Comments about ‘The scourge of pornography’

Lest we forget, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them."

Pornography is pictures of naked people. The human body is beautiful, and people will photograph beauty. My objection is not with what people who seek out pornography find on the net - though children should definitely be protected from that. My objection is with advertisements.

As much as I love beauty, it is insulting to my humanity for an advertiser to try to sell a product to me by trying to activate my visceral sex drive. If you're driving down the interstate and see an A&F billboard, I see 0.5% of clothing and 99.5% of skin. I think that's just insulting to my humanity.

Wars of Adventure are another form of pornography.

I agree wholeheartedly that pornography should not be thrust upon anyone, and that regular TV shows have abysmally low standards. God's name is blasphemed everyday on TV and almost everywhere else. Sex is used in advertising and put on sale in public and in private.

During this pornography conference, though, I hope there is some indignation saved for the daily soap operas that glamorise and portray adultery. What terrible fare for stay-at-home mothers, both that and talk show man-haters and lesbians like Oprah and Degeneres. Clean it up ye pathetic amoral TV networks.

The only difference in pornography of today and that of hundreds of years ago, is the availability and form. In the past only the wealthy could afford to participate in the creation and display of pornography. These people were often called patrons of the Arts. Much of that which we call Classic Art is simply pornography.

As for the beautiful human body, Ive only seen a few naked women, but it is my considered opinion, they look better with their clothes on. As for naked men, ugh.

The fact is that sex is fun. God/nature made it that way on purpose. It is the main driving force that creates all life. In a free society it is only normal that men will capitalize on the human drive of sex to sell their products. Hence advertising using sex.

If pornography has bad effects on people and their lives, fight those things and dont waste time on something that you cant change.

A few months ago, the Salt Lake newspapers insisted on putting pictures of people without skin on their website and in their newspaper.

How is this okay? but beautiful pictures of women with their skin on is not okay?

The one was grose and ugly, the other is beautiful.

@Ultra Bob: You can turn this into a class envy subject? The acrobatic nature of your mind is astonishing.

Most of the views concerning the "obvious dangers of pornography" come from a conservative religious perspective. Sometimes these conservative religious perspectives have a smokescreen of "science" but they are not. If anyone takes the time to review the actual peer evaluated scientific studies, one finds that pornography is largely harmless. While it may strongly violate some people's religious views or sometimes the feminist political views, we live in a society that should not impose laws based upon religion. We also live in a society that has freedom of speech. Remember it is unpopular speech that is in need of protection by our constitution. Everyone is encouraged to read works on this subject by Marty Klein and by Debbie Nathan.

pornograph is a tool for good or ill

the europeans have what in utah would be considered pornography in their finest churches and museums.

I see no evidence that europe is any less healthy mentally than people in the united states.

i also think pornograph has legitimate uses. what about the man who has a wife who is sick for an extended period or who refuses to be a wife to him?

looking at pornography may actually save the marriage by giving the wife time to get her act together by relieving stress on the husband.

religion makes it seem as if one size fits all, i.e. never look at the stuff, however there are times when it is called for.

So are bad thoughts which lead to everything. So are most men in our country who worship sports, so is anyone who watches more TV than reading and community service, so is many women whose boredom in life have them watch any movie. Let's admit it, some people in life are more bored than others and the bored people (less educated) get involved in the most addictions and heartache. Last week on KSL, they spoke of what Salt Lake City would do without the Jazz? Maybe men would take their wives dancing, maybe we would all do constructive things outdoors, learn to cook, write, invent and explore, fix things------we are all programmed into a lot of garbage and it is going to be a battle getting out of a rut.

This hysteria about porno is just that--hysteria. It is used by religious extremists for political gains. Often the people who harp the loudest are the greatest users.

RE: Those boys in American Fork: Anyone who would even think about prosecuting a child for looking at porno has got a serious mental problem.

Its very sad and disappointing to the liberals comments.

They have no love for children or theor innocence,

no interwst in protecting childrenb for wrold the are not mature enough nor capbl;able of handling.

how liberals have absolutely NO understanding how porn can warp youe mind, warp your views of women (or men), warp yours views of human sexuality, warp your ability to form healthy realtionships, or destructive it can be to you personally and to others close to you.

how liberals do not understand what a toxic poison porn is, nor how powerful the human sexdrive it, and playng with is just llike playing with fire.

and how it CAN and does lead to or influence your behavior from lewd acts to the most serious felonies.

How it can lead to actions that can bring needless suffering and death from all sorts of diseases, even to the most innocent.

How can liberals ignore all lives destroyed or ruined, the people warpped, by the porn, sex, movie industries?

very sad and disappointing that liberals just don't understand or refuse to see.

This article was actually making an incredible understatement when it stated that our society is becoming "inreasingly sex-obsessed". We are so sex-obsessed that too many literally cannot think of any other purpose in life. The joy and innocence that comes from childhood is at stake, and very often it is the selfish rantings of adults who have no children of their own that need their pornographic fix. They so desperately need to rationalize their behavior, for indeed it would be madness to continue behavior while acknowledging its evil.

The break-up of the family is so rampant, and when we see the gov't replacing families and religion as our society's security blanket, we quickly see the debauchery, foolishness, laziness and incompetence that is so prevalent. We pat ourselves on the back because of the technological advances we have today, when it is embarrassing to see how less educated today's generation is than yesteryear.

I was the one who wrote the initial comment, "they that be with us are more than they that be with them." I can't stress that enough. Ignore the shouts of the wicked and unrepentant, they are deaf. Truth prevails.

As the Presidents commission on pornograhphy and obscenity found... no harm from the stuff. That is why Richard Nixon tried to suppress the report.
Put your efforts into doing good and quit worrying about what others do behind closed doors.

"An Observer" said that liberals "have no love for children or their innocence." How laughable and off the wall!

Hello, my wife and I are liberals, and we raised three wonderful children, one of whom we adopted. They are all college graduates.

My wife was Sandy teacher of the year, and it was a real problem for the principal because parents were demanding that their kids be put in her class.

This writer is being led around by the nose by hate radio (Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, and Glenn Beck) into thinking that everything "liberal" is bad. What silliness!

I'll say it again, anyone who would even think about prosecuting a child for looking at porno is mentally ill.

Here is what should have happened in American Fork.

Principal: "All right guys, if you ever do anything like this again, your going to be suspended. Now sit on those chairs until the lunch bell rings."

Then notify the parents and let them handle it.

END OF STORY, ADIOS, And GOODBYE!

Porno crusades, like anti-gay crusades, are used to advance an extreme right-wing political agenda. They have little to do with the subject at hand.

"Anonymous" wrote that the "break-up on the family is so rampant" and the "government is replacing families as our society's security blanket."

What a string of hate-radio falsehoods! I know several people who were divorced, and guess what? They got re-married and stayed married (one couple for over 30 years now).

I've been married forty years, and I was a teacher for 33 years. I am optimistic about our youth. They actually know more than the previous generation of the same age.

This letter is laughable. I have a copy of a newspaper article from 1825, and in it, the editor decried the lack of honesty, the decline of morals among young people, and so forth. "Forty years ago, a man's word was his bond...." That's 40 years ago from 1825!

"Anonymous," get off your moral high horse. The fall to the ground of reality can be hard indeed.

Sign of an aged mind: You see the decline of youth all around you. Sign of a mind that is still young. You see the overwhelming positive things that are happening. Advice: Don't get old in the mind.

@ an observer
Really are those facts you are reading off or just your personal opinion? I dont see first off 'liberals' have any say in who is exposed to porn that is a parents job also included in parenting is explaining those awkward questions that a child might ask concerning sex, naked bodies, babies ect in a way that a child sees as normal and healthy not dirty and wrong.
You can do your job as a parent or expect the world to do it for you, which do you prefer?

I concur with you most certainly. Side note: What do churches containing nude effigies have to do with the price of rice in China? I'm not a member of those churches, and I would be dumbfounded if my church had naked statues and paintings in their chapels and edifices of worship. Just because one or two church organizations do it does not make it right, especially when I disagree with them on certain doctrines of Christianity.

re Hear, Hear, Anonymous 12,03 | 8:39 a.m.

"What do churches containing nude effigies have to do with the price of rice in China, Just because one or two church organizations do it does not make it right"?

People claiming that looking at nude bodies is harmful have yet to explain why in Europe nudity is all over the place, yet Europe is no less mentally healthy than the United States.

In Europe what we would consider porn is in the churches, on television and in magazines available to all, even the young.

We are not talking about violence or violence associated with porn, just beautiful nude pictures.

Where is your evidence that it is harmful?

Did you ever consider the harm caused by religious sexual repression, religion making people feel guilty for sex?

If modesty were the way to mental health, Moslems would be the most mentally healthy people on the planet.

Look at how enlightened the Moslem countries are. What has all thier modesty bought them?

I know individual Moslems who are enlightened, but these people refer to themselves as jack-moslems (yes they live in Utah).