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A La Carte (5/12)
- 05/12/10
- 4
Be More Decisive - David Murray looks at an interesting report from Science Magazine which shows a link between physical purity and moral purity.
iPad Usability - Usability guru Jakob Nielsen shares his findings on the usability of the iPad. The report is actually very interesting. Here’s the summary: “iPad apps are inconsistent and have low feature discoverability, with frequent user errors due to accidental gestures. An overly strong print metaphor and weird interaction styles cause further usability problems.”
What the Media Missed in the Nashville Flood - “Yes, terrorism is a threat. But nobody died with the bomb that didn’t go off in Times Square. Twenty-three people lost their lives in the flood, and roughly twenty-thousand individuals so far have applied for federal aid to get them back on their feet. And while the oil leak in the gulf allowed cable networks to fill hours of programming by calling upon their usual political guests inside the Beltway to talk about the blessings and curses of drilling offshore, the reality is that the debate over drilling will not end with this spill — or the next.”
The Dangers of Emotional Pornography - The author of this article sounds an important warning to avoid not only the allure of visual pornography, but to avoid the pull of inappropriate emotional content as well.

I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at
Releasing on April 1, The Next
Comments (4)
i read the emotional pornography piece and think it’s a great start to addressing a real problem. currently there’s a tremendous need for us to look not only at the physical issues concerning sex, but also at those which are emotional. we need to dig deeper than a discussion on pornography and emotional pornography.
we need to go beyond premarital sex to discuss emotional over-commitment. we need to go beyond the physical act of adultery to address psychological cheating. we need to stop talking about sex in terms of body parts, and start talking in terms of thoughts and desires, verbal flirtations and emotional attachments.
while we’re focusing on keeping our hands clean, satan is destroying our hearts and our minds.
The article is definitely right about the problem of “emotional pornography.” But one serious issue I had with the article is that it seemed to convey that pornography is wrong for pragmatic reasons — that it gives people an unrealistic expectation of sex. While that is true, most importantly, the problem is lust, coveting another person’s wife, and sinning against God.
I think what the Relevant readers who are commenting on the “emotional p%rn” article aren’t getting is that it’s possible to place emotional p%rnography in the same category as visual, without implying that it is in all respects parallel. It is arguably less dangerous, less addictive, and not something to be entirely eschewed at the slightest whiff in the way that visual p%rnography is, because its effects are less immediate, potent, and unadulteratedly negative. (There may be movies, for example, that portray a foolish, unrealistic view of romance, but that on balance aren’t really destructive. But you can’t really have visual p%rn that doesn’t by definition violate the mind.) But it can nonetheless have enough similar characteristics to say it is the same “sort of” thing, and drawing the similarity does help people see the issue more clearly.
PS I really like the verification question, but I’m ashamed to admit I had to stop and think for a second.
With respect to the article on emotional pornography, I am reminded of what Pastor Voddie Baucham says, “We’ve bought into the lie of the Greko-Roman myth of romantic love, which is: an overwhelming, uncontrollable, sensual force.”
Here are some of the phrases that encompass this philosophy: “this thing is bigger than both of us”; “we don’t choose who we fall in love with”, “the heart wants what it wants” - and then there’s the idea of cupid and his arrows of “love”. This philosophy also affects our view of love for our children, adoption, and it hurts our relationship with God.
Voddie’s definition of biblical love is: “An act of the will, accompanied by emotion, that leads to action on behalf of its object.”