The Death of Porn
The Death of Porn is unlike any other book I’ve read.
First, it’s a very personal book — a series of letters — written by Ray Ortlund. If you don’t know Ortlund, read this article about him, watch one of his sermons, or check out his podcast for pastors. If you’re looking for a cold, dispassionate book, look elsewhere. Ortlund begins this book with a personal letter to the reader. It’s a book characterized by warmth, intensity, and hope.
That hope also sets this book apart. You’d expect a book like this to feel heavy and to induce shame. Instead, it leaves you feeling dignified. It also leaves the reader feeling the weight of dignity of women. If you’re scared to read this book, don’t be. You won’t find condemnation. You’ll find truth, but the truth is expressed in a way that ennobles you. This book points you to grace and reminds you of who you are and who Jesus can make you to be.
What really sets the book apart is its aim. It’s not written just to call guys to stop looking at porn. It’s written to spark a movement. The lasts two chapters or letters in this book remind us that we can work together and make a world of difference. “I am praying that, by God’s grace, one million men will rally to his noble cause.” He provides the way forward too: meetings where men confess the worst about themselves, get unburdened, are prayed for, and are honored.
Ortlund quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones near the end of the book. “In these days of exceptional evil, are you doing something exceptional? Or are you just content with doing some routine things?” Ortlund adds, “Let’s do something exceptional—whatever the cost.”
Every man should read this book whether they rare looking at porn or not. Every pastor should consider putting this book in the hands of every man in the church. Every man should also strongly consider the actions that Ortlund advises us to take at the end of the book by forming small, supportive communities of men where struggles are shared, sins confessed, and honest community takes place.
This book will be misunderstood by some. It’s not the book you’d expect to read on a subject like porn. But it’s the book we need: one that provides hope and dignity, and that paints the way forward for all of us.
I came across a tweet that expresses the heart behind this book, and what’s possible as guys read it:
In the end, this isn’t a book about porn. It’s a book about recovering the grandeur of God, the richness of his grace, and a corresponding hatred of sin. It’s about creating communities of honest community within the church in which we drop the masks and get real with each other. It’s about changing the world, not through large, heroic acts, but through every faithfulness.
I’m grateful that Ortlund provides us with a vision of that kind of life. I’m in. I hope you are too. Let’s pray that movement of a million men who want in with us.
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