I never personally knew you. It was
my husband who introduced us first in a fitness magazine, [and] then in the
rejection of my touch. I always smelled your stench. My own hands released the buttons of
my wedding gown. [This was] an occasion meant for the
fingers of my groom.[i]
That hotel pillow was not fluffed
enough to carry the weight of my tears. With
skewed intimacy as your weapon, you robbed us of connection. My husband [was]
a perfect victim [as] an involuntary organ donor. You extracted his heart before
raping the beauty of our sex. [Your] claim... was consensual.
Yet your memories often tainted the [sacredness]
of our sheets. Much like the photos that polluted the memory of his phone; his
eyelids had been branded. Visions of you are what he saw. Your silhouette [is]
between us. Two souls God designed to be one; more detached than ever before.
You
were number three. The woman on the side yet you lived inside our home. Call it
a silent affair; a quiet addiction whose dealer is mobile, his crack house
inside your pocket. Pornography, your business is booming. 40 million Americans
devoted to you. You yield more revenue than the [National Basketball Association-NBA,
Major League Baseball-MLB, and National Football
League-NFL] combined.[ii]
Yet we don’t attribute it to sex
slavery. We say “It’s only done online.” So 50% of marriages are breaking while
[movies like] Fifty Shades of Grey [are]
breaking box office records. While little boys are taught that your affects are
natural, recreational; you are not [an] Xbox [Live Gaming unit]. You get them
while they’re young.
I worry for my future son. [They will
be] defenseless consumers whose innocence you [will] breach. [You unlock] doors
of their minds too narrow to be opened; my husband was one of them. He met you
at twelve. He’s now one of 200,000…men, led by…brothers and peers, [that go] on
expeditions [for shameful] images through [porn hubs] and smart phones.
[You are] an encourager of secrets
[that] often [hides] in the dark. [You are] a monster under beds, [but] only
your snarl goes unheard. Pornography, you’ve taught me I’m not beautiful (unless
I am [pornography])…You are a war, and men are your casualty. Naked women on
screens [are] now gunshots to my ears. I am your veteran.
I thought prayer would act as [an] antidote
to his illness...
The fine
print never told him that your side effects are lethal. [It is a] silent killer of relationships. Your fingerprints were found
on the body bag of our marriage. Pornography, I always knew I smelled your
stench. It still lingers through the
hallways of my heart.
“It
is better to live in a corner of the roof than in a house shared with an
arguing woman.”[iv] Possibly
the reason this woman (today) might be so angry is because of how she just
unloaded her feelings of disappointment (and hurt) above regarding her
husband’s actions.
[i]
The
phrase "mind's eye"
refers to the human ability to visualize, i.e., to experience visual mental
imagery; in other words, one's ability to "see" things with the mind.
[ii] Note: We [XXXChurch]
received this letter… We thought this was great and wanted to share it
with all of you. Hopefully this will help those of you who are either
struggling with a porn addiction or married to a person who is.
[iii] Adapted from the article, “An Open Letter to Pornography” by X3 on September 29th, 2016 (www.xxxchurch.com)
[iv] Proverbs 25:24 (NLV)
No comments:
Post a Comment