This story from a British newspaper caught my eye. It seems that one of the world’s most notable and extensive collections of pornography (styled as “erotic art”) is going on the auction block in Paris. Here’s the gist of the story from The Telegraph [London]:

Hugh Hefner turned 80 on Sunday. That’s right–the world’s most famous playboy entered his ninth decade, still wearing his pajamas and still preaching his gospel of free sex, paid pornography, and liberation from sexual morality. In his commentary today, Dr. Albert Mohler tells the story of one of the major revolutionaries of our time.

Janet Kornblum of USA Today warns parents that children as young as grade school are often exposed to on-line pornography.

Monday’s edition of The Los Angeles Times included another important report on the spread of internet pornography. Reporter Marianne Szegedy-Maszak cites industry sources and points to 200 new pornography sites on the Internet each day.

The New York Times has broken a story that demands immediate attention. In “Through His Webcam, A Boy Joins a Sordid Online World” by reporter Kurt Eichenwald, the paper points to an alarming and relatively new phenomenon — teenagers acting out in their own porn products that are sold to sexual predators.

The Washington Post reports today that “mini-porn” is soon to become a big deal. In “Mini-Porn Could Be Mega-Business,” reporter Mike Musgrove describes what this phenomenon represents:

The Kaiser Family Foundation released a major study on Wednesday, finding that the number of sex scenes on television has doubled since 1998.

The Sydney Morning Herald [Australia] reports that “virtual adultery” is a new threat to marriages. Until recently, adultery has been a sin of the flesh. Temptation arrives, chemistry sizzles and before long the unfaithful spouse is spending stolen nights in cheap hotels. Now there is a new threat: the virtual affair. While some argue online affairs aren’t real, research shows some spouses take them as seriously as the offline variety – and they’re becoming a gateway to divorce.

“For most of my life, I gave little thought to pornography. It was not something I considered relevant to me, nor did I consider it–in the daunting spectrum of social, cultural, and political problems–a particularly pressing issue facing this country,” recalls Pamela Paul, author of Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families. Her new book is likely to attract attention as it represents one of the few comprehensive reports on how pornography has transformed American culture.

The Christian worldview must direct all consideration of sexuality to the institution of marriage. Marriage is not merely the arena for sexual activity, it is presented in Scripture as the divinely-designed arena for the display of God’s glory on earth as a man and a wife come together in a one-flesh relationship within the marriage covenant. Rightly understood and rightly ordered, marriage is a picture of God’s own covenantal faithfulness.

The intersection of pornography and marriage is one of the most problematic issues among many couples today–including Christian couples. The pervasive plague of pornography represents one of the greatest moral challenges faced by the Christian church in the postmodern age. With eroticism woven into the very heart of the culture, celebrated in its entertainment, and advertised as a commodity, it is virtually impossible to escape the pervasive influence of pornography in our culture and in our lives.