Throwing out the trash

I believe pornography should be illegal.

This opinion doesn’t make me real popular with so-called “First Amendment heroes” like Larry Flynt and Hugh Hefner. But as a pastor of a large church, I have seen the devastating effects of pornography on many families. I think it is high time our citizens get serious about fighting this plague on our society.

A few days ago, the conservative organization Morality in Media, Inc., launched an important new effort to urge state and federal investigators to increase their prosecutions of “illegal hardcore obscenity.” This is a great new initiative in the battle against pornography.

The 14th annual White Ribbon Against Pornography Campaign, sponsored by Morality in Media, is intended to “let people know about the dangers of illegal hardcore obscenity and to let people know that they can do something about it,” said Patrick McGrath, director of media relations for the organization.

At the group’s urging, 12 states – Illinois, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Indiana, South Carolina, New Mexico, Texas, Nebraska and Wisconsin – have now recognized Pornography Awareness Week. Furthermore, Wisconsin Gov. Scott McCallum also declared October “Pornography Awareness Month.” This is quite a courageous act given the fervor of the pro-pornography proponents in our nation, these days.

“This year, as part of the campaign, we are giving people some really good tools to let the prosecution for obscenities start,” Mr. McGrath told the Cybercast News Service. “We are putting on the Morality In Media website, obscenity complaint forms, two different ones – one that can go to your state prosecutors and a different one that can go to the United States attorneys throughout the country.”

Mr. McGrath added, “Pornography is not a legal term. Obscenity is a legal term, and obscenity is the legal term that is shorthand for hardcore obscenity, material that depicts sex acts,” he said. “Mere nudity, for example, is not obscenity. It has to depict actual sex acts.”

He said the goal is to raise awareness of the problem of obscenity in our nation and to convince prosecutors to be more aggressive in pursuing violators of obscenity laws.

The Supreme Court, McGrath said, sees obscenity as speech that is not protected by the First Amendment. “They’ve said in the famous United States vs. Miller 1973 [case] that obscene material does not have First Amendment protection,” he said. “Obviously, the pro-pornography people disagree, but obscenity is not protected by the First Amendment.”

I’m very pleased to see this initiative to enlist people to go to war against pornography.

The truth is that porn does nothing but degrade and objectify women, spoil the credulous minds of young people who view it and destroy many families of the men who become addicted to it.

In 1983, Dr. William Marshall revealed that his study found that 87 percent of molesters of young girls and 77 percent of molesters of young boys admitted to regular use of hard core adult pornography. He found that obscene material was used by these sex offenders for three reasons:

1. to stimulate themselves;

2. to destroy the consciences and lower the inhibitions and resistance to sexual activity in their intended child victims; and

3. as teaching tools for the child to imitate or model in their real-life sexual encounter with the adult.

Pope John Paul II, speaking in Sandomierz, Poland, in June 1999, said, “Families need to take a firm stance in safeguarding the threshold of their homes, in defending the dignity of each person. Guard your families against pornography, which nowadays under various forms affects people’s minds, especially those of children and young people. Defend the purity of morals in your homes and in society. … The purer families are, the healthier the nation will be.”

I urge families to take these wise words to heart. Pornography is destructive and cancerous. Take extra care to ensure that the plague of pornography does not damage your family. And I encourage families to visit the Morality in Media website to learn how you can make obscenity complaints to federal and state prosecutors. It’s time we all get serious in cleaning up our nation.