Laws against Smut

[crhoades]

Not sure to put this in the Law of God or Politics and Govt.

Recent post on .xxx domain names brought these questions to mind.

1. Should p0rnography be illegal and why?
2. If illegal, what should the penalty be for trafficking in it?
3. for consuming it?

If as Christians we can't address these foundational questions, we can not expect things to change.

[Edited on 12-6-2005 by crhoades]

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

God's law says that p0rnography is wicked. This is made clear by the Westminster Larger Catechism:

Q138: What are the duties required in the seventh commandment?
A138: The duties required in the seventh commandment are, chastity in body, mind, affections,[1] words,[2] and behavior;[3] and the preservation of it in ourselves and others;[4] watchfulness over the eyes and all the senses;[5] temperance,[6] keeping of chaste company,[7] modesty in apparel;[8] marriage by those that have not the gift of continency,[9] conjugal love,[10] and cohabitation;[11] diligent labor in our callings;[12] shunning all occasions of uncleanness, and resisting temptations thereunto.[13]

1. I Thess. 4:4; Job 31:1; I Cor. 7:34
2. Col. 4:6
3. I Peter 2:3
4. I Cor. 7:2, 35-36
5. Job 31:1
6. Acts 24:24
7. Prov. 2:16-20
8. I Tim. 2:9
9. I Cor. 7:2, 9
10. Prov. 5:19-20
11. I Peter 3:7
12. Prov. 31:11, 27-28
13. Prov. 5:8; Gen. 39:8-10

Q139: What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment?
A139: The sins forbidden in the seventh commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required,[1] are, adultery, fornication,[2] rape, incest,[3] sodomy, and all unnatural lusts;[4] all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections;[5] all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto;[6] wanton looks,[7] impudent or light behavior, immodest apparel;[8] prohibiting of lawful,[9] and dispensing with unlawful marriages;[10] allowing, tolerating, keeping of stews, and resorting to them;[11] entangling vows of single life,[12] undue delay of marriage;[13] having more wives or husbands than one at the same time;[14] unjust divorce,[15] or desertion;[16] idleness, gluttony, drunkenness,[17] unchaste company;[18] lascivious songs, books, pictures, dancings, stage plays;[19] and all other provocations to, or acts of uncleanness, either in ourselves or others.[20]

1. Prov. 5:7
2. Heb. 13:4; Gal. 5:19
3. II Sam. 13:14; I Cor. 5:1
4. Rom. 1:24, 26-27; Lev. 20:15-16
5. Matt. 5:28; 15:19; Col. 3:5
6. Eph. 5:3-4; Prov. 7:5, 21-22
7. Isa. 3:16; II Peter 2:14
8. Prov. 7:10, 13
9. I Tim. 4:3
10. Lev. 18:1-21; Mark 6:18; Mal. 2:11-12
11. I Kings 15:12; II Kings 23:7; Deut. 23:17-18; Lev. 19:29; Jer. 5:7; Prov. 7:24-27
12. Matt. 19:10-11
13. I Cor. 7:7-9; Gen. 38:26
14. Mal. 2:14-15; Matt. 19:5
15. Mal. 2:16; Matt. 5:32
16. I Cor. 7:12-13
17. Ezek. 16:49; Prov. 23:30-33
18. Gen. 39:10; Prov. 5:8
19. Eph. 5:4; Ezek. 23:14-16; Isa. 3:16; 23:15-17; Mark 6:22; Rom. 13:13; I Peter 4:3
20. II Kings 9:30; Jer. 4:30; Ezek. 23:40

However, the legal basis for modern p0rnography hangs upon the concept enshrined in the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press." Any suppression of obscene materials is by its very nature censorship, something which is anathema to American concepts of liberty. Government historically has assumed the right to suppress vice because vice = immorality and morality -- contrary to modern ideas -- is fundamentally religious, and magistrates do have powers to promote good (virtue) and suppress evil (vice). The state has an interest and a duty to uphold marriage and the family, institutions ordained by God, and to suppress that which undermines both. The Seventh Commandment, then, is the basis for all legislation against adultery, sodomy, uncleanness, birth control, abortion, obscenity, etc. Even pagan nations historically have legislated against these crimes.

John Milton's Areopagitica and The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (both 1644) were significant works which aimed to open the door to "free press" and decriminalization of aspects of divorce laws.

The Westminster Assembly however (1646) reaffirmed the lawfulness of censorship by the civil magistrate and suppression of vice:

Chap. XX, IV. And because the powers which God hath ordained, and the liberty which Christ hath purchased, are not intended by God to destroy, but mutually to uphold and preserve one another; they who, upon pretence of Christian liberty, shall oppose any lawful power, or the lawful exercise of it, whether it be civil or ecclesiastical, resist the ordinance of God.(p) And, for their publishing of such opinions, or maintaining of such practices, as are contrary to the light of nature, or to the known principles of Christianity, whether concerning faith, worship, or conversation; or, to the power of godliness; or, such erroneous opinions or practices, as either in their own nature, or in the manner of publishing or maintaining them, are destructive to the external peace and order which Christ hath established in the Church, they may lawfully be called to account, and proceeded against by the censures of the Church,(q) and by the power of the civil magistrate.(r)

(p) Matt. 12:25; I Pet. 2:13, 14, 16; Rom. 13:1 to 8; Heb. 13:17.
(q) Rom. 1:32 with I Cor. 5:1, 5, 11, 13; II John ver. 10, 11, and II Thess. 3:14, and I Tim. 6:3, 4, 5, and Tit. 1:10, 11, 13, and Tit. 3:10 with Matt. 18:15, 16, 17; I Tim. 1:19, 20; Rev. 2:2, 14, 15, 20; Rev. 3:9.
(r) Deut. 13:6 to 12; Rom. 13:3, 4 with II John ver. 10, 11; Ezra 7:23, 25, 26, 27, 28; Rev. 17:12, 16, 17; Neh. 13:15, 17, 21, 22, 25, 30; II Kings 23:5, 6, 9, 20, 21; II Chron. 34:33; II Chron. 15:12, 13, 16; Dan. 3:29; I Tim. 2:2; Isa. 49:23; Zech. 13:2, 3.

In 1727 Edmund Curll was convicted in England under the common law charge of disturbing the peace for the sale of obscene materials. This seems to be the first obscenity conviction of the modern era.

In 1788, the American Presbyterian Church dropped the clause on the power of the civil magistrate to censor (bolded above). The Church in reaction to unjust punishments against godly Dissenters accepted the idea that censorship by the magistrate was wrong in principle and/or in practice. The First Amendment was then ratified in 1791. The power of the magistrate to suppress publication of ungodly materials was neutered. The basis for criminalization of obscenity was changed from the power to enforce the Seventh Commandment to the preference of the majority democratic rule of law.

In 1830 England made at effort to stop the moral decline:

In 1830 a Royal Proclamation was issued "for the encouragement of Piety and Virtue, and for the preventing and punishing of Vice, Profaneness, and Immorality." Copies of the Proclamation were sent to all the Church of England incumbents, for them to read out in Church.

"... dissolute, immoral, and disorderly practices ..."

The Proclamation commanded local judges, mayors, sheriffs and magistrates "to be vigilant and strict in the discovery and the eventual prosecution and punishment of all persons who shall be guilty of excessive drinking, blasphemy, profane swearing and cursing, lewdness, profanation of the Lords' day, or other dissolute, immoral or disorderly practices ... and that by their own good and virtuous lives and conversations they do set good examples to all such as are under their authority."

Source: The original of this document is held at the County Record Office Huntingdon, as part of the archive of Leighton Bromswold parish church, reference HP53/23/1

The 1873 Comstock Law was a powerful legal tool aimed at the distribution of obscene materials (including birth control).

Be it enacted... That whoever, within the District of Columbia or any of the Territories of the United States...shall sell...or shall offer to sell, or to lend, or to give away, or in any manner to exhibit, or shall otherwise publish or offer to publish in any manner, or shall have in his possession, for any such purpose or purposes, an obscene book, pamphlet, paper, writing, advertisement, circular, print, picture, drawing or other representation, figure, or image on or of paper of other material, or any cast instrument, or other article of an immoral nature, or any drug or medicine, or any article whatever, for the prevention of conception, or for causing unlawful abortion, or shall advertise the same for sale, or shall write or print, or cause to be written or printed, any card, circular, book, pamphlet, advertisement, or notice of any kind, stating when, where, how, or of whom, or by what means, any of the articles in this section"¦can be purchased or obtained, or shall manufacture, draw, or print, or in any wise make any of such articles, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof in any court of the United States...he shall be imprisoned at hard labor in the penitentiary for not less than six months nor more than five years for each offense, or fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more than two thousand dollars, with costs of court.

However, the 20th century has seen the legalization of birth control, abortion, p0rnography and other benchmarks on the road to total depravity. Margaret Sanger, Hugh Hefner and others have paved the way for a cultural acceptance of immoral behavior and advances in media technology (home videos, internet) have amplified the effect of acceptable p0rnography. Hollywood has for almost a century continually challenged the mores of our society. No-fault divorce, "gay marriage" and the rest of the baneful effects of the "sexual revolution" continue to undermine families and plague society. The standards have been chipped away and our eyes are no longer troubled by what would have shocked our forebears. Soft p o r n is all around us. Only extreme or child p0rnography is still taboo, but it is everywhere too. All of these vices work together against the Seventh Commandment.

Psalm 94.20: Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law?

Calvin says "One nation might be more prone to a particular vice, were it not most severely repressed" (Institutes, IV, 20, 16). Until the law of the land is anchored upon God's law rather than "freedom" as defined by the ungodly then the magistrate will be impotent to deal with the problem. When the magistrate reassumes his God-given authority to legislate against immorality, then vice will be suppressed -- at least externally. As we all know, immorality is a matter of the sinful heart breaking forth and this will not be eliminated by laws -- but public access to obscene materials does increase the temptation and provocations to uncleanness and there is a great benefit in suppressing this evil.

Moreover, the church must witness against all forms of immorality faithfully to influence the society around her. The fall of Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and so many others has jaded Christians and non-Christians alike and shows how immorality has invaded the church. Many Christian men can testify to the destructive power of p o r n in their lives -- even after conversion. The internet (a good thing in itself) is particularly insidious in this regard. We must take heed by the grace of God lest we fall. The church must like Joshua in regards to Achen look to the evil that resides in her bosom and excise it. Discipline, accountability, marriage -- these are all things that the church should teach, promote and exercise.

Westminster Confession, XXIV:

II. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife,[2] for the increase of mankind with a legitimate issue, and of the Church with an holy seed;[3] and for preventing of uncleanness.[4]

[4] 1CO 7:2 Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband. 9 But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.

In the day of reformation, uncleanness will be cast out and no provision made for such evil in the church or by the civil magistrate.

[Edited on 12-7-2005 by VirginiaHuguenot]

 

[alwaysreforming]

Originally posted by joshua
Amen Andrew! Thanks for the sobering reminder which will reverberate in my mind the next opportune time that Old Serpent comes around, or when my heart next tries to decieve me.

Yeah, that WAS a sobering reminder...
There was a lot in there that I need to work on...

 

[Arch2k]

Originally posted by joshua
Amen Andrew! Thanks for the sobering reminder which will reverberate in my mind the next opportune time that Old Serpent comes around, or when my heart next tries to decieve me.

 

[Arch2k]

Law to restrict adult shops is upheld