TOD 09.11.07

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach recently commented that America is not a sex-filled society, but a porn-filled society. “The two are very different,” he said. “Sex is about intimacy. It’s about vulnerability. It’s about connection. Porn is about objectification. It’s about making people into commodities. Why do we do this? Because America is the money-obsessed culture. Everything has to be an object. We have to own it. We have to possess it.”

Obviously I think he’s on to something here, but the difficulty is imagining how we might escape the problem. See, in capitalism, the primary identity we have is as owners of things and the primary relationship we practice is that of buyer and seller. Thus, we have very little practice comprehending the relationship of sharing or even of giving and receiving. If so, then porn might be at least as much a byproduct of free markets as it is of lust.

Perhaps this is what Scripture intends to help us avoid when it says to remember that our bodies are not our own.