Veritas Rex

Great Sex God's Way

I think Pastor Jerry from Alabama has a great idea, though it has stirred up a lot of controversy.  Daystar Church has a website www.greatsexgodsway.com.  Pastor Jerry has seen the reality that the public conversation on sex is one sided.  Those who ignore and/or denigrate boundaries for sexuality are all we hear from on TV, at the movies, etc.  As Pastor Jerry says, do we really want Satan's message for sexuality to be all people hear or should the Church step up and give the other side of the story?  Check out his creative series on Great Sex God's Way.  It is the right message that followers of Christ should emulate.   

Torn Over Taxing P0rn

In New York they are considering a 4% tax for downloading movies and music.  P0rnographic movies will be included.  This issue is more complicated than one might think.  Some conservatives support such a tax under the principle that you get less of what you tax and our culture could use far less adult films.  Other conservatives oppose the tax because it introduces a new tax on the internet that will grow the size of government. 

Another argument, that I have never heard until today, is that taxing it legitimizes it.  The Daily News reports: 

Conservatives railed against the tax, but for a very different reason.

"By taxing it you're legitimizing it," said New York Conservative Party Chairman Michael Long, adding that government shouldn't profit from porn. "If you're taxing it - how can it be wrong? I don't know how you can sink much deeper."

I definitely believe that the state has an interest in less p0rn being available to it's citizens.  It's harmful, yet all too easy for children to view online.  1 in 4 men view pornography online and yes, guys, she actually will be upset if she found out and might even leave you...so stop it.  More divorce means more government costs ($839 million in Indiana alone, per year!), which means higher taxes (10.7% of Indiana's tax burden is responsible for services provided due to family fragmentation). 

However, higher taxes on downloading movies and music expands government.  Bringing taxes to the internet, in particular, is problematic because it opens up the floodgates of taxation to a relatively tax free zone.  The taxation of p0rnography will not be limited to pornography (and isn't in this case).  Eventually, everything on the internet will be taxed if we allow the government in this time. 

I haven't thought extensively about the "taxing it legitimizes it" argument, but I tend to disagree.  Has taxing cigarettes legitimized cigarettes?  The opposite is probably more true.  The tobacco companies may have a lower approval rating than the Devil...I'll have to check on that one.

Thoughts?

 

Goodin Stands for Hoosier Families; ACLU disagrees

From Citizenlink.com, a publication of Focus on the Family, 5-12-08

ACLU Challenges Indiana Law that Regulates Porn Shops

Businesses must register with the state before selling sexually explicit materials.

A new Indiana law that requires retailers to register with the state and pay a $250 fee before selling sexually explicit materials is being challenged in court. The American Civil Liberties Union claims it violates freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Democratic state Rep. Terry Goodin wrote the law to protect communities with weak zoning ordinances that allow the porn industry to sneak in and hide its intent until it’s too late.

“They slip in under the cover of night," Goodin said. "They’re telling individuals that it’s going to be a grocery store or some other kind of store, and they’re opening up a pornography store. At that point, it’s too late to do anything about it.”

The law, which is set to take effect July 1, will keep the community informed, he said.

“The secretary of state’s office is going to notify the local authorities and tell those folks, 'Hey, this group’s coming your way,' " Goodin said. "That way, the local authorities can say, 'No.' ”

Curt Smith, president of the Indiana Family Institute, said lawmakers are protecting families.

“They give tools to local officials," he said, "who are accountable to their constituencies to try to restrain or at least retard this flood of pornography that’s coming.”

Porn Sunday in Fishers

Check out this recent article in the Indianapolis Star about Porn Sunday at The Crux Church in Fishers.  When I googled the Crux Church I found articles about Porn Sunday from as far away as Orlando, Florida.

Hundreds of churches across the nation are expected to observe National Porn Sunday tomorrow to bring awareness to the problems pornography causes. The Crux's lead pastor, Daron Earlewine, said he is making sure that his church, on East 96th Street in Fishers, joins the discussion about "America's dirty little secret."

According to www.pornsunday.com, there are 4.2 million pornographic sites online, and 40 million people who visit them daily. U.S. porn revenue of $6.2 billion exceeds the combined revenues of ABC, CBS, and NBC networks, the Web site says.

Some argue those numbers are exaggerated, but there is no question that porn destroys marriages and families.  Its prevalence has contributed to the debasement of our culture.  When I attended Indiana Wesleyan University we (the dorm staff) assisted many college students who seriously struggled with porn addictions.  I would suggest that it was one of the biggest problems we dealt with.

I would hold, however, that in addition to porn web sites we deal with a lot of porn in our day to day lives.  More and more television commercials depend on sexual images, our "family hour" TV programs emphasize casual sex and present it as without consequence.

I commend The Crux for dealing with the issue.  I hope other churches do the same.

Would you like porn or no-porn?

The hotel industry has a nasty porn habit that drives a significant portion of its revenues.  That trend may be turning around.  Last Sunday, the L.A. Times reported on a mother’s $85,000 jury award in a suit against a hotel in Southern California in which her young daughters pushed the wrong button and got an eyeful of porn.  When they sought her out in the tub, they said, “Mommy, something’s wrong”.

You bet there’s something wrong.  That case, and surely more to come, stems around the easy availability of in-room porn.  As in the case of this hotel, they offer it (and/or scrolling provocative ads for it) then require you to ask that it be blocked, instead of the other way around.  A big difference – just ask this family.

Focus on the Family’s monthly magazine Citizen featured the topic of in-room porn in its September 2007 issue.  It’s a big business – estimated up to 80% of pay per view offerings in businessmen’s hotels.  Citizen reports that LodgeNet earned $277.4 million from in-room entertainment in 2006, about $145 million from porn alone. 

Customer pressure and legal victories may be making a difference, however.  The new owner of Omni Hotels, Bob Rowling, has begun to remove hard-core, pay per view porn from Omni rooms nationwide, costing the company about $1 million so far in lost revenue and equipment cost but generating an outpouring of support from customers.  So has the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.  www.CleanHotels.com now lists about 14,000 porn-free hotels.

Watch out LodgeNet.  There’s a movement afoot to stop this mega media provider's porn services to the hotel industry – 1.8 million rooms.  Visit www.truthaboutlodgenet.com. 

It used to be “smoking or non-smoking”?  Now, when making reservations for your next trip, don’t forget to ask for a “non porn” room.

Is morality too boring for television?

Again we enter the realm of the obvious...  The Parents Television Council (PTC) has reported on a study of the television we watch and how it has grown incredibly inappropriate for children. 

I've found this interesting as well.  As I surf the television at night it is hard to find good, quality television that doesn't glorify extramarital sex and promiscuity (Two and 1/2 men, How I Met Your Mother, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Rules of Engagement, Shark- just on CBS). 

Hollywood seems to have a real hard time presenting a monogomous relationship between a man and a woman.  Recently, Kristen and I became interested in a show called "Close to Home" from CBS.  In it, the main character had a loving relationship with her husband.  We jokingly bet on how long it would take CBS to either "kill him off" or end the marriage.  It took them a single season to kill him.  I guess we heterosexual monogomists are just too boring.   

The broadcast television time slot once the home of Happy Days and Little House on the Prairie is now nowhere near as family-friendly -- according to the latest "family hour" study from a high-profile TV watchdog group.

The Parents Television Council (PTC) study says in the six years since the last check-up on "family hour," there has been a 50-plus percent increase in violent content, and a 20-plus percent increase in sexual content during the weekday hours of 8-9 p.m., and 7-9 p.m. on Sunday. The study, titled The Alarming Family Hour ... No Place for Children, monitored six networks and also notes that while mild profanity dropped during the six-year period, instances of extreme profanity increased.

PTC's Melissa Henson says the continued degradation is a natural extension of decreasing program standards that started in the 1990s. "The family hour really started to break apart in the mid-90s with the introduction of shows like Friends and Mad About You," she explains, noting that such programs "were really geared to a more mature audience and adult audience debuting during the family hour."

Prior to that breakdown in standards, she says, those time slots were characterized by programs that families did not have to worry about containing offensive material and could "sit down and safely, comfortably watch together." She cites among those programs such series as Little House on the Prairie, Highway to Heaven, and Touched by an Angel.

Mother proved right... Again.

When I was growing up my mother used to consistently say to me that "my sins would find me out."  It was her way of reminding me that there were consequences to my misbehavior- even if I managed to keep it hidden from her.

I was reminded today of how right my mother was when I read the story in the Indy Star regarding Craig Hoog.  He, apparently, was hiding an addiction to child pornography quite well until his house was burglarized.  But then, when he called the police, it was discovered.

Officers Justin Hickman and Chad Osborne went to Hoog's home in the 100 block of South Emerson Avenue at about 6:20 p.m. to investigate a burglary.

Inside, the officers spotted the alleged child pornography on a desk near a computer and printer, according to an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department report.  The printed photographs depicted images of young girls in arousing poses, according to the report.

Police seized a computer and three boxes of documents and digital media from Hoog's home.

ROCK confronts Smut Stores

Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana (ROCK) is a solid, conservative organization located in Louisville, Kentucky (though, as their name would infer, they are active in Southern Indiana as well).  Yesterday afternoon they held a press conference and informed the media of their regional campaign against pornography and the sex business industry.  They did so as they unveiled their new billboard, which is located across the street from a pornography "mega-store" in Southern Indiana (Clarksville to be specific). 

This regional campaign will highlight the harmful effects of pornography and sex businesses on economic development, public health, safety and a child nurturing environment. 

Check out ROCK's press release on their new regional campaign:  Download press_release_press_conference_july_26th.doc