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Porn as Liturgical Corruption PDF Print E-mail
Culture and Politics - Sex and Culture
Written by Douglas Wilson   
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 13:55

This is just a short sketch of something that requires much fuller treatment. On top of that, this is a statement about just one aspect of this problem, and not an attempt to minimize the other problems that might be in play.

Pastors are usually husbands as well, and this means that when a pastor has a wandering eye, he is insulting his wife in exactly the same way that other husbands are insulting their wives through the same behavior. Every Christian husband is the head of his wife in a way analagous to the way that Christ is the head of the church (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23). This means that every husband is constantly speaking about Jesus, whether he wants to be or not. He does not have the option of being silent about Jesus. His behavior is a statement about his theology of headship. He is saying that "this is an appropriate way for a head to act." And because Christ is the ultimate Head, the behavior of lesser heads are statements about the nature of His headship. Just as abusive fathers are lying statements about God the Father, so unfaithful heads are a lying statement about the fidelity of Christ to His bride.

So of course a pastor needs to be faithful for that reason alone. He took his marriage vows independently of his ordination vows. But is there any additional level to this? I believe so.

When worship is being conducted in a fully biblical way, the minister and the congregation enact (in a liturgical way) a dialogue between Christ and His bride. The minister is standing in for Christ as His herald, His ambassador, His representative. This means that a pastor who has a problem with porn is lying about Christ in two ways. The first is in the way that every husband would be lying, because every husband represents Christ in some way. But the second way is at a much higher level -- the minister is set apart in another unique way, and he has been set apart in this way in order to represent Christ in a more heightened way than all husbands do.

Working from the other direction, what will a secret porn problem do to the preaching and teaching? The minister who has a radical inconsistency between his enactment of Christ in his private life and his enactment of Christ in his official capacity is aware (as others are not) of the inconsistency. But people are not built to live with such inconsistencies. We don't like walking with rocks in our shoes. So the two ways to remove the inconsistency would be 1. to repent of the porn use and deal with it appropriately or, 2. begin to teach and preach in ways that create more and more wiggle room for everybody.

But when men preach wiggle room they often find that other men will frequently like the look of that wiggle room. If a man comes preaching wine and beer, he would be just the spokesman for this people! (Micah 2:11). This creates a cycle -- the minister is being pushed to compromise from within, and once he begins preaching more tolerant (and therefore more tolerable) sermons, he begins to be pulled. He has presented handles to those who would pull him. And so the lie about Jesus that he has allowed to take root in his heart is a lie that works its way into his manuscript. And from there into other hearts.



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Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 October 2009 13:55
 
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Robert Seward  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 2:30 pm
Semirelated thought. At a certain point we should start to consider a strange topic. Polygamy. As we continue to sink, there is a possiblity it could get legalized. Even if it doesn't, as the Gospel goes out and conquers the Islamic world, as we know it will, we are going to have to know how to minister to Christians who when converted, are in polygamous marriages. Just a thought.
Cheryl Grenon  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 3:48 pm
If you regard iniquity in your heart, not only does the Lord not hear you, you find the corruption spreads in other ways you never imagined it would. Incongruity then becomes the order of the day, or so I have found.
Luke Welch  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:00 pm
I saw a pink panther cartoon recently with my children, and two characters in it were ogling porn together. I blogged about it here, commenting that it was evidence of men handing down their problem into the mainstream because of the need for it to be "normal" - so normal that it can be the "adult level humor" in a kids cartoon. Am I supposed to laugh at that while sitting next to little girls whom I would die to protect?

Thank you for this post. It is thought lines like this one that make your insights so helpful in places like For a Glory and a Covering.

I had been reading it before I saw the Pink Panther, and it brought me to these thoughts:

"If we cannot teach our children to see evil as evil because we are friends of the evil, but only in private, then in public we will have to concede the nourishment of their souls to the message that women are not glorious, and therefore neither is God. They will eat an increasing diet of “men are not protectors,” and therefore neither is God."
John Barach  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 4:58 pm
But aren't there also cases where a minister is indulging in a certain sin and, instead of preaching in ways that allow wiggle room, he starts fulminating against that particular sin.

So, for instance (and allowing for the fact that I may not have all my facts straight here), Ted Haggard was known for preaching strongly against homosexuality, while covering up his own sin in this area.

Could you discuss this phenomenon, too?
Luke Welch  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 5:07 pm
John,


Since the liturgy contains the meal of the oneness of the body, and the pastor is tearing up "his body" (his wife) at home or in private, does this put him in the position of the Corinthians who ate the meal of unity while excluding those who had nothing?

Another question to add on to yours John...


If the pastor is harboring this sin, and railing against it in the pulpit, is it possible that in some (spiritual) way , magically, his men in his church will learn to lie more boldly, even though he isn't known to be doing it? I don't know how it would be passed down, other than by God's visitation of judgment, but could this be a consequence we see?
Robert Seward  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 6:11 pm
Wait a minute Luke. You are way off base. If a minister is living a double life that is not yet known by his congregation, that doesn't mean that the men are learning to lie. Didn't Jesus tell his disciples to do what the Pharisees said, but not what they do? How the church responds when the hypocrasy is discovered that shows the character of the congregation.
Luke Welch  Wednesday, October 21, 2009 10:25 pm
Robert,

What I am suggesting is that secret sins find judgment within one's household - What David did in secret, God did to David's house through his children on the rooftops...(2 Sam 12).


I am not at all suggesting that Godly people are all doomed by a sinning pastor, but that a sinning pastor may have God ordain a taste of his own medicine in his "household." Are there other examples (other than David) or counter examples to this? Thx
Jon Beck  Thursday, October 22, 2009 12:00 pm
need to stay up to speed on these things, thanks to enterprise and technology, we are coming more and more a Global Society. There are lots of Youtube like porn sites, where anybody, any age, anywhere, can access the videos. Many are apparently homemade as well, They had a special on CNBC about this Industry hurting because of it recently. Anyway, like lots of sinful things, its alot easier to do it(and in private) than it use to be. Seems the more advanced we get, the more our morality is tested.
Son of Thunder  Friday, October 23, 2009 3:21 pm
Pastor Wilson,

Could you elaborate on what a pastor would need to do in this circumstance? I once read a statistic (can't find it) that said 3 out of every 5 pastors has a porn problem. On one hand, pride and shame can keep a pastor from seeking help, but also a fear that revealing his sin to his congregation would lessen his (how can I put this) credibility as an expositor of the word and also undermine the example that he SHOULD (but isn't) setting as an elder in Christ's church. How would a Presbyterian church go about handling this? Would they treat it like the repentance of any member or as a different situation?

When I read those statistics, these things occurred to me, and I'm not sure I know the answer. I think we all know it is a bad idea to hide unrepentant sin - it should be confessed - but how does a pastor go about this?