One of my frequent reads each day is the Prague Post, the English newspaper in Prague. I read it to keep up with life and culture in Czech, at least as much as I can being here in the States. Today as I logged on my heart was broken to read one of the headlines, “Law sought to ban child porn”. I thought to myself, “That is a good law to have.” As I read it I was appalled to see that it is legal to own child pornography in the Czech Republic and they are just thinking about passing laws to make it illegal! I was upset as I read it, because there can’t be much out there in this world that is more evil than it!
Having a twelve year old sister, younger cousins, and many family friends that are children this gets my blood boiling. But as I read the article I realized that it didn’t surprise me that it isn’t illegal to own this filth in Czech. When a people has dismissed the mere notion that there is a God it’s very foundation for morality erodes! As I remembered this my heart turned from anger to sadness once again for the people of the Czech Republic and God used this to remind me why He has called me to Czech. Here are a couple interesting quotes from the article click here for the rest.
The Czech Republic is the only European Union country where it is legal to own child porn — though it is illegal to produce or distribute it. Because of that fact, the Czechs implicated by Austrian authorities are likely to escape punishment.
“The Czech Republic should be ashamed,†said Marie VodiÄková, director of the Children at Risk Fund. “It is a proof of insufficient protection of children in our country. As possession of child porn is legal there is demand, Where there is demand there is supply, which means abuse of children.â€
Petr Weiss, a sexologist at Charles University, said that he has no opinion as to whether Parliament should pass a law against the possession of child porn but that there are arguments for and against such a law.
He said a Danish study has shown that fewer children are sexually abused when pedophiles have access to child porn. On the other hand, the production of such pornography necessitates the abuse of children.
I can’t say too much about the line of thinking of Professor Weiss, but then again, sorry-to-say, it doesn’t surprise me… Until the Czech Republic knows the King, Jesus…
Well, by today’s standards, the Holy Spirit was a pedophile since it impregnated Mary when she was 14 years old. Also, her husband Joseph is believed to have been 36 at that time. This makes him a pedophile by today’s standards too. If Western society were more intelligent and less hateful to others, it would realize very few pedophiles are actually pedophiles. What does this mean? The term pedophile refers to attraction to PREPUBESCENT children. This means men that are attrated to 13-17 year old girls are not pedophiles. They’re just normal men and that was confirmed by God’s action when the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary. If it were wrong that a 14 year old became pregnant, then God wouldn’t have done it because God does NO wrong. Also, he wouldn’t have let his son, Jesus, be raised by a man that was mentally sick i.e., a pedophile. By letting his son be raised by Joseph, God implies Joseph is a normal man, maybe even a very good man that deserved this honor. Joseph was no pedophile. He was not a sick man. He was just a normal man like many men today that are attrated to teenage girls. Society is what has invented the “pedophile” problem. Society is sick and is seeing as perverted something that is natural, Christian and correct: Relationships between adults and teen girls. If people were a little more intelligent they would understand this. Unfortunately, people prefer to kill, hate, satanize, etc. rather than think, understand, and be REAL Christians who have respect for life, people and nature. I’m sure you will delete my comment because you seem to be one of those that are not real Christians but are one of those that don’t want to think. Thanks.
Rosa, I thank you for your input and thoughts. I can’t say I agree with them, but you are entirely entitled to your thoughts. I didn’t delete your post because I like conversation. I think that as a “real” Christian, as you said, that means that I listen to others and their opinions whether I agree with them or not and then lovingly respond (which hopefully I do so here). So I don’t have a problem with you expressing your opinion; however, I would prefer that it might not be done in public, as this is right now. So if you would like to address my thoughts specifically you are more than welcome to go to my contact page and write directly to me.
But I did want to comment on your response. The original post was not about the definition of what a pedophile is, but that in the Czech Republic it is legal to own child pornography. The main issue is that of pornography in general (child, adult, or whatever) and then secondly those that are minors being taken advantage of.
So the issue at hand primarily is sexual immorality and as I read the Bible I realize that God’s not a fan. “Why?” you ask. Is it because He is a Cosmic Killjoy? No, it’s because He knows more than us! Like the parent who tells the kid not to play in traffic, the parent knows that the kid will get killed! Just as God knows that any form of sexual immorality will get in our souls and kill us! I know. I was pretty much straight up addicted to pornography before I became a Christian. It rotted my soul, that is why God says, “The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body,” and “Flee from sexual immorality.” Kill joy? Nope loving Creator that doesn’t want us to commit suicide of the soul, and maybe worse!
It’s interesting in looking at what the word for sexual immorality is in the original Greek we can learn some interesting things. They are actually one word that is “porneia.” And it means, “illicit sexual intercourse.” Or to break it down further – 1)adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc.; 2)sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18; 3) sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11. Jesus takes it a step further and says, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
That to me seemed like the main issue and then secondly was “child pornography” being a step further than adult. The thing that might have been missed in the article in the Prague post was that the majority of the stuff “was up to 14.” Using your definition of being prepubescent I would say that “up to 14” probably means that some of it, if not the majority of it, was of children that were prepubescent! Being the big brother of a 12 year old prepubescent girl it is appalling that someone would want to take advantage of her or any girl. Not to mention that girls (guys too) even past puberty are innocent and don’t have a clue about making healthy decisions here. Again that is from my observation of being 15 once, being a youth pastor for some time, and just observing how things work.
Not to mention that we in the West have decided that individuals are underage to 18, and I don’t want to argue what this age should be, but as a Christian I want to follow the law of the land, unless it specifically goes against God and His ways (I can’t say that the Bible makes any commands that I should go for a 16 year old). Here is God’s thought on it, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.”
Because I believe each word in the Bible is God-breathed I trust that this is true! Therefore if someone under 18 is a minor according to a government then I will be down with it because I can’t make an argument saying that its okay. Because let’s face it we are in the 21st century not the 1st century. Furthermore, I understand why the law is the way it was. It protected me from myself! As it does most “minorsâ€. It wasn’t until I was 18 and older where I could make intelligent decisions about my body, without being totally controlled by hormones and etc.
There is more out there about all of this. A great resource is XXXCHURCH.com. I also support International Justice Missions who helps governments all over the world (not just the west) stop sex trafficking and the exploitation of children. In fact here are two links of stories of girls that got out of the worlds they were enslaved in, story one & story two. Again thanks for stopping by the site, look around and check out what else I have to say about things, life and etc. I think you might find that I am a “real” Christian after all. Blessings…