Monday, February 05, 2007

Porn and Pancakes


Oh, yeah, you heard me right. Porn and pancakes.

According to this story from the Associated Press:

"It's not your typical church breakfast. An event billed as "Porn and Pancakes" is being hosted by a church in rural upstate New York."


The event is billed as
"an honest discussion about pornography and its impact on society." The article goes on to state that several churches have expressed a desire to host Porn and Pancakes events. P&P is sponsored by an outfit called Triple X Church, or simply X3. X3 is concerned about the pornification of our society, and they aim to help deliver us from its evil.

Now, I have to say I'm not happy with the pornification of American culture. Raising daughters with strong character and a positive body image is a challenge, no doubt. But to me, you do your job as a parent, and you love your kids, and you talk with them and treat them like human beings, and use those "Girls Gone Wild" commercials as teaching moments. You fill your children up with your values (which means, of course, you actually have to have some values of your own to start with, and you can't be shy about instilling them in your kids) and you don't allow society--especially popular youth culture--to be a greater influence than you are.

The thing is, I view pornification as being more a function of commercialism and exploitative capitalism than I view it as a symptom of sin, and I've raised my children accordingly. I have to wonder about folks who prescribe THE HEALING POWER OF JEEBUS as the cure for all ills.

X3 says that they minister to those in the porn industry, and its consumers. There's no doubt that there are plenty of damaged people there who need spiritual help. But I have my doubts about people who are so obsessed with one issue, especially one like pornography.
I'm also suspicious of any group addressing some aspect of sexuality that is composed mainly of men. I mean, doesn't it seem at least possible that the real reason a bunch of 20 and 30-something guys want to "minister" to the porn-afflicted could be that they might, uh, want to hang out around hot-looking porn babes? Don't you wonder how many "strictly-for-research" porn collections these guys have? I still haven't decided if the vibe on the site is ironic or just creepy--they bill themselves as the "#1 Christian Porn Site", for instance, and the graphics are meant to resemble adult websites. You can buy a Jesus Loves Porn Stars tee shirt, which is really kind of rockin, except that I'd worry about where the money was going.

What really got me, though, was the Operation Save the Kittens. That's a reference to the "Every time you masturbate, God kills a kitten" picture that's floated around the internet for years. While X3 graciously reassures that they don't think God kills kittens ("you would have to talk to Bible scholars about that") they are strongly against masturbation: "start pleasing Him and stop pleasing yourself."

I wonder if they distribute saltpeter to their members, or if prayer is enough?




8 comments:

Katie Schwartz said...

oh my god, you are so fabulous! this absolutely rocks. thank you for sending it my way. I am linking to you right now.

I love what you said about parenting and the importance of instilling values.

Coaster Punchman said...

It's all just hysteria. People do need things to get hysterical about.

Glad to see Katie has discovered the joys of Bubs and Miz Bubs.

lulu said...

Silly Kristians, everyone knows that Porn and Bacon go together.

Anonymous said...

You are so right about the parent's responsibility to instill values in our kids. All you have to do is look around you - those people who have crappy values are passing them right along to their kids.

And those Christians who are (yeah, right) ministering about porn? They're sex obsessed and feel guilty about it. By dressing their obsession up in their Sunday best, they feel less shame about how titillated they are by porn.

Johnny Yen said...

Great point about raising your kids with values. I liked your comment about using the "Girls Gone Wild" commercials as teachable moments, and not being shy about instilling values. It's funny that the religious right talks a good game about that, but I find that there is a lack of real engagement and communication with their kids with them.

I can tell by things you've said on your blog that you get that "parent" is a verb, not just a noun-- it's something you do, not just something you are by virtue of having functioning reproductive organs. To quote that noted scholar and philospher Teri Garr, in "Mr. Mom," (and I'm paraphrasing here) "I just think that raising children into functioning adults is the most important job I'll ever have." No church or theology or school or anything else can do that for us-- only we parents can do that.

And you think what you write is shallow?

Danny Tagalog said...

I agree withe Mr Yen and "Jew" Girl - you have to instill values at all possibie times and fight the dumb culture put in their way.

Your doubts are most valid. rand Pancakes my God....

Anonymous said...

http://www.bored.com/wackyprojects/list.php?id=30

Go here. Do it NOW. Thank you!

Dale said...

All about having the values to instill. Good work Bubs.