Shamelessness commercialized

Over the last 35 years, the commercialization of sexuality has increased with such gradual intensity, and people as a whole have become so desensitized, that societies (particularly in the Western Hemisphere) now offer little resistance. Traffickers in the pornographic desperately wish to drive us those last few steps to the yawning abyss, a world where shopping for sexually debased material is as commonplace and acceptable as shopping for a loaf of bread.

Writing last month in the Financial Times (subscription req'd), Clare Dowdy described the recent arrival of so-called "adult-oriented" shops to London's main retail districts. These stores are high-class, corporate-driven affairs, more in line with Gap than a seedy, hole-in-the-wall X-rated shop. Indeed, they are expecting to attract more women and couples, and profit from the very pervasiveness of debased sex in mainstream media.

Both [Gordon] Lee and Roger Ede, project director of Hustler Hollywood U.K., say the effect of the television series "Sex and the City" on women's behavior should not be underestimated. Sex has become mainstream, the retailers say, so it is now acceptable on high streets.

Harmony, a British retailer of pornographic goods, opened a store In September on London's famed Oxford Street. In Dowdy's article, Harmony director Danny O'Sullivan said: "A visit to Harmony should be as normal and everyday an experience as going to any other chain store in your lunch hour."

A society without shame is a society that does not recognize human limits and has lost its fear of God. The flippant phrase "sex sells" has proven so axiomatic that there is little thought given to its destructive consequences. But history is always keen to repeat itself. The prophet Isaiah warned of impending judgment on Jerusalem and Judah in Isaiah Chapter 3:

⁸ Their words and deeds are against the LORD, defying his glorious presence.
⁹ The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves.

We tend to keep God out of the decision-making when it comes to sexuality. Yet, the areas in one's life most in need of Him are the ones that are the most personal and locked up in a vault. Jesus Christ is Lord over our entire life, not just the parts of our choosing.

Jesus warned that an act of adultery is committed with an unfaithful and lustful thought (Matthew 5:27-28). The famously wise Solomon, speaking from his own regrettable experiences, had these words of caution for his son in Proverbs Chapter 5:

³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
⁴ But in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.

The drumbeat of Herculaneum-like sexual chaos grows ever louder. "Adult" businesses are eyeing a new market: the introduction of pornographic content providers for cell phones is on the horizon.