(Dmytro “Henry” Aleksandrov, Headline USA) Dennis Prager, a conservative commentator, radio host and the founder of PragerU, defended pornography in a round table discussion with Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, saying that it is “not awful” if used as a “substitute for adultery.”
Prager stated his position at a Daily Wire seminar on the Book of Exodus, the Daily Caller reported. When a question about lust and sexual sin came up, Prager, a practicing Jew, said to his fellow panelists that a man looking lustfully at a woman “is not a sin in Judaism.”
“I am less interested in the interior person, morally speaking, than you are, than probably any of you are, and it’s largely — I do believe — because I come from a behaviorist, law-based religion. We care how you act,” he said.
“That’s why we don’t have a claim that if you look at another woman with lust, it’s as if you’ve committed adultery with her,” he added, implying one of Jesus’s sayings in Matthew 5:28. “There’s only one way to commit adultery in Judaism and it’s with a different organ.”
Peterson then asked Prager about his view on pornography. The latter defended the use of pornography under certain conditions because, according to him, “men want variety.”
He then talked about his experience as a radio host and explained that when listeners call in to ask him about the subject, he asks them if the pornography use detracts from or enhances their sexual relationship.
“If adultery is a substitute for one’s wife, it’s awful. If it’s a substitute for adultery it’s not awful,” Prager said. “I know this is not a religious answer.”
According to the Daily Caller, Prager has been divorced twice and has been married to his third wife since 2008.
On the other hand, Peterson has repeatedly spoken out against watching pornography, calling it “not a net social good.”
In November 2021, Peterson spoke to Dave Rubin and compared the consumption of pornography to Pleasure Island in “Pinnochio.”
“It’s all pleasure with no responsibility. That’s deadening. It’s parasitical in a sense,” he said, talking about the time and money spent on online porn sites.
