When I am Cautiously Optimistic...

Image from here.

This graph is a random graphic, not really demonstrating, apart from a positive trend, which broadly echoes my thoughts on the news, today, that the Government has announced that "Online pornography to be blocked by default" (BBC News Article).

I've written before about the Porn Problem in our country specifically, and various other posts have touched on aspects of this evil. For the uninitiated, or perhaps those who think it is relatively harmless for appropriate adult consumption, lets just remember a few things. Firstly, Pornography degrades human beings. This is a simple fact, it especially degrades women and the other performers in the industry, but everyone who comes into contact with it - including myself in the past - is tainted and damaged by the misrepresentation of sex and intimacy that are at the heart of pornography. Secondly, echoing the Government's concern, it does contribute to the sexualisation of young children. The average age that children first access pornography is terrifyingly young, the statistics prove this, and my own anecdotal experience as a volunteer youth worker a few years ago was that boys as young as 11 were struggling with the images and feelings that they were encountering. I think these two, wide ranging and incomplete as they are, represent good reasons to be cautiously optimistic about the Governments proposed default block on pornographic material.

For more of the stats, do read my aforementioned post, which has some sobering facts among various bits of opinion and theology.

So why am I only cautiously optimistic?

Bluntly, because I don't think a default block goes far enough or makes enough sense, and secondly (and perhaps more importantly) I don't see how this proposal makes coherent sense with the rest of the Coalition Governments agenda.

Firstly, this default block. I think it is a good starting point, and it broadly echoes the aim of the 'Safety Net' campaign, to persuade the Government to force ISP's to block Pornography at the network level. I think a default block isn't enough - people will still opt in, still access Pornography, and the worst kinds, such as child sex images, will remain part of the internet in online groups that are already 'underground'. Cameron's call for certain search terms to be 'blacklisted' is also encouraging - though I wonder how they would arrive at such a blacklist! I certainly appreciated Cameron's reference to the 'moral duty' of ISP's to be involved in such a project.

And it is at this point that I think this idea, this proposal, this project, begins to fall apart. Whose morals? When we take a step back and remember that this Government has just legalised an un-equal form of Gender-Neutral Marriage, and its understanding of family, humanity, and community are a confused mish-mash of ideological tenets borrowed in a flurry of pluralism, it seems to me to be worth sounding a note of caution. The Government should not forget that the same arguments of 'freedom' and 'choice' that one might make for sexual practices that are entirely legal, would and could be made of the rights of adults to pornographic material. On what grounds does the Government base its morals? This call to morality is welcome, but ultimately disingenuous, and quite murky.

Perhaps, too, and I write this as someone all in favour of the removal of Pornography from our internets and webs, there is a place for concern over censorship. If Pornography now, what later of dissenting opinions? Given the aforementioned redefinition of marriage, and the ambiguity of debate over many moral issues in the public square, this does in part smack of a redefinition of morality to appease people who might otherwise be concerned about the way our culture 'works'.

The most important part of this ideological murk, the morality of our bizarre Government, is the fact that it singularly fails to understand what a human being is, and how relationships and so on work. I have written before about the Crisis of Human-Hood, and I think this is an example of that Crisis. In my mind, a mind that is convinced of the truth of the Christian story and its moral authority, to frustrate pornography whilst encouraging other 'immoral' practices is slightly confusing. What, dear Government, is wrong with Pornography? The answer struggles to come without some appeal to the value of persons, the innocence of children. The answer struggles to be coherent without some appeal to a flaw at the heart of man, the role of authority, and the basis of morality. We live in a culture that seems almost apathetic to sexual abuse, whether in the BBC with Jimmy Saville or in the Church in recent high-profile cases. This apathy, a moral outrage that flickers and then moves on to the next story, flows I believe from a failure to understand the unique value and dignity of human beings. I honestly believe that the Christian story is the only one that comprehensively explains that.

As I draw to a close, I hope I am clear. I support efforts to reduce the availability of Pornography, and if the motivation is the protection of children, then bravo. But I fail to understand where this is from, how it can be coherent in a secular, liberal society, and whether the implications for individual freedom have been thought through. Because I believe in the Christian Doctrine of Imago Dei, I firmly believe something should be done about Pornography - but to do it in the same year as the incredibly divisive Universal Credit, rise in the number of Food Banks, stories about Tax Avoidance, and the passing of Gender Neutral Marriage, seems to demonstrate some moral incoherence. I remain, cautiously, optimistic, and hope with my friends at Last Man Standing that future generations will be shielded from the dangerous effects of Pornography.

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I hope this post has been thought-provoking and helpful, or at least interesting. I would love you to read 'The Crisis of Human-Hood', because I think that post ends exactly where it needs to. As stated above, I think reading 'The Porn Problem' would also be helpful, because this stuff matters. Finally, a recent post on how sex and identity in our culture are broken, 'Sex(uality) is Not Enough' provides some of the theory underpinning some of what I say here.

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