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I’m out one last time this summer since I’ve been in nonstop meetings for two weeks. I now have a plan for making sure “everything everywhere all at once” doesn’t happen again. I’ll be back next week, ready for the fall, the indisputably best season of the year.
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In the meantime, while I’m out this week, take a listen to this week’s podcast in which we discuss whether porn is a “harmless” vice.
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Of course, as Christians, we believe no sin is harmless, and Jesus and the apostles spoke directly to this question. But even some who don’t share our views on such matters are starting to wonder if the normalization of pornography has done something bad to our cultural ecosystem.
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In this episode, Christine Emba, author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, joins me to talk about her controversial and widely read New York Times essay, “The Delusion of Porn’s Harmlessness.” Emba says the widespread use of pornography is a “quiet catastrophe” that has led to sexual dysfunction, social disconnection, and epidemic loneliness. We discuss what porn does in not just responding to human desires but in training them, and how that leads to a change in minds, relationships, and sense of self.
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We explore why the idea of intimacy feels threatening, and how a generation raised on digital pleasure might struggle to imagine and practice real relational connection. We also talk about how porn shapes our expectations of each other, why Christians often mishandle this issue, and what it might look like to recover a deeper, more beautiful ethic of intimate relationships.
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She shares ideas for possible ways we can turn back the sense of despair and defeat about addressing this issue—personally, relationally, and societally—before we face the next wave of pornified artificial intelligence and virtual reality.
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The conversation is not panicked or handwringing, but it doesn’t hide how difficult it is to address a matter this advanced. The episode can give insight into the world around us and can help show what sort of path forward is possible when desire is distorted.
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You can listen to it here.
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Join Us at Christianity Today
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Ask a Question or Say Hello
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The Russell Moore Show podcast includes a section where we grapple with the questions you might have about life, the gospel, relationships, work, the church, spirituality, the future, a moral dilemma you’re facing, or whatever. You can send your questions to questions@russellmoore.com. I’ll never use your name—unless you tell me to—and will come up with a groan-inducing pun of a pseudonym for you.
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And, of course, I would love to hear from you about anything. Send me an email at questions@russellmoore.com if you have any questions or comments about this newsletter, if there are other things you would like to see discussed here, or if you would just like to say hello.
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If you have a friend who might like this, please forward it, and if you’ve gotten this from a friend, please subscribe!
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Editor in Chief, Christianity Today
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P. S. You can support the continued work of Christianity Today and the Public Theology Project by subscribing to CT magazine.
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Join Russell Moore in thinking through the important questions of the day, along with book and music recommendations he has found formative.
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