Strip club visit QUESTION from matt stephens May 27, 1999 I am 35 and recently stopped by a strip club for about 10 minutes. I was uncomfortable and left. I also enjoy looking a PLAYBOY but I do not use it for facilitating an immoral act. Please give me the church's view of this and tell me whether confession is necessary. (PS I will not go to another strip club)
ANSWER by John-Paul Ignatius on May 27, 1999 Dear Mr. Stephens:
Jesus said that if we look at another woman in lust we have committed adultery with her in our heart. It doesn't matter if we literally commit adultery or masturbation, the longing look of lust is sinful itself.
Pornography is condemned by the Church. The Strip Club is a form of live pornography.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states at paragraph 2354:
Pornography consists in removing real or simulated sexual acts from the intamcy of the partners, in order to display them deliberately to third parties. It offends against charity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grace injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of qa fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials. The Catechism calls pornography a grave offense. That means that it MUST be confessed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Catechism at paragraph 2351:
Lust is disordered desire for or inordinate enjoyment of sexual pleasure. Sexual pleasure is morally disordered when sought for itself, isolated from its procreative and unitive pruposes. Pornography and strip clubs (a form of live pornography) have an exlusive purpose to prurient interest (arousing lustful feelings) and to do so for its own purpose (and for profit) and in utter isolation from marriage.
This activity also places a person in GRAVE danger of becoming addicted to pornography. Our WebSite has an Online Mail List Support Group for people addicted to sexual sins. I can assure you, to mess with pornography and strip clubs and the like is like lighting a match while standing in a barrel of gasoline. Dealing with this is like dealing with crack cocaine. It is HIGHLY addictive. You risk your spiritual and psychological health, risk damaging your relationship with your wife, or future wife, and even potentially risk your soul.
My advice is to renounce all such activity, never do it again, and confess what you have done in the Sacrament of Reconciliation before it is too late and you find youself addicted, but more importantly, so you may stand before God with a pure heart.
We will be in prayer for you.
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