Any portrayal of sex as an unloving, violent, coercive act is clearly a defamation of God's gift. Any portrayal of sex as gratifying only in the context of domination, humiliation, or pain, is an outrageous corruption of our understanding of the relationship of women and men in the church, in the family, and in society. American Baptists believe that women and men are created in the image of God, and that the human body is the temple of God's Holy Spirit. God wants us to care for our bodies, to treat them with respect, and to use them to deepen our understanding of the spiritual side of our nature. We believe that although few of us escape physical suffering in this life, the human body was intended by God as a means of experiencing the joys of God's creation.
Sexual intercourse is a joy to be cherished between husband and wife.
Any medium which seeks to provide crude satisfactions which do not gratify the spirit, or which portrays the body in demeaning ways, or which portrays sexual intercourse as a spiritually sterile or violent act, is abhorrent to us. Pornography which victimizes children is especially abominable. He wanted His followers to have. Those who corrupt the innocence of childhood are singled out for special condemnation. The production, distribution and consumption of this pornography harms both those who produce it and those who consume it.