Actor and comedian Russell Brand stepped up to the plate last week in a video released by the Trew News. Billed as a reaction to the new 50 Shades Of Gray film, Brand (perhaps surprisingly to some) uses that subject as a platform for discussing how exposure to pornography is affecting individuals and society.
Brand explains that he's faced struggles with a pornography addiction, confessing, "Pornography is not something that I like. It's something that I have not been able to make a long-term commitment to not look at." He believes that his addiction has "affected my ability to relate to women, to relate to myself, my own sexuality, my own spirituality."
Blaming pornography for "feelings of inner conflict and doubt," he emphatically states, "I know that pornography is wrong, I shouldn't be looking at it."
Culturally, he noted, "our attitudes toward sex have become warped and perverted and has deviated from its true function as an expression of love and a means for procreation." He also added that the availability and general acceptance of pornography have made life in the modern age especially difficult for youth.
"Living in the culture now where there's just icebergs of filth floating through every house on Wi-Fi," he explains, "it's inconceivable what it must be like to be a young adolescent boy [or girl] now with this kind of access to porn. It must be dizzying and exciting but corrupting in a way that we can't even think about."
Calling movies like 50 Shades of Gray "cultural smog," he goes on to say, "If you're constantly bombarded with great waves of filth. It's really difficult to remain connected to truth."
In the end, Brand wishes he could kick the habit. "I feel like if I had total dominion over myself I would never look at pornography again," he said. "One day at a time, I would kick it out of my life."
Click here for Church resources on overcoming pornography.
You can watch the full video with Russell Brand here, but beware of some salty language.