Pornography, Masturbation, and Other Private Misuses: A Perversion of Intimacy

Abstract

Immorality is a form of "cheating" and it expresses itself in a pattern of "drifting." Sexuality is intended to express the fulfillment of relational intimacy and trust. Immorality "cheats" by seeking to experience sexual gratification without intimacy. "Masturbation is sex with yourself.… People who are 'addicted' to pornography aren't so much addicted to lurid material as they're addicted to self-centeredness." Immorality also expresses a pattern of "drifting"; there's a history to it. "Persons never leap into extreme forms of sin; they 'drift' into them." "God also has a history with our hearts. That history is called sanctification." The solution to immorality is "not a matter of dealing with our drives but of sanctifying our hearts."