A student at an Ivy League university in the United States recently told me that many of the people he knows are looking for a reason to live. Amid the pressures to chase status, money, and achievement, there is a quiet hopelessness. People are unsure whether their lives matter or whether they were made for anything at all.
Recent research from the Harvard Graduate School of Education reports that three in five young adults feel as if their lives lack meaning and purpose.¹ When purpose disappears, something fills the vacuum. If we are not living for something beyond ourselves, we default to whatever is immediately in front of us. Most often, it is entertainment or experiences that promise comfort, pleasure, or distraction.
It is therefore not surprising that we are living in the most porn-saturated culture in human history. Yet the deeper question behind pornography is not merely whether it is wrong. The deeper question is this: What is a human being made for?
Pornography trains us to treat image bearers as instruments, reshapes our understanding of intimacy, and weakens the credibility of the Christian witness in a culture already confused about what it means to be human.
If humans are accidental, self-constructed, and driven by desire, pornography is coherent. But if human beings are made in the image of God, endowed with dignity and purpose, then pornography represents a profound distortion of who we truly are.
For the church, this is not only a moral issue. It is also a missional one. Pornography trains us to treat image bearers as instruments, reshapes our understanding of intimacy, and weakens the credibility of the Christian witness in a culture already confused about what it means to be human.
Recovering a biblical vision of the imago Dei is therefore essential to both personal integrity and the believability of the gospel.
A Shared Identity
Scripture begins humanity’s story with God’s creative intention. Genesis 1:26–27 declares that humanity was created in God’s image. Before we achieve anything, God gives us an identity. We are image bearers.
Three observations follow from this truth.
First, the image is given, not constructed. Our identity is received rather than earned.
Second, the image is not a detachable quality. Scripture does not say we merely possess the image; it says we are created in it. The whole person bears this identity.
Third, the image is connected to purpose. Humanity is meant to represent God and reflect his character into the world.
Psalm 8 deepens this vision, declaring in verse 5 that humanity is crowned ‘with glory and honor’. The New Testament clarifies its direction. Jesus is described as ‘the image of the invisible God’ (Colossians 1:15), and believers are called to be conformed to his likeness (Romans 8:29).
Human dignity therefore begins with identity. Genesis 9:6 forbids murder because humans bear God’s image, and James 3:9 rebukes cursing others who are made in God’s likeness. Our lives carry weight and are valuable because we bear God’s image and represent him. This foundational identity is shared by every human being before nationality, gender, achievement, status, or any other label we may create.
Understanding who we are shapes how we live. If we are created to reflect God’s character, then our actions either align with that calling or contradict it.
The Dehumanization of Pornography
Pornography stands in direct contradiction to this vision.
The scale of the epidemic of pornography in our world and churches should sober us. Porn sites receive more traffic per month than Instagram, Netflix, Twitter, Pinterest, and LinkedIn combined.² One report indicated that 90% of analyzed porn videos feature verbal, physical, or sexual violence toward women.³ According to Barna, 86% of pastors feel porn use is common among Christian pastors, and 67% report having struggled with pornography at some point in their lives.⁴ In addition to this, over half of practicing Christians report consuming pornography at some level or another.⁵
Pornography is the logical fruit of a culture that has lost its sense of human purpose. When the telos of human life disappears, the result is not freedom but consumption.
Besides the overwhelming nature of these statistics, what I find deeply concerning is that 62% of Christians believe regular consumption of pornography can coexist with a healthy life.⁶ This is a most concerning normalization of pornography.
In many ways, pornography is the logical fruit of a culture that has lost its sense of human purpose. When the telos of human life disappears, the result is not freedom but consumption. Pornography does not merely depict bodies. It dehumanizes people. It reduces human beings to experiences for personal pleasure. It trains the viewer to see others as objects rather than persons.
Additionally, pornography increasingly functions as a form of sex education.⁷ Many teenagers report learning about sex primarily through pornography. If pornography becomes the teacher, we must ask what it teaches about human beings. Primarily, it teaches that people exist for consumption. It detaches intimacy from commitment and pleasure from responsibility. It teaches you that other people are instruments for your satisfaction.
In short, pornography forms viewers to treat others not as image bearers but as instruments.
The Credibility of the Christian Witness
This issue is not merely theoretical. I struggled with pornography for eleven years. I was first exposed around eight years old and returned to it repeatedly through adolescence and early adulthood.
Its effects were significant. I felt distant from God, and my perception of others became distorted. Pornography trained my imagination to consume people rather than love them.
It wasn’t until I understood my identity as someone created in God’s image that I found lasting freedom.
The turning point did not come through willpower. It came through recovering my identity. Through counseling and recovery ministry, I realized pornography had functioned as a kind of medication. Beneath the behavior were deeper beliefs that I was not enough and that I was unlovable. It wasn’t until I understood my identity as someone created in God’s image that I found lasting freedom.
I realize having been through the struggle, that people often turn to pornography because they are trying to fill something inside them. This is where the credibility of the Christian witness is at stake. There is no passive consumer. We are being shaped and formed if we are watching porn.
We must ask ourselves: Does pornography help me see others as valuable? Does pornography move me more towards Christlikeness? Does it help the person on the other side of the screen move towards their purpose? Does it help me love my spouse or others faithfully? Does it help me love my neighbor? Or, does it train my desires towards self-gratification? Does it separate pleasure and covenant? Does it separate intimacy from responsibility? Does it teach me to consume rather than give?
Pornography is not something one just watches. It is something that deforms us and distorts our view of what it means to be human. Today the church proclaims dignity while privately consuming images that contradict that message. When our practices undermine our proclamation, our witness weakens.
A Distinctive Witness
What might it look like if the church lived consistently with the dignity it proclaims?
For individuals, it would mean integrity. The person we are in private would be the same person we are in public.
For the vulnerable, it would mean protection. Industries built on exploitation would lose their demand if consumption ceased.
For families, it would mean stability. Marriages could grow in trust and genuine intimacy rather than competing with fantasy.
For the church, it would mean credibility. Communities would be known not for scandal but for safety and honor.
And for the watching world, it would offer something compelling: a vision of humanity not ruled by impulse but shaped by purpose.
Pornography is not merely a private failure. It is a theological one. It trains us to see image bearers as instruments rather than reflections of God.
But if and when we recover who we are, and see rightly for who others are, our witness will grow. When the church lives consistently with the dignity it proclaims, the world will not only hear our message. It will see it.
Endnotes
- Making Caring Common. (2023). On edge: Understanding and preventing young adults’ mental health challenges. Harvard Graduate School of Education. https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/on-edge
- Semrush Blog. (2021). Top 100: The Most Visited websites in the US—2021 Top websites edition. Accessed on 24 May, 2021. Retrieved from https://www.semrush.com/blog/most-visited-websites/
- Chrisafis, Angelique. “French equality watchdog finds 90% of online pornography abuses women.” The Guardian, 27 Sept. 2023.
- Barna Group. The Silent Problem of Pornography Use Among Pastors. Barna, 22 Nov. 2024, www.barna.com/research/pastors-pornography-use/.
- Barna Group & Pure Desire Ministries. (2024). Beyond the porn phenomenon: Equipping the church for a new conversation about pornography, betrayal, trauma, and healing. Barna Group.
- Baer, Maria. “More Christians Are Watching Porn, But Fewer Think It’s a Problem.” Christianity Today, 26 Sept. 2024, www.christianitytoday.com/2024/09/pornography-use-christians-study-barna-research-pure-desire-ministries/
- British Board of Film Classification. (2020). Young people, pornography & age-verification. BBFC. Retrieved from https://www.bbfc.co.uk/about-classification/research