Children of the (Sexual) Revolution

Unfortunately, you can fool the children of the sexual revolution.

On the one hand, this is a good wake up call.  Excerpts:

Mark Greaves talks to Matthew Fradd, the 28-year-old who conquered his porn addiction and is helping others to do the same...

Fradd says people should be honest and admit that churchgoers can be addicted to pornography, too. “Those who sit next to us at church may not believe there’s a problem with pornography, and maybe they do and they’re up to their eyeballs in it.”

On the phone, he says he forgets that other people aren’t as comfortable talking about pornography as he is. “It’s kind of the main thing I do now,” he says...

From his own experience struggling against pornography Fradd recommends fasting and Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament as well praying the rosary.

“If I can’t say no to that next slice of pizza or that next cup of coffee, how on earth will I say no to a temptation to look at pornography?”

He adds: “Prayer without fasting is like boxing with one hand tied behind your back, and fasting without prayer – well, we call that dieting.”

Fradd is a riveting, charismatic speaker, even on the phone. But he also seems quite sensible and down to earth: he is careful not to hold himself up as a model of virtue, and is scrupulously humble about his efforts.

Essentially, he says, the point is not about looking, or not looking, at pornography; it’s about trying to be holy.

“We want to be the kind of men that, when we’re dead, Satan throws a party. He says: ‘Thank God he has gone, he caused my kingdom too much damage.’ That’s the kind of man I want to be. And I think that’s the kind of man most men want to be.”

And Taylor Marshall has some spiritual tips on chastity:

Someone once asked Saint Dominic why he kept his eyes lowered to the ground during most the day.

The saint's response: "So that my eyes might be pure when I one day behold the Blessed Mother."

Incidentally, here is a good custom for men who try to keep their eyes and hearts pure. I have memorized the following Bible verse and I recite it when I am tempted by the eyes:

"I have made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not so much as look upon a virgin" (Job 31:1).

It's very effective and it's also worthy invoking the Dominican St Thomas Aquinas who is said to have been one of the purest men ever to live...

On the other hand, this is the culture in which we live and move and have our being (adult content warning).  Excerpts:

...This story on MSNBC.com asks if perhaps maybe a college professor kinda' maybe went a wee bit too far when he brought a stripper to his class to use a motorized sex toy on herself...

I wonder how many parents know they're taking out a second mortgage so their kids can attend a live sex show?

The lack of outrage over this story begs the question of whether our society has completely lost the ability to call a nutcase a nutcase. This guy deserves a rap in the mouth from an angry father. He deserves to be ostracized by polite company. That's the rational reaction.

But what do we get? We get him defending himself and the college helping him out and the media wondering if perhaps he maybe kinda' sorta' went a weeeeeeeee bit too far...

Father Longenecker is doing a series on the tactics of temptation in the Screwtape tradition (using the same characters he'd used in The Gargoyle Code) that seems very apropos.

And they're pushing for sex ed to look like this.

So--everybody. It's hard as hell out there.  We need to make sure we don't fail to temper justice with mercy, and do hold onto justice in the face of misguided compassion.  Why?  Cause almost everybody these days are among the walking wounded, but nobody has to stay there.