Okay, I look at porn. A lot. I have CD's chock full of it. But this node isn't about me. This one's for the others. You know who you are.

In western (American) society, at least at this time, there is a great stigma assosciated with pornography and those who view and or use it. It seems that anywhere outside of your close friendbase, the very mention of it sends people into a catatonic trance. Dry-heaving and pus are usually not too far behind. The majority of people have, at one time or another, glanced over the occasional Playboy, Hustler, Web-Site, etc.
This shouldn't lessen the value of you as a human-being, morally and socially. So let's all shake hands and make up... on second thought, let's not.
I read a story about a man who was raised in the really scary, dirty slums in NYC. When he was about 7 years old his parents (who were major drug addicts) moved without telling him. They took the rest of the family, but they just forgot about him, and never came back. In order to survive, he turned to prostitution. I have no idea how, but he managed to grow up and get more or less off the streets and settle down with some woman and start a family.

When the man's son was 7 his wife caught him in the act of fellatio with his son. The man couldn't really explain why he did this, but there must have been a connection to his experience as a child. Many men who sexually abuse their children (statistically father-daughter incest is the most common form of incest in the United States, but all kinds of child abuse are common) claim it's to prepare them for sexual encounters in adult life.

This story appeared in a book written for Christian Ministers who wanted to help families get through this kind of situation. The book points out that Jesus said, "whatever you have done to the least of these, you've done to me", and called his followers to love the very lowest in society, including child molesters and other sexual perverts. Jesus would have said "Perverts are People Too", and would have called us to love them.

Loving them might mean putting them in jail or at least in therapy and preventing them from ever hurting anyone ever again, but not doing that hatefully. I think the idea of trying to heal someone as twisted as the man in this story, and especially trying to stop him is one that any religion could respect.

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