'Porn Prof' Twitter Outburst Sparks Debate; Christian Scholars and Educators Condemn 'Neo-Pagan' Sexuality
A professor in Southern California sparked outrage by revealing his sexual plans and exploits on Twitter, claiming to have slept with porn stars, having developed porn events for class, and using sex to hide his lack of credentials. Christian scholars say his actions and public image show a "Neo-Pagan" trend to sexuality in our culture, which threatens freedom and the Church.
Patrick Fagan, a researcher on pornography and director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute (MARRI) at the Family Research Council, told The Christian Post on Tuesday that the actions of Hugo Schwyzer, gender studies professor at Pasadena City College, demonstrate "the collapse of civilization and the abrogation of reason."
"I'd call it Neo-Pagan," he explained, referring to the prevalent sexual culture.
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The scholar compared the present age with the era of an early persecuted Christianity in Pagan Rome. He listed abortion, homosexuality, infanticide, and pornography as common practices in ancient Greece and Rome, while the Christian Church practiced monogamy, protection of infants and the elderly, and a persistent lack of homosexuality.
But Fagan pointed out that sexual liberation in schools is something new. "Even Pagan Rome would never have had their Greek professors of the time engage in this sort of stuff," he said, calling it "prurience gone wild."
The researcher argues that pornography in particular "cuts a person off gradually from the capacity to interact with the opposite sex in the full human way." It poisons the marriage bed, where sexuality is supposed to bloom, and at an institution of higher learning, students should hear the negative effects of porn, Fagan contended.
He also quoted George Washington's Farewell Address, in which the first U.S. president said of religion and morality, "in vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness."
"Sexual liberation is not the road to political liberty or human freedom, it's actually the road to slavery," said Nathan Schlueter, associate professor of philosophy at Hillsdale College in Michigan. In a Tuesday interview, he told CP that both of the great dystopian works of the 20th century, Brave New World and 1984, teach the lesson that sexuality can be a political weapon.
Schlueter mentioned Anthony Weiner's recent scandals, the State of California's new law defending "equal protection" for trans-gender people, and a pornographic event in a Northwestern University classroom as evidence of "a complete deconstruction of sexual ethics predicated upon sexual diversity." Instead of teaching sexuality in a way that fulfills the human person and honors God, universities teach "that there is no teaching," no right or wrong, he said.
This results in "a culture of walking wounded," people seeking whole relationships who find casual sex empty and unfulfilling, the professor explained. He encouraged Christians to use the "whole menu of arguments" in favor of right sexuality, from the Bible to the social and medical sciences.
Schlueter cited Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve see that they are naked and without shame. "They saw each other – they saw the full beauty of the body in human sexuality," he said. In the Christian view, sexuality is wound up with the person, an essential part of human dignity. In the cultural, "Neo-Pagan" view, it is merely a tool for personal pleasure.
But sexual deviance plagues even Christian universities, warned Robert F. Davis, a former vice president for Advancement at Bryan College in Tennessee and consulting vice president for Advancement and Alumni Affairs at Liberty University in Virginia. He told CP that it took him and his wife only five minutes to list more than 30 integrity scandals – most of them sexual – in their 40 years of teaching.
While he saw the sexual liberation movement first hand in the 1960s, Davis lamented that "it's getting more and more out of hand." Even in the church, he reported "a lackadaisical attitude" toward integrity.
In one Christian college where the administrator served, he noted 5 incidents in the past ten years. "The chairman of the Bible department was a cross-dresser," he recalled. Davis also mentioned the story of a pedophile professor at Bryan College, whom the school tried to protect from a student journalist.
The administrator promoted the "Integrity Project: Christian Leadership Summit," a private meeting exploring the challenges to integrity of Christian leadership and their solutions, and the "Colloquy on Christian Education and Culture," which zeroes in on schools, as steps in reforming Christian leadership, especially in education.
