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.

The Los Angeles Times is out today with a truly important article that should be a real eye-opener for parents of teenagers–especially teenage boys. In “Just the Facts Now,” reporter Shawn Hubler argues that pornography is now an almost universal teenage interest, seen by many teens as “just part of the culture.” He quotes Mike Clark, a “peach-fuzzed Orange County 16-year-old,” who related his excitement in discovering internet porn. “I mean, the minute they tell you that stuff is out there, you’re like, ‘Really? It is?’” It is.

Pornography, once peddled only in darkened back alleys, is now a great American success story. In the span of a few short years, the scourge of pornography has been transformed from a vice to a commodity–one more line of merchandise on the shelf, and on the screen.

Pornography represents one of the most perverse distortions of human sexuality, offering sexual images and erotic enticements for an all-too-willing consumer society to use as a substitute for genuine sexuality and the accountability of marriage. Most Christians are by now aware that pornography represents a vast industry in America, combining print, digital, video, and other products in a seemingly endless array of sexual “products.”