Wake Up, Look Up

Hello, everyone. Thanks for listening to wake up, look up. A podcast where we connect events happening in real time to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This episode is on tar targeted porn, and it's asking the question, how do we prepare to protect ourselves? As the title might suggest, this might not be one you wanna listen to in front of children, so I'll pause for a second just to give you time to make sure you're in a good space to listen.

Alright. In this episode, we're primarily motivated by a change recently in Twitter, now known as X policy related to pornography. Pornography has always been on the Internet. As long as the Internet has been around, you've been able to access pornography. But what Twitter's policy change is doing is moving pornography from passive to active.

In other words, think about it this way, when you're watching TV and a Coca Cola ad pops up on your television, they you didn't give permission for that ad to be on TV. Coca Cola paid for the advertising rights and they get to advertise. That's an understood. In the past, pornography has not been treated that way. Instead, it's been on the Internet, but you needed to go looking for it.

You needed to go to a pornographic website. You need to date on Twitter, Instagram, wherever, follow certain accounts that would share that kind of content. What Twitter has done is move pornography into the Coca Cola category. Now you could be reading a Twitter post on professional football for example, and in the comment section, totally unrelated to the post, you would actually get pornographic videos, pornographic pictures, pornographic advertisements seeking to hook you in the same way Coca Cola was trying to sell you a beverage. This is a huge shift.

In other words, if it used to be that we were the hunter and pornography was the prey, we've now become the prey and pornographic content has become the hunter. Listen, the dangers of pornography are a podcast unto themselves. For now let's just assume that pornography is harmful. It's linked to human trafficking, it's a break it causes the breakdown of sexual intimacy, it denigrates the value of image bearers in Christ, and it destroys families. And those four things, by the way, are not hypotheticals, those are things in his pastoral in pastoral counseling, I'm dealing with real people who are experiencing the trauma of pornography.

But how do we deal with it now that it's been green lit to come looking for us? This is a huge shift, and a shift in the mindset of pornographic content creators necessitates a shift in our own mindset. In other words, it used to be that the way you fought against pornography is you just didn't go looking for it. If you weren't looking for it, you wouldn't find it. Now it's looking for you.

So how do you make sure it doesn't find you? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple. You're gonna have to reevaluate the spaces that you're in, in terms of technology. What was once a safe space may now not be. Let me give you a personal example, I've had a Twitter account for a long time.

It's a great source of news, it's a great source of sports knowledge. There's a lot of things that I gained from it, and it's never been a problem for me because I haven't gone looking for pornographic content. However, now it's looking for me. So as a result of preparing for this episode, I deactivated my Twitter account because the truth is I'm not impervious to what pornography is selling. I may not go looking for it, but that doesn't mean I could stand up to it if it came looking for me.

When Jesus says in the gospel of Matthew that if your eye causes you to sin, you should pluck it out. It's better to go to heaven with 1 eye than hell with 2. He's acknowledging the human limitations in face of some temptation. He could have said if your eye caused you to sin, look in a different direction, And in some cases, that's sufficient. But I don't believe that if pornography keeps looking for me in places that I'm not ready to defend myself, that it isn't eventually going to win.

So in this case, fortunately, I don't need to pluck an eyeball out, but I did need to deactivate my Twitter account. What about for you? What are the spaces that you're in that may not be safe anymore? Maybe the holy spirit has been tugging on your heart for some time telling you it's time to let a platform go. It's time to disconnect from an app.

And if that's been the case, then maybe take this as the final nudge you need to take that step. Pornography is devastating people around us, and even probably some of us listening to this episode. We have to understand that if we are now the prey and it is hunting for us, we need to take every step we can to make sure it does not find us, it does not destroy our lives and our families. What steps can you take to keep yourself safe today? This episode of Wake Up Look Up was produced by Noel Aker and Andy Hoffman.

Our topic researchers are Caitlin Hynel and Tyler Ritchie. This episode was directed by Andy Hoffman. Our podcast coordinator is Hallie Andrews. Our production manager is Marcus Cunningham, with tech and engineering support from Matthew Adel and Landon Hull, and our copy editor is Maddy Goebel. I'm your host, Zach Weierach.

Join us on the next episode of Wake Up Look Up.