This is a sports-related blog. The contents therein relate strictly to sports. But, today I'm veering dangerously close to the margin of my subject matter. And, I hate to bug my kind reader with something that doesn’t relate to balls and strikes. But my pastor, whose self-proclaimed mission is to "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" disturbed me at the late Sunday Service. He said he's disappointed at the parents who didn't send their teenage kids to an event called HOT HEARTS, which many of our church-kids did attend. In addition to some real passionate Christian Rock and Fellowship, one of the speakers talked about the deadliest cancer to be found on the internet: pornography. This man at HOT HEARTS warned kids to beware. This ‘cancer’ eats at the soul. And, our pastor spoke about it with all the subtlety of an Irish shillaly.
I love the Irish. Being part Irish, there is a special corner of sympathy in my heart for this dirty, beautiful, honest, beer-swilling people. My own great-great-grandfather, 'Big Dan Pollock' was an unshaven, club-wielding union member involved in the rioting over unfair wages and the firing of union members in the Pullman Strikes of Chicago (1894). So, I claim a certain heritage along with this people. Hence, when I heard Irish Evangelist Alistair Begg on the radio one day, I was ensconced. I soon became a periodic listener.
As it happened, I listened as the melodic Mr. Begg spoke once about lust and pornography on his radio show, Truth for Life (Please visit his site: www.TruthforLife.Org) He likened people to hunted-wolves, taken by Canadian Eskimos. The Eskimos use an intriguing hunting method: simply adhering a frozen piece of animal flesh to a frozen, sharpened blade. The hunters then stab the knife tip into the snow and wait, leaving the knife in the snow. As darkness falls the wary predator, overcome by his lust for flesh, advances on the meat. The wolf begins by cautiously licking the meat. Tasting blood, he soon becomes intoxicated by the taste. More ravenously he licks. He is deliriously unaware when the blood he is consuming becomes his own. His frozen, insensitive tongue is now slicing repeatedly on the hunters blade.....
The morning sun rises to reveal the dead animal lying not far from the trap. The Eskimo picks up the dead wolf that bled to death as a result of his own lust for flesh.
The metaphor is obvious. We men may mislead ourselves that we are involved in a harmless diversion. But, it is a trap. And, our own lust soon leads to the bleeding
of our very souls.
Now, is this cancer so socially pervasive? Am I being overly dramatic? In answer to that question, our Pastor yesterday talked about a survey at a massive Promisekeepers meeting. Their survey revealed that fully 80% of them were troubled by their own consumption of online porn. These men were Christian fathers and husbands. One has to wonder what the percentage is in the rest of society.
The hunter is ubiquitous, seductive and beguiling. Just how ubiquitous
is this enemy? By the end of 2004, there were 420 million pages of pornography, and it is believed that the majority of these websites are owned by less than 50 companies (LaRue, Jan. “Obscenity and the First Amendment.” Summit on Pornography. Rayburn House Office Building. Room 2322. May 19, 2005). Just how seductive is this enemy? Just check out Sports Illustrated's web site. In the world of internet porn, the 'Swimsuit' Link is a gateway drug. Not even the Promisekeepers can steer clear. So, we as fathers and role-models better recognize this hunter for what it is. “Sins of the Father” is not a well-known figure of speech just because it’s a clever wordplay. We must begin by avoiding online porn and anything like it. As the alpha-male, we must be vigilant. The hunter wants to attack our young. Yes, my pitcher and your power-forward are really who is at stake here. You want proof? The largest group of viewers of Internet porn is children between ages 12 and 17 (Family Safe Media, December 15, 2005, http://www.familysafemedia.com/
pornography_statistics.html) Can we allow our children’s minds to become corrupted this way? Can we allow our sons’ behavior to be reduced to the visceral and ravenous consumption of the flesh of our daughters? The behavior of our own youth notwithstanding, we aspire for more for our sons than to be hollow, debaucherous idiots.
I was sitting comfortably in the pew yesterday when the pastor afflicted me as usual with guilt. I had not sent my son to the HOT HEARTS event because neither he nor I wanted him to have to endure a long, draining and histrionic event that would deprive him of rest. He's an athlete. And, he and I generally decline on invitations that entail non-athletic activity. In the societal pack, he and I are preparing for him to be an alpha-male. But, the pastor hit me with his proverbial shillaly on Sunday. The enemy hunter would always prefer to take the alpha-male. So, perhaps I allowed my boy to miss part of his preparation for that role. I am in favor of such an event where the truth is told, without shading, reservation or subtlety. In the words of the renowned Irishman, Bono of U2 during one of his live concert diatribes recorded on Rattle and Hum , “Am I bugging you?......... I’d hate to bug you.”
