“It makes no sense that good people condemn Ted Bundy and indifferently walk past those magazines stands overflowing with pornographic magazines which create the Ted Bundy’s of this world.”
“Pleasantly handsome, piercingly intelligent, master manipulator, silver-tongued-charmer,” thus did Time Magazine describe Ted Bundy, America’s most prolific serial killer in the 70’s. He was accused of having killed more than 100 women and children after having raped and mutilated them. In 1987, a federal judge called him: “the most competent serial killer in the country, a diabolical genius.” On January 24, 1989, he was executed in the electric chair.
The day before his execution, interviewed by James Dobson a psychologist and radio evangelist, Ted Bundy blamed pornographic media and alcohol as the principal causes of his uncontrollable frenzy to rape and to kill. He said: “When I was 12 years old, together with my friends, I discovered hard core pornography. I want to emphasize that this is the most dangerous kind of pornography. I say this from a terrible personal experience. The most harmful pornography is that which shows sexual violence. Violence and sex: put these two together and they provoke terrible desires.”
Dobson clarified: “You are saying that your fantasy stimulated by pornography has acquired such force to make you feel an irresistible urge to act it out?”
Bundy answered: “Exactly, it happens gradually, little by little. At each time, you seek from pornography more powerful more powerful emotions. It is like drugs that you cannot do without. It brings about a crescendo of destructive energy I was also drinking much alcohol. Alcohol and pornography made me lose all my inhibitions.”
Ted Bundy was not a problem child. His mother, and teachers had no complaint about him. He looked so angelic, in fact, he was regarded as a model American boy. He was loved at home. But hard core pornography and alcohol awakened and released the demoniacal in him. He was shocked after his first murder, “It was like being possessed by something so awful, so alien, but then the impulse to do it again would come back even stronger.” Ted Bundy was clearly a victim of pornography, immoral, filthy, gross and other forms of communication intended to arouse greedy or lustful feelings.
Pornography separates sexuality from its beautiful and noble end, which is to transmit human life in the context of love and marriage.
What is hard core pornography?
Hard core pornography depicts sex acts between persons of any age including bondage, fetishes, sex with animals, etc. These includes jokes, illustrated stories and photographs dealing with bondage, incest, homosexuality and other perversions.
“To enter the world of pornography even in a peripheral way, is to enter the world of violence, insanity, powerful and all-directional lust and utter lack of control. To remain in that world for very long is to become a helpless slave to it” (Atty. Mia Menez Zafra).
Today pornographic materials are available anytime. Around 200 million issues of the 800 most popular soft core and hard core magazines are sold every year. Ted Bundy adds: “t makes no sense that good people condemn Ted Bundy and indifferently walk past those magazines stands overflowing with pornographic magazines which create the Ted Bundy’s of this worlds.”
What are the effects of pornography?
1) It desensitizes viewers; this may lead to extremely violent behaviors.
2) It has serious repercussions on interpersonal relationships and personal moral development.
3) Exposure to porno increases male aggressive behavior against women.
4) It decreases both male and female sensitivity to rape and the plight of the rape victim.
5) Emotionally disturbed persons can be effectively desensitized after viewing porn/violence for 3 hours for several weeks. E.g., two boys raped their sister after viewing for three consecutive times a violent and porno movie.
6) It is addictive for all persons, normal or imbalanced; it makes them seek more deviant materials (like drug addicts, craving for stronger and stronger drugs).
7) It degrades marriage, as users of pornography begin to expect their wives to become more adventurous or experimental and will become dissatisfied when wives do not live up their porn-induced fantasies.
8) It increases crimes. Thousands of persons have been tortured, molested, raped and murdered.
9) It weakens the moral fiber of society.
PROTECTING KIDS FROM PORNO
What should parents do?
1. Know what your child is viewing, reading, listening to. Protect them from movies, TV, radio and print media, which are saturated with sex and violent messages. Do not allow pornographic materials to enter your home.
2. Know that SEX is a gift from God; and so it is beautiful, clean, and to be respected. Our human body is the home of God and therefore has dignity; we have the right to privacy of the human body and it should not be misused to gratify lustful desires.
3. You have the power to fight porno. Consider joining anti-porno groups or signing up for literature updates. Protest against pornographic and violent ads and programs.
4. Take effective personal and community action against porno.
5. Provide wholesome entertainment for your children, within the family ans with friends. Organize outings, cultural trips, children and young people’s party.
6. Encourage your children to join sports which enhance intellectual and physical well-being.
7. Educate your children to the love of beauty; encourage them to read the Bible, the Gospel, the lives of saints
8. Pray that your children may be spared from this evil
Jesus warn us from scandalizing little one: “… it would be better for anyone who leads astray one of this little ones who believe in me, to be drowned by a millstone around his neck…” (Mt. 18:6). He also stressed the importance of beholding good and beautiful things: “The eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyesight is sound, you whole body is lighted up, but when your eyesight is bad, your body is darkness” (Lk. 11:34).
By: Federica Dalaguit, fsp and Evangelina Canag, fsp
This is sadly, not surprising to me. How many General Conferences and talks have fouescd on this particular issue? I have known so many friends with fathers who have dealt with this problem.This is a topic my girlfriends (well the ones I know aren’t afraid to talk about it) and I discuss, often. There’s a huge lack of communication about intimacy. I’m a big believer that since we believe in eternal marriage, we should be chattering all the time about the beauty and pleasure of intimacy. If anyone should be talking about this without shame it should be us.There’s a huge education gap for married people who either don’t understand the joys and pleasures of intimacy, or who feel ambiguous based on how they were taught about human intimacy. So this trickles down to their children and instead of talking, teaching about healthy intimacy, they don’t speak about it except to say it is wrong, etc and so the children learn from other sources.That’s my take. And I think I need to get a bunch of women together to do a take on intimacy from a mormon woman’s perspective you know, for those of us that love it and aren’t afraid to speak out about it. So far, the intimacy books you find in any Church bookstore are authored by men I think we need to teach that intimacy is beautiful, natural and divine within the bounds the Lord has set up. It is never, ever dirty or bad.