The local Council of Echuca, Victoria, has received an application for a permit to open an “adult” (i.e. porn) shop.

Council has also received ten formal objections from members of the public.

Just as interesting as the proposition itself is the coverage given it on ABC Local Radio . . . .

Today it presented an interview with Councillor Williams — who favours granting the permit.

Did we next hear from another Councillor against granting it?

Or from one of the objectors?

We did not.

It was the ABC.

* * *

What did come next was an interview with a spokeswoman of the Eros Association.

The EA calls itself “Australia’s national adult retail and entertainment association . . . We function in the same way as other peak industry groups like the Pharmacy Guild”.

Exactly like the Pharmacy Guild?

She said research reveals that communities accepting sex shops do not experience increased crime.

Sounds unlikely.

Anyway, to people committed to the principle of “loving your neighbour”, that isn’t the point.

* * *

If human beings are spiritual beings capable of relating to God — more than just animals or robots — then love for neighbour means wanting what is best for him/her . . . .

Meaning that he/she come to know, love and serve God above all else.

In this context, “research” cannot help.

Whether people exposed to local sex shops are more (or less) in touch with God – not easy data to access.

But we know the answer anyway.

The media were yesterday quoting recent research suggesting that women in their 50s who drink alcohol are more likely to have a healthy old age than non-drinkers.

Popular news, no doubt.

But does it tell us anything of practical relevance?

The small print reveals that the research is talking about women who drink one standard drink or less per day.

Microscopic amounts – especially by Australian standards.

Less than two thirds of a can of standard strength beer . . . .

Less than 20 teaspoons of table wine . . . .

Professor Jennie Connor of the Dunedin Medical School in New Zealand comments, “I feel very strongly that there is no scientific justification for the promotion of alcohol as health-enhancing for any subgroup of the population. The potential for harm is great and the potential for good is unknown.”

* * *

This Friday, September 9, has been designated Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) Day.

Did you know that FASD is the leading cause of mental retardation in Western countries?

The media don’t seem keen on telling us that. **

FASD is totally preventable if mothers-to-be drank no alcohol.

It seems there is no safe minimum amount of alcohol-drinking in pregnancy.

For more facts on this, Google “Isabella’s List”.

** www.come-over.to/FAS/FASDfacts.htm

According to recent research, watching television can be as dangerous for health as smoking tobacco.

Every hour you spend viewing the instrument shortens one’s life by 22 minute. * *

The remedy, according to the experts is to spend 30 minutes per day doing some physical exercise for the sake of your physical health

* * *

Looking at this another way, every hour you watch the thing shortens your mental life by that entire hour.

Television watching is addictive.

It is hard to stop.

When I tell people that I have no TV set and have not watched television for about 20 years, they just look at me.

It is a good conversation-stopper.

* * *

Addictions aggravate each other. Watching television tends to be associated with snacking on junk food, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and in being more interested in media celebrities than in God.

That is the big problem.

Not only does television endanger your life on this earth, it is giving you a terrible preparation for eternity.

Perhaps we should all do 30 minutes spiritual exercise every day for the sake of our spiritual health.

Even just a few minutes.

Read a few verses from the Bible, say the Our father and the Hail Mary.

If you reorganised your life a bit, you could even go to Mass.

( * * Australian diabetes, obesity and lifestyle study, as reported in Herald Sun, 16 August 2011)

I read the other day that explicit “hardcore” pornography is now the seventh biggest industry in the USA.

New internet sites appear daily — making porn easier to access now than ever before.

The most enthusiastic consumers are young men with still immature brains.

The human brain isn’t fully developed until about age 25.

* * *

Insurance companies deal in reality. They treat under-25 drivers as bad risks.

They don’t pretend that under-25’s are grown up. If they did they would lose money.

Treating 18 year olds as adults is not clever, it is just weakness.

If the porn industry can attract under-25s, they have every chance of creating an addict.

Then they have him for life — barring a miracle of grace.

The addiction is real and literal.

The brain exposed to regular pornography becomes modified by the repeated output of “pleasure hormones”.

The habit becomes wired into the patterns of the brain circuitry itself.

* * *

Although porn sometimes mentions “making love” . . . .

The relationships depicted are those of mutual contempt . . . .

Closer to hate than to  love . . . .

The other person is an object . . . .

Something to exploit . . . .

Not somebody to cherish and relate to selflessly.

* * *

The way to avoid porn addiction is to have nothing to do with porn at all.

Avoid it like the plague.

Remember the traditional Prayer of Contrition:

O my God, I am sorry and beg pardon for all my sins, and detest them above all things,

Because they deserve Thy dreadful punishments,

Because they have crucified my loving Saviour Jesus Christ and, most of all,

Because they offend Thine infinite goodness.

I firmly resolve, by the help of Thy grace,

Never to offend Thee again,

And carefully to AVOID THE OCCASIONS OF SIN.

Amen

As from last week, Facebook fans can now add their unborn babies to the family connections on their page.

And they can also add a photo, name, and expected date of birth.

Facebook announced the new feature, saying that they decided to offer the new ‘Expected: Child’ option as: “a way for users to more accurately express their identity.” 

In doing so, they have — perhaps unintentionally — moved to recognise the identity of the child him/herself.

Unborn babies are already human beings.

It is great that parents should want to make that point.

Two weeks ago, Israel reopened the site where Jesus was baptised in the Jordan River to Christian pilgrims who wish to visit.

Since the 1967 war, when Israel captured that part of the west bank from Jordan, the site had been a heavily mined no-man’s land.

The area has now been renovated and cleared of mines at a cost of over $2 million.

Israel hopes this will help attract more Christian tourists.

Of 3.45 million tourists visiting Israel last year, 70 percent were Christians and 40 percent said their visit was a “religious pilgrimage”.

* * *

In an era when the media would have us believe that Christianity is on its last legs, it’s interesting that millions of people cross the world to see this holy place.

Baptism is an indispensable part of the Christian religion.

More than a welcome ceremony, after which the family takes photos etc., Baptism is a sacrament of the Catholic Church.

One of seven.

By means of water and the words of God, the baptised person is cleansed of sin, reborn and made holy, with a view to entering eternal life.

The water represents a washing away of sin.

It also represents a drowning — making the word “reborn” more than a metaphor.

The Bible says that “as we are baptised in Christ Jesus . . . in his death . . . so we also may walk in newness of life.” (Romans, chapter 6)

If one is unwilling to join Jesus in his death – becoming “dead” to sin, i.e. giving it up completely — one can hardly expect to receive the new life of God.

* * *

If one has failed to live in the spirit of one’s baptism, is all hope lost?

No. That is why we have the sacrament of Confession (or Penance) where one’s sins can be absolved and make a fresh start.

Reading the Bible, praying etc., aren’t enough.

The Bible doesn’t bring you to God.

The Bible points to, and sheds light on, the Sacraments, that is all.

It’s in the Catholic Sacraments themselves that we encounter — not just words about God — but God himself.