From a story in The Telegraph:
Pornographic Magazine for the Blind Launched
A pornographic magazine for the blind has been launched – complete with explicit text and raised pictures of naked men and women.
The book, the brainchild of Lisa Murphy and called Tactile Minds, is designed to be ‘enjoyed’ by the blind and visually impaired – and is on sale for £150.
The article continues:
“We’re breaking new ground. Playboy has an edition with Braille wording, but there are no pictures.”
She said that she made the book after realizing that the ‘blind have been left out in a culture saturated with sexual images’.
See … this is a project driven by compassion. Lisa simply doesn’t want the blind to feel left out! Her mission to help them center their lives around the pursuit of pleasure is her way of loving them. For her, creating pornography for the blind is a labor of love.
Isn’t it amazing how someone can rationalize unleashing something like pornography on the world by convincing themselves it’s the compassionate and loving thing to do?
This story is indicative of the vast chasm of difference that exists between love as Jesus defines it, and love as the world defines it.
If someone says, “I love you,” do they really if they don’t know Jesus?
1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” The opposite is also true: “Whoever does love does know God, because God is love,” and 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”
Is it possible to truly love others without knowing the love of God? Are you really loving someone if your “love” is leading them further away from the source of all things good?
What’s the greatest way one person could love another? I believe it’s by leading them nearer to Love Himself – there’s no greater way to love another person.
How come so many contemporary expressions of “love” do just the opposite?
Culture believes Jesus is all about love, and culture is quick to point that out. But does culture understand what that means? Does culture understand what true love is? Does culture understand there is no love outside of God – that He has a monopoly on all things good?
This is worth thinking about.
Oh, and by the way, this story serves as evidence that Jesus didn’t mean for anyone to take Matthew 5:28-29 literally. Even a blind man can lust (sorry Origen – I’ll bet you wish you’d have known that a little earlier in life, huh?).
The Overflow 
And just when one thinks they cannot be surprised anymore…hmmm.
Porn for the blind.. unbelievable.. Very, very sad.
Not sure if I 100% agree with your argument that those who don’t know Jesus are incapable of loving another person. I totally agree that if you are leading someone astray, that is not loving.
God made us in his image- whether we recognize that as true or not. “Whoever does love does know God, because God is love.” and “We love because He first loved us”, say to me that we as humans, created in the image and likeness of God, DO love. period. It is part of what we were created to do; ingrained within us at the very core. We can deny the fact that love does indeed come from Him, but that doesn’t change the fact that it does. We can deny that our love for another person doesn’t come from Him, but in reality it does.. Just like we can reject God Himself, but that doesn’t make him any less. Whether we accept Jesus or not, our ability to love and our souls are tied to Him.
Rex – for real.
Jen – good thoughts. Maybe you’re right. But this lady is saying she’s loving blind people through what she’s doing … is she?
Goodness, no! That’s not what I was saying. Just not totally in agreement with the argument that one cannot love without knowing Jesus.
lol – I know that’s not what you were saying, but this lady thinks she is.
I’m curious – how can a person love someone else if they don’t know God?
For example, my aunt- not a christian, at best believing in some sort of ‘higher power’- loves me. without a doubt. And I love her. Her unconditional love for me comes from God and she doesn’t even know it- rather, she refuses to acknowledge it. How else do you even explain unconditional love or why we love the people we do if it weren’t for God?? Ask any atheist and they’d tell you they inexplicably, inconveniently, painfully- love. Doesn’t make any sense.. except, actually it does.. [See ramblings above].
Id even venture to say that many Christians don’t understand that their love comes from God. We read it, we hear it on sunday, it’s been told to us since forever. But do we actually believe it and know it in our hearts? That our love for our spouses, parents, friends, & neighbors comes from Him? That it’s not just a feeling we conjure up, but it comes from knowing God’s heart, God’s character..
So again- my argument, your quoted scripture, “we love because God first loved us”. we love. period. because. period. God first loved us. period.
He loved me even before I knew or loved Him, and even denounced Him, for the 1st 20 years of my life, and enabled me to love [grace]. All that’s different now is the intensity in which I do, & my understanding of it– the truth– and still I don’t quite get the enormity of it.
John uses the phrase, “Born of God” to describe Christians (c.f. John 1:13; 1 John 3:9, 5:1, 4, 18).
1 John 4:7 says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”
This is the lead in to verse 8: “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Verse 7 says clearly, EVERYONE who loves has been born of God, then verse 8 says those who don’t love don’t know God.
I’m comfortable saying I know a lot of people who believe they love, but they don’t know God. I do not believe a person who has no relationship with God is capable of loving because I define true love as bringing someone nearer to God.
Of course I could be wrong, but this seems to be what John implies here …
hey wes, i think JC literally means what he says about removing the eye:
“if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.”
IF my eye were able to cause me to sin, Jesus would fully expect me to rid myself of it. but it doesn’t… and it can’t. because sin is a result of my being tempted by my own evil desires. so it’s that old man that has to be killed.
anyway, thanks for posting this. it definitely was my “i can’t believe that’s true” moment of the day.
Jen and Wes, This is a case where I think both of you are right (I know, silly idea). I think we are created to love. Created in the image of God. But I don’t think we can know (as in understand) love till we know Jesus. You cannot “Know” someone you have never met. I won’t get “Theological” (someone “might” think I know something if I do…LOL) but I believe the Holy Spirit that comes to live in a Christian after the vessel is clean introduces us to LOVE!
I don’t know which is more shocking- that Lynn half way agrees with something I said, or that I mostly agree with what he said. ; ] scary, very scary.
James – good point.
Lynn – thanks for the comment. I agree.
Jen – yes, a strange day indeed. :p
regarding the blog, porn for the blind is really not necessary, Ray Charles said you can tell if a woman is pretty by feeling her wrists…
regarding the exchange between Jen and Wes, I’m gonna side with Wes because there is no vacuum in this world where God doesn’t exist, even those who claim not to believe in God cannot escape His influence, any “love” they display is merely a reflection of the more perfect love that God Himself has defined for us, and Wes cited the appropriate Scriptures, let me add this one
I John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.