Tenth Avenue North | 6 years ago

Mike explains the meaning behind the song "Counterfeits" from the forthcoming album, The Things We've Been Afraid To Say.

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"Pornography.
#1. Why is it so wrong?
#2. Why doesn't anyone talk about it? Why is it so wrong?
The fact that I even asked that, some of the ladies watching, you're like, "this guy's a dirty, sick pervert! I'm turning this off right now!", and you just answered the second question: why doesn't anyone talk about it?
Nobody talks about it because as soon as you do you get labeled a cretin. I know from experience. You know what I mean. I was talking about a porn clock that I bring on the road. I travel in a bus a lot of time. When you go to bed, you get in this little cave of a bunk, and you go to sleep, and a lot of guys I know would bring their smartphone into their bunk, and they would set their alarm. Well doing that, a lot of guys I know found themselves tumbling into an addiction into pornography, and so I said, "hey, I'm gonna buy this little clock, so I just don't even bring the world wide web into my bunk", and I just put it in a drawer, and then I get in my little cave, and my alarm will wake me up. The responses I got, I mean, people said "you're obviously not a Christian because you want to look at porn. You haven't been redeemed you are mutant, and I'm never listening to your music again”. I said, "wow! I didn't even confess to looking at porn. I didn't even confess to wanting to look at porn. I confessed to putting up a guardrail in case the desire were ever to arise”.
Here’s what we need to understand: why is porn so wrong? First, let's ask, “why is it right?” You're like, "what you talking 'bout, Willis? It's never right". You're right. Looking at porn is never right, but it starts with a right desire, doesn't it?
I mean Satan can't create desire.He can only twist good desire, and make it wrong. I would argue the desire to look at porn starts with the good desire to procreate. Dudes, if you didn't have the desire to be with a woman, the human race would become extinct, okay? So, before you start beating yourself up cause you might want to look at porn from now time again, you need to first go, “wait, what's the right desire? The right desire is, I want to become a gift and to become one with a woman”. The Scriptures calls it “the two become one flesh”.
Here's another question: how come it wasn't wrong for Adam and Eve to be naked in each other's presence? You ever think about that? We're told they were naked and unashamed. I would argue this: before sin came into the world it wasn't possible for Adam to look upon Eve and divorce her body from her soul, but when sin entered suddenly, they covered up because, at that moment,
Adam was able to look upon Eve and exploit her. He was able to divorce her soul from her body. He was able to use her body for his own enjoyment without having to give her anything.
This is why pornography, lust, casual sex - it is a counterfeit to the real thing. It's trying to make easy what was always meant to demand everything. Pornography. Casual sex. It lacks integrity.
It says, "I'm willing to do with my body what I'm not willing to give with my whole life", right?
This is why the earth was cursed for Adam after sin came in, right? It said, “you're gonna experience thorns and thistles”. Pornography is this temptation of what if I could have it all, and remove the thorns and thistles out of love, right? Pornography is all take and no give. This is why that good desire has gone so wrong. It's because Christ says no true fulfillment comes in giving yourself away, not in taking for yourself.
So, if you've kind of like, gone down a road, and you found yourself way further down this pornography thing than you ever imagined, number one: first, talk about it. I know it's scary, and I know people will label you, but you are more than the sum of your past mistakes. Maybe find new motivation to say no to that screen, because you're unwilling to settle for a counterfeit when Christ has something far greater to offer you."

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