"I do porn freely; they take away our freedom of expression.". This was the headline that caught my attention with some cheek. My mind short-circuited when I read in the same sentence "porn" and "freedom of speech", so I had no choice but to read that interview published in the local newspaper about a woman named Eva.
Today, there are many "anonymous" people who have found no other way of earning their living than by creating erotic content for a group of strangers to whom, month after month, they (mis)sell their bodies, their intimacy.
As Christians, it is not for us to judge the decisions of every human being on the planet, but as Christians, as the Church of Christ in the midst of the world, we should be challenged by the reality in which we live. What makes a person proud to have found his or her livelihood in the creation of pornographic videos? Throughout human history, women and men have been forced to trade their bodies, that shrine of God that is every human being, in order to survive from day to day. In the 21st century, how can we allow a person to be happy to make money - regardless of the amount - by trafficking with his or her own body?
Cases like these lead me to think about the urgent need to return to the essence of the first mission to which Christ sent the apostles: "Go into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.". We have crossed the barriers of the physical and the abstract. As Christians, as believers, it is evident the urgency of learning to accompany the forms of poverty that arise in the new digital spaces, in which many people trade with the sacredness of their bodies without even knowing it, or defend as "freedom of expression" what is nothing more than slavery. Be that as it may, frustration and indignation overwhelm me in equal parts knowing that there are people in the world who feel satisfied with this "profession" that, sooner or later, will open new wounds in their hearts.
Without demonizing the new media or the new platforms of content creation, I believe that we are called to discern in the light of the Spirit the spaces of good and evil that arise in a digital world that, although it may not seem so, is entangled in our daily reality and that has come to stay with us. May we, together, be able to accompany all those who fall into the digital shadows and show them the hope of a Jesus who loves every part of their being.
Church communicator in the diocese of Tui-Vigo.
