-giving love between husband and wife.

Call Telus

Economic values that are important today must include the enhancement of people, not their exploitation and debasement.

I would encourage all parishioners, not only Telus subscribers, to express their disappointment to Telus for making this socially irresponsible business decision and to work for the cessation of cellphone pornography.

Sincerely yours in Christ,
F.B. Henry
Bishop of Calgary

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