Private Porn Safer than Public Religion?

A startling idea from Daily Mail India: “Public display of religion more dangerous than private viewing of porn”.

The comparison never would have occurred to me. But it does make sense.

The idea comes from an unexpected direction. India is generally viewed as the nation that is most public in the daily expression of religious belief. Part of what I was exploring in my novel Sister India grew from a line from V.S. Naipaul’s A Turn in the South. He wrote that in all the world the two places he had felt the strongest presence of religion in daily life were India and the American South.

Certainly violence in India under the banner of religious beliefs has been horrific. During the three months I spent in Varanasi, India, researching Sister India, two weeks were spent in day and night curfew — a city of a million people sent to their rooms — in an effort to quell religious-based rioting.

India is also still less public than the US in its sexual displays. At the New Delhi airport, I once saw an Anglo pair greet in a long heated kiss, causing obvious revulsion in Indian onlookers. (It was a little much by any national standards.)

And yet some Hindu symbolism appears sexually explicit to Western eyes. Example: the seemingly genital imagery, joining male and female energy, used in Shiva worship (see the sari-ed woman in red.)

Today Abhijit Majumder writes. “It is time to have some curbs on PDR (Public Display of Religion). Religion and porn have more in common. Both work in templates and rituals. And both subvert their higher forms, spirituality and eroticism.”

I disagree about organized religion subverting spirituality. I think organized religion can be and often is tremendously supportive of spirituality. I got a great deal out of growing up Methodist; however eclectic my beliefs now, Grace Methodist Church in Wilmington, NC, is where they began.

However, it would be hard to disagree with the idea of religion also leading to violence.

But, as Majumder points out, most national governments seem to frown on porn and smile upon public religion. There are a few notable exceptions, “countries like France and Belgium which rightly ban wearing religion on your sleeve. Interestingly, these are the same countries which tend to have a more clear-headed approach towards porn, targeting indefensible areas like child sex, snuff, revenge porn and bestiality.”

His conclusion that it’s time to limit public expression of religion worries me. I like public expression. And I’m not sure that limiting religious display would cut down on religious violence.

But it’s an interesting observation. What do you think?

(photos by f9photos, pabkov, and lucvar101 DollarPhotoClub)

 

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Tags: Abhijit Majumder, ban, eroticism, female energy, genital imagery, Grace Methodist Church, India, male and female, Naipaul, porn, private porn, private viewing, public display, public expression, religion and porn, religious violence, sexually explicit, Shiva worship, spirituality, Varanasi, violence, Wilmington