Posted on 11/28/2012 7:01:52 AM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
There have been several supposedly “scientific” studies published this year that either disparaged people of faith or insidiously mocked religion.
That includes a study, published in the journal Science, which asserted that people who believe in God are not analytical thinkers.
There also was a study, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, which claimed that “highly religious” folk are less compassionate toward the needy than atheists.
Now comes yet another study, published this week in the Journal of Sex Research, which claims that adult film actresses are actually more religious than women who don’t get paid to have sex on camera.
“In terms of psychological characteristics,” the study’s five co-authors concluded, “porn actresses had higher levels of…spirituality compared to the matched group.”
This dubious study would be unworthy of comment except that it has gotten a lot of media coverage. It pretends to be scholarly research. But it’s nothing more than junk science.
Indeed, for those who blindly accept its findings, it leads to the absurd conclusion that there is some sort of link between sexual depravity and religiosity.
Uncritical thinkers could come away with the cockeyed notion that, just because a woman is sexually depraved – because she is a stripper or a prostitute or a porn actress – doesn’t mean she isn’t a woman of faith. Doesn’t mean she doesn’t love the Lord.
The authors of the Journal of Sex Research study argue that their findings disprove the “damaged goods hypothesis” with respect to “female performers in the adult entertainment industry.”
But close examination of the study’s methodology reveal obvious flaws that skew its findings.
It relied on the self-reporting of 177 porn actresses who responded to an advertisement posted at a Los Angeles health clinic, which was founded by a retired porn actress, and which catered to the adult film industry (before it was shut down last year by the L.A. County Health Department).
Apparently, it did not occur to the study’s authors that self-delusional porn actresses might misrepresent themselves as well-adjusted.
Might claim to have higher self-esteem, more positive feelings about themselves, a better support system, a more satisfying sex life and even a closer relationship with the Lord than women who don’t defile themselves for all the world to see.
The reality is that the 177 porn actresses who responded to the survey on which the study published in the Journal of Sex Research was based are indeed damaged goods.
And there is no better authority on the subject than Shelley Lubben, a former porn actress and born-again Christian. She is currently the Executive Director of the Pink Cross Foundation, a faith-based organization that reaches out to women caught up in the adult film industry.
The pornography business destroys body and soul, Lubben attests. Many porn actresses battle alcohol and drug abuse. They perform sex acts that are physically harmful and psychologically traumatizing. They contract sexually transmitted diseases.
There is a way for porn actresses to avoid that almost certain fate – give their lives to Christ. For whom the Son sets free is free indeed.
It depends. Does it count when she is on her back screaming, “Oh God, yes! yes! Oh, God... YES!!!!”
Satan, too, is a spirit. Perhaps they are more "spiritual", but that doesn't mean that they have come to a saving rrelationship with Christ.
And if they have, obviously they are ignoring the promptings of the HOly Spirit.
What about, “Go, and sin no more”?
If their life is really changed, they will find a way out. There’s plenty of help available. They might not make as much money on the deal.
That said, let’s look at another aspect. These actresses have “higher self-esteem”. So, then, why are they using drugs? There’s another demographic that tends to have high self-esteem. And the higher the self-esteem, the less they often have to back it up with.
I’m saying the situations may be analogous.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 but a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 He who despised Moses’ Law died without mercy on the word of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy of punishment, the one who has trampled the Son of God, and who has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know Him who has said, “Vengeance belongs to Me, I will repay, says the Lord.” And again, “The Lord shall judge His people.”
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I commend anyone wanting an answer to this question to Dostoyevsky’s “Crime and Punishment.”
Tell that to St Thomas Aquinas, whose approach to analytical thinking and the dialectical method approaches Spock-level, if not surpassing it. One might not agree with his conclusions (or even some of his premises), but there's no denying that the man was a rigorous thinker.
Or St Augustine.
Or Professor Einstein.
I would myself assert that people who believe that people who believe in God are not analytical thinkers are themselves not thinking analytically but uncritically regurgitating commonplace bromides produced by amateur intermalekshals who fondly want to believe that merely holding certain opinions automatically either excludes one from consideration as a human being, or else elevates one to unassailable empyrean heights beyond reproach or criticism.
In thinking circles, this is called "being lazily and intolerantly (as well as intolerably) stupid."
Religious people, on the other hand, by a long way, directly help the needy by giving to *them*, and they do so for both religious and altruistic reasons. They neither seek to control or dominate those they provide charity, which is another positive trait.
According to the libtard, a religious charity operating a soup kitchen/flophouse for homeless/winos is seeking to control them by having them attend a short devotional before retiring or even saying grace before the meal.
In reality, the religious charity is simply trying to put the homeless/wino in touch with their spiritual side as the first step in a long process to solving the problem.
The libtard, of course, is only interesting in enabling and perpetuating the problem as a tool to help themselves to further political power.
I suspect the porn actress is no different. She has serious personal issues which led her into that line of work. Discovering religion or getting in touch with her spiritual side may be the first step toward getting out of that lifestyle, but as long as her john, libtard friends and/or other exploiters can just keep her nipping at the edges of her spirituality sort of like Joe Biden's claims for "his Catholic faith" in the VP debate, she will never make the full journey out.
A boyhood friend of mine lost his wife to cancer about five years ago and was seriously interested in finding a replacement a.s.a.p. He even went on-line and met a former porn actress who had gotten into religion to the extent that he felt she was sincere, bought her an airline ticket and arranged for her to stay the weekend with another lady friend. He discovered that despite all of the phone calls and "get to know you" talks before he sprung for the airline ticket, she had very serious issues which he knew he would never be able to deal with. She was not happy when he drove her back to the airport.
One can be “spiritual” and engage in Wicca, Islam, New Age religions, Buddism, Pantheism, etc.
In particular, one can be a temple prostitute in some religions. But not Christianity.
Truly junk science.
I believe it was police novelist Joseph Wambaugh who noted that when prostitutes leave the business, about the only suitable mate for them are policemen, because there are no illusions in either case.
Instead, theirs is a relationship of mutual understanding and some degree of sadness. The feeling that to some extent they are both emotionally damaged goods, that they both have experienced things which had harmed their souls, and that what redemption that may find begins with kindness, gentleness and healing.
Exactly. God always wants his prodigal sons and daughters to return to Him. He is always ready to forgive. He loves a contrite and humble heart.
However, if the heart is not contrite, and there is no repentance for the sins committed [i.e. the sin continues unabated] .... any forgiveness is withheld, awaiting the repentance, methinks.
Matthew 21:31
The Parable of the Two Sons
28 “What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work today in the vineyard.’
29 “‘I will not,’ he answered, but later he changed his mind and went.
30 “Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, ‘I will, sir,’ but he did not go.
31 “Which of the two did what his father wanted?”
“The first,” they answered.
Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.
While I’m sure, using one’s own definition and beliefs, this is easily determined, Isn’t this really be up to God and that individual?
Can you still claim to have “freedom of religion” once you start putting restrictions on who’s allowed to be religous?
Unless someone here is in the porn business, I doubt you’ll get a valid answer to that.
“God’s ways of dealing with His people are not our ways. I would not assume that a porn actress is not a Christian anymore than I would assume someone obese from gluttony is not a Christian.”
I agree. There is much mystery in his methods and his works.
"For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality; . . For God did not call us to uncleanness, but in holiness. Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given us His Holy Spirit." 1 Thess 4-1-8
In other words, to reject God's commandment against sexual immorality and make it your profession, is a rejection of God.
Yes, i believe people who claim religion can, but i doubt if a Christian believer could.
Thanks for your input there, God.
Never realized screaming “Oh, God!” during sex was a religious experience.
Especially since God knew if she was going to become a porn actress and eventually be truly sorry even before she became a porn actress.
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