Love: the only thing that can set us free

Last night I was up really late. 3 am late. I was getting ready to go to bed and I had the TV turned on the History channel. I have no idea what show was on. The truth is, I wasn’t watching it. I just needed something on while I slipped away into the unconscious state of sleep. As I was making my bed, one of those “Girls Gone Wild” commercials came on. It was your typical Girls Gone Wild commercial: lots of censors, girls making out, and belly button rings among other things.

I heard the announcer say that this new Girls Gone Wild video had over 10,000 college girls in it. And as I heard that, a thought hit me. Not a thought of lust. I didn’t think “Man that is so hot.” Rather, I thought “Man that is so sad.” Because, at this point in my life, college girls means my peers. Those are girls my age and, not that they are in these videos, but girls I could have grown up knowing.

It’s so different when you think of those girls as people you know too. I mean, with porn, people are conditioned to look at other people as objects. The wild girls in Girls Gone Wild are just objects whose purpose is to sexually gratify the viewer. That’s what they do. And when the viewer is gratified, the body, the image, the girl, can be thrown away. The problem with this is that the girl there on the screen or page or whatever is a person. That naked girl is a daughter, or a sister, or a girlfriend.

It would cause me a lot of pain to even try to think of some girl that I know being put into that kind of situation. Naked… exposed… being stared at, objectified. It just makes me sick even to mention it. And to think of the person on the other end, the dude who is looking for some simple sexual gratification at the expense of a girl that I know. To be honest, I would want to rip the guy’s limbs off.

I had a professor in college who referred to people who look at porn as “vampires”. Because people who look at porn only see bodies. They devour one body, get their fill, and then move on to the next victim.

What is so sad about this is that I believe many of these girls in these videos and on these websites are missing a whole lot of much-needed love in their lives. Maybe their parents didn’t care for them right, maybe they had some broken friendships or romantic relationships. Maybe they don’t understand that God loves them for who they are. I don’t know for sure. But I think that a lot of girls are insecure and are just looking for attention and acceptance and, when you get down to it, love. And to see those girls trying to find it by taking off their clothes and letting someone have sex with them on camera… it just breaks my heart.

I believe it breaks God’s heart, too. One of the comparisons that God makes in showing us how He relates to us is by calling us His bride. It’s amazing, really, how God takes the most intimate and personal human relationship and says that’s how He feels about us. I mean, I have never been married, but I can imagine how it would feel if I loved my wife and yet she did not know it, so she tried to gain acceptance from others by getting naked for them. It would break my heart because I would want her to know that she was beautiful and that she was amazing and that I loved her no matter what. I think God feels the same way.

This is one reason I think it is so important for a person to accept and love other people for who they are. Because it all comes down to this: there’s a lack of love in this world. If a girl is loved to the point where she is comfortable with herself (which is sometimes asking a lot), then she won’t want to take off her clothes for other people. She’ll respect herself, and won’t feel the need to be that desperate for acceptance. I believe it would make all the difference.

The porn industry is an evil business, but it is also an extremely successful business. A lot of people are getting filthy rich over this sexual exploitation, and our culture is one that is getting increasingly sexual. I ask anybody who is willing to not only look away from this industry, but to do whatever they can to attack the root of the problem. Love people, and I mean everybody. Accept them and make them feel good about themselves. Make sure that they know they are loved, and that they have worth. Because if you do, then who knows? You may give someone just what they need to steer clear of a dark, lonely pathway. And you will introduce them to a world that will make all the difference to a bleeding heart.