Media nun encourages young adults to counter it with Theology of the Body
More people need to take some cues from Metallica lead singer James Hetfield, according to Theology of the Body expert Sister Helena Burns, FSP.
It’s not about becoming the lead songwriter of a Grammy-award-winning heavy metal band. It’s about discussing the harms of pornography addiction and ways to fight it.
“We should openly talk about overcoming porn and how to help people,” Sister Burns told about 45 young adults at Yagger’s Pub in downtown Vancouver April 21.
Hetfield, as well as Christian artist Audrey Assad and other performers, have spoken publicly about their pornography addictions and their struggles to overcome them. Talking about pornography is the first step to get help and help others, said Sister Burns.
“A lot of people start very young. You’re not at fault when you’re eight years old and someone shows you something or something pops up.”
She estimated 95 per cent of people who use pornography wouldn’t do so if it wasn’t so easy to access on the Internet. “Today we have the perfect storm: hypersexual media and enabling technologies,” she said, calling smartphones “little porn machines in our pockets.”
She added that pornography is more addictive than crack cocaine because “the body gets addicted to its own chemicals.” It also has serious effects on the brain.
“Porn creates a superhighway in the pleasure centre in your brain that actually physically re-wires your brain, not just chemically, not just in your thought processes. It actually physically re-wires your brain.”
Its addictive nature combined with easy access makes it that much more difficult to fight. “It’s an addiction, plain and simple,” she said.
“Yes, it’s a sin, and there are many sins that accompany it, but when we’re getting into fields of addiction, it’s not that helpful to talk about sin.”
Pornography does not just affect the user. About 70 per cent of divorce cases cite pornography as one of the main causes, she said. There are also serious effects on the people producing the material.
“You can’t be for porn and be against human trafficking. You can’t think porn use is okay and human trafficking is not, because there’s always human trafficking involved,” she said.
“She’s smiling so she doesn’t get beat. She’s smiling so she can eat that day.”
The solution? The Toronto-based nun suggested talking about pornography addiction, getting help for those who are addicted, and promoting a healthy way of understanding sexuality through Theology of the Body.
Theology of the Body was written and first delivered by Pope John Paul II between 1979 and 1984 as a series of lectures on human dignity, the body, and relationships.
Theology of the Body is “not about what we can’t have. It’s about what we can have. What the body really is. What it is really for,” she said.
“If we don’t know who we are, if we don’t know God loves us, if we don’t know what is truth, beauty, and goodness, we’re going to be searching online for our identity.”
Theology of the Body can be used as a good tool to teach children not to seek out pornography and to know what to do if it pops up on their screens.
“God is bigger than our addictions,” she said. “People who are in recovery are heroes. This is really hard stuff.”
Sister Burns gave a similar talk on pornography to young adults the next day at St. Patrick’s Church. Event organizer Erin McDougall said it is important Catholic adults between the ages of 20 and 40 hear the message.
“We’re all in this discernment age. What are we doing? Are you staying single? Are you becoming a priest or a nun? Are you getting married? It’s something everyone is thinking about,” she said.
“If we want to have a strong diocese with strong marriages and strong families, (pornography use) needs to stop.”
Many of the young adults in the room are also aunts or uncles and can bring the message to the teens and children in their lives, she said. “If we can learn to overcome this, we can talk to the 18-year-old, the 15-year-old, or the 10-year-old, and be equipped.”
