In this opinion piece from ERLC President Brent Leatherwood posted at The Gospel Coalition, he shares why we should outlaw pornography. Read more:
Last week, The New York Times published an exposé that, in any morally serious culture, would have been met with a wave of bipartisan outrage and urgent congressional action. Instead, it was largely met with a blasé silence. The article, which detailed how Pornhub’s own internal documents reveal years of knowingly hosting—and profiting from—videos of children suffering nonconsensual acts, isn’t a revelation. It’s confirmation of the evil at work here.
We now have irrefutable evidence of what has long been plain to any honest observer: The commercial pornography industry is predatory, lawless, and deeply dependent on abuse. And yet it continues to operate in broad daylight, shielded by an outdated moral indifference and a confused understanding of free speech.
As a Southern Baptist and an evangelical Christian, I hold convictions shaped by Scripture, which teaches the inherent dignity of every human being and the God-ordained purpose of sexuality. Accordingly, pornography’s very existence degrades human dignity and distorts God’s good design for sexuality.
Even those who don’t share our convictions, however, should consider what the facts now demand. Pornography isn’t merely immoral. It’s exploitative. It’s violent. It’s corrosive to relationships, harmful to children, and toxic to a culture that claims to value consent, freedom, and human dignity. It degrades the soul. How much longer will we stand idly by as this industry preys on us?
No version of this industry can be baptized, cleaned up, or redeemed. It mustn’t be tolerated, accommodated, or reformed—it must be dismantled. Our convictions, our witness, and our love for neighbor demand no less.
It’s time to ban pornography.
