The One Ring and Pornography.

Mar 9, 2016 by Andrew Symes

by Samuel James, For the Church.
One moment during the lowest point of their journey, when all seems lost in the black ashes of Mordor, Samwise Gamgee asks Frodo whether he can remember the taste of good food and the feeling of warmth. Frodo’s reply has haunted me often:

“‘No, I am afraid not, Sam,” said Frodo. “At least, I know that such things happened, but I cannot see them. No taste of food, no feel of water, no sound of wind, no memory of tree or grass or flower, no image of moon or star are left to me. I am naked in the dark, Sam, and there is no veil between me and the wheel of fire.”

I don’t think I have ever read anything that more poetically expresses what it’s like to be addicted to pornography than that passage.

Of course, that’s not what J.R.R. Tolkien was going for. In fact, Tolkien never quite fully fleshes out what kind of psychological affect the One Ring has on Frodo or Gollum or any other bearer. In a way, the lack of specific detail enhances the horror of both Gollum and Frodo’s transformations; we don’t know what exactly is going on inside them, but we can hear their cries.

The corrosive effect of porn on the soul is likewise shrouded in that kind of agonizing mystery.

Read here

Also: Listen here to ‘Pornography’, a sermon by Vaughan Roberts