June 1993
$3.00 — Circulation 894,301
Attention Pastors
Christians & Society TODAY, pages 3 and 4, can be
reproduced locally on a photocopier for use as a supplement or insert with bulletins
or newsletters.
CHRISTIAN
VALUES
Can we be good
without God? ........... 13
THE CHURCH
Responsible
for divorce? .............. 20
CONGRESS
of the American Family Association
S.C. Johnson Wax offers ugly,
misleading responses to boycott
S.C. Johnson Wax, instead of
working to clean up their
sponsorship of high amounts of
sex, violence and profanity, has
reacted to a boycott called by
Christian
Leaders
for
Responsible Television (CLeaRTV) by attacking individuals and
motives.
Vince Calder, an employee of
S.C. Johnson Wax, called the
Allstate Insurance Company to
complain that John Kalashian,
president of the AFA affiliate in
Racine, Wisconsin, was helping
promote the boycott. Kalashian
works for Allstate. Although
Calder said he was calling as a
private citizen and not as a
representative of S.C. Johnson
Wax, he gave his business
address and phone number.
Immediately after learning
of the call, AFA Law Center
General Counsel Benjamin W.
Bull contacted Calder. “Please
consider this a notice that you
have engaged in tortious
interference with contractual
and business relations between
Mr. John Kalashian and his
employer, Allstate Insurance
Continued on page 21
Survey on abortion,
homosexuals in
military .................... 19
Kmart’s refusal to pull porn expected to
cause Southern Baptists to drop investment
HOMOSEXUAL
ACTIVISM
The Annuity Board of the
Southern Baptist Convention is
expected to pull their investment
from the Kmart Corporation. The
board has asked that Kmart stop
selling pornography in their
Waldenbooks bookstores. Kmart
is expected to ignore the request
and continue in the porn business.
The General Board of Pensions
of the United Methodist Church
recently voted to drop their
investment in Kmart because of
Kmart’s involvement with
What they demand ... 15
Media bias ............... 17
PORNOGRAPHY
Bane in society ........ 21
TELEVISION
Link to violence ......... 5
FEATURES
Boycott Box ............. 10
Columns ..................... 2
News of Interest ......... 9
Television Reviews ... 6
ALL-MEMBERSHIP
PLAN
Use All-Membership Plan to
subscribe for members or
leaders of your church. $4 per
year per subscription (minimum--10). Send check, name
of church and legible mailing
list: AFA Journal, P.O.
Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS
38803. Single subscription-$15/year.
Copies of this issue are available at $12.50 for 50 copies.
Enclose check with order.
pornography.
Many of the 15 million members of the Southern Baptist
Convention churches are expected to join the boycott of
Kmart. The SBC is the largest
protestant denomination in
America. The United Methodist
Church, with nine million members, is the second largest. Other
denominations with investments
in Kmart are expected to follow
the lead and divest in Kmart also.
The Southern Baptist Annuity
Board has an investment of
approximately $5,477,000 in
Kmart.
Other divestments by the two
pension groups from companies
involved in the sale and
distribution of pornography and
entertainment media which
scorn and ridicule Christians
and Christian values are
expected in the future. The UM
Board of Pensions has an
investment of $7,807,000 with
Continued on page 23
Sponsors, stations drop Donahue show
Responding to a massive
public outcry over the filth on the
Donahue show, sponsors of the
program keep dropping out and
even stations are beginning to
cancel the show.
AFA has learned that both
Schering-Plough and RalstonPurina contracts with Donahue
have expired and they have no
plans to renew. Also, KXLY-TV
in Spokane, Washington, has said
that they will not renew their
contract to air the program when
it expires in September. The
station also decided to stop
running the Sally Jesse Raphael
show. The decision to drop both
programs was because of the
content said Eileen McKinnon,
program director.
Earlier, Buffalo’s WGRZ-TV
General Manager Tom Hartman
had dropped Donahue saying “It
is a trash program.”
Donahue is feeling the effect
of advertiser loss. He recently
attacked Dr. Richard Neill and
AFA on a program broadcast
from Fort Worth. Dr. Neill is a
Fort Worth dentist who has been
American Family Association
Post Office Drawer 2440
Tupelo, Mississippi 38803
getting advertisers to drop
Donahue.
AFA urges individuals to
join Dr. Neill and do in their
local communities what he has
done in Fort Worth. Watch the
Donahue program, then call
Continued on page 23
Non. Profit Org.
U.S. Postage Paid
Permit No. 36
Gordonsville, VA 22942
ADDRESS CORRECTION REQUESTED
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
1
You have the tools
to do the job
Dr. Donald E. Wildmon
President
Millions of individuals have wondered over the years what they could do to
stop the tide of filth coming forth from the entertainment media. Most of them
felt helpless, even defeated, because they were only one person. So, for the most
part, they complained to each other and did nothing because they either did not
know what they could do or felt their little bit would not make a difference.
Those conditions are changing, and changing fast. You have in your hand
right now a tool designed to help you do exactly that—stop the filth in the
entertainment media. Every month on the pages of the AFA Journal we give you
the facts, and information on what you can do. In fact, we give you so much
information that some people don’t know where to start.
What can you do? You can write and call and make your feelings known to
the people who are responsible for financially making the filth possible—the
advertisers, the sponsors. No one expects you to write every address, phone
every number, or boycott every product listed on these pages each month. But
we put so much there with the expectations that every reader can find three or
four that he or she feels strongly about and thus will participate in. And using
this approach means that many more advertisers—the people who provide the
money to make the filth available—will hear from the grassroots.
Of course we expect you to join the major boycotts with as much effort as you
can. Those boycotts currently include S.C. Johnson Wax, Kmart and Holiday
Inn. Beyond those, you can find other companies that you would like to contact.
By all means, do so.
One person’s letter, one person’s boycott, may not make much of a dent in
one advertiser’s pocketbook. But when that one person joins with another, and
another and a million more—that makes a difference!
You are a part of the largest organization in America dedicated to fighting
the sex, violence and profanity in the media. Don’t feel isolated. You have
friends, lots and lots of friends, who feel just as you do. Join with them in making
your voice heard.
Back years ago I read a story about a town in France where they were to have
a celebration. Each member of the community was asked to bring a pint of fruit
juice for the party. They would then combine their fruit juice into a large 100
gallon tank for everyone to share. However, so many individuals felt that their
one little pint would not be noticed in the 100 gallon tank that they carried a pint
of water instead of fruit juice. When it came time to drink the juice, all anyone
could taste was water.
Is the future of your family, your children, worth enough to invest a little time
each month to make three or four phone calls and write three or four letters? We
spend thousands of hours and thousands of dollars to give you the information
and the addresses. Do you care enough to act on this information?
That is the bottom line question. Will you pray and then put your prayers into
action? Without you participation the battle cannot be won. But if enough of us
care enough to get involved—good things can happen.
Have you phoned and written S.C. Johnson Wax, Kmart and Holiday Inn?
Many of your fellow AFA supporters have. Don’t be the person who brings
water instead of fruit juice. Get involved. Make your voice heard. Act on your
convictions.
If all of us will do that, we can win this great struggle for the hearts and minds
of our children and grandchildren.
AFA has given, and will continue to give, you the tools. Will you use them?
The answer to the problem depends on what you do or don’t do with the tools
we provide.
Thanks for actively joining the fight.
Don
2
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
Life is but a vapor
By Tim Wildmon
Vice President
When my wife Alison and I deboarded
the airplane in Tupelo in early February
after a three day trip to Arizona we were
met by her father, our minister and a
couple of friends. We knew something
was wrong.
As my father-in-law held my wife he
told her that her 25-year-old brother had
passed away in the night due to what we
later learned was heart failure. It was a
paralyzing few moments that will be
forever etched in my mind.
Russ was 25, a newlywed and the
picture of health. He was a Christian and
now makes residence in a place of great
joy and peace Jesus called heaven. But
when someone so young, so full of life
suddenly dies it serves as a jolting reminder
of our own mortality.
The scripture says our lives are like a
vapor.
Our time on earth is indeed short: Here
today, gone tomorrow. We truly don’t
know what tomorrow holds and as I heard
one minister say recently, it’s really good
that we don’t know.
I’ve just reached 30 and as I tell my
friends, I keep wondering when I’m going
to grow up. I’m so weak and immature in
so many ways. Jesus taught a lot on
priorities and the importance of “growing
up” in our faith. St. Paul exhorted us to get
past the milk and get into the meat.
During the following weeks and even
months after the funeral people would
call, write or stop family to tell us how
much Russ influenced their lives for the
better. Some we knew well, some not at
all. I thought it very unusual for so many
people to make such meaningful
comments about someone who lived just
25 years.
One of the many things my brother-inContinued on page 21
AFA Journal
Volume 17
Number 6
A publication of the American Family Association. Published monthly and November/December. Address: P.O. Drawer 2440,
Tupelo, MS 38803. Phone 601/844-5036.
Subscription rate: $15 per year.
Executive Editor: Donald E. Wildmon
Editor: Randall Murphree
Editorial Assistant: Jessica Huckaby
AFA is a Christian organization promoting
the Biblical ethic of decency in American
society with primary emphasis on TV and
other media.
Christians & Society
TODAY
June 1993
A supplement for local bulletins and newsletters
TV violence concerns Americans
Americans have shown concern about
the effects of televised violence for more
than two decades, but now for the first
time a majority say they are “personally
bothered” by it.
It’s the violence in entertainment programs that offends people most, with 80%
saying it’s harmful to society, according
to a Times Mirror survey.
They also think TV dwells too much on
violent crime, though most of the 1,516
American adults surveyed did not find it as
disturbing as fictional depictions.
Eighty percent said entertainment violence is “harmful” to society, compared to
64% in 1983. The number who think it is
“very harmful” increased from 26% of the
public to 47%.
Digest, 3/31/93
ABC acts with
integrity and
highest standards
Princeton...ahead of most universities on
the issue of homosexual rights.”
ABC is assuring viewers that
programming on their network is morally
superior. In a card to those who write
letters of concern, ABC says: “As parents,
as well as broadcasters, we share your
concern over the content and standards of
television....We intend to act with integrity
and remain dedicated to the maintenance
of the highest tastes and standards,” says
Ed Cintron, Manager of Audience
Information.
Princeton stops
gifts to Boy Scouts
Princeton University will no longer
support the Boy Scouts through the local
United Way because the Scouts will not
accept homosexual scoutleaders.
The Princeton Alumni Weekly
explained the move: “Under its equalopportunity policy, the university is
‘committed to the principle of not
discriminating against individuals on the
basis of personal beliefs or characteristics
such as...sexual orientation,’ among other
things. Since 1989, primarily in response
to student complaints, the administration
has protested the exclusion of homosexuals
from R.O.T.C. scholarships, banned the
C.I.A. from on-campus recruiting, and
permitted unmarried graduate students
with ‘domestic partners’ of either sex to
occupy married-student housing. It has
also granted such privileges as access to
the library and athletic facilities to those
partners.
“These
actions
have
put
Princeton Alumni Weekly, 4/21/93
Way—which say that AFA boycotts are
censorship, has criticized the Disney
action.
Wall Street Journal, 4/1/4/93
Washington Post
endorses boycott
of sponsors
The Washington Post has endorsed the
boycott of sponsors of violence on
television. In an editorial, the Post said
that people fed up with trash on television
can “make their feelings known to
sponsors of shows.”
Washington Post, 4/17/93
NBC boycotts
TV Guide
Because TV Guide refuses to publish the
schedule of their cable channel CNBC,
NBC has pulled CNBC ads from TV Guide.
But that isn’t all. NBC is threatening to
withdraw its advertising from the
publication. NBC spends about $15,000,000
per year with TV Guide.
Yes, this is the same NBC which has
called consumer boycotts of sponsors of
sex, violence and profanity on their network
“censorship.” This time, however, the
boycott is ok because NBC is doing the
boycotting. “This is a business issue with
NBC as it attempts to deal with its
competitive environment,” NBC said.
Wall Street Journal, 4/19/93
Disney boycotts
Time-Warner
Time-Warner, which owns Six Flags,
has been running an ad saying that the
seven Six Flags amusement parks are
cheaper than Disneyland or Disney World.
Upset with the ad, Disney has pulled all of
its advertising from Time-Warner’s
magazines, where it has spent $40 million
over the past five years.
Michael Eisner, Disney chairman, said
that Time-Warner is “free to advertise any
way they want to. But don’t ask me to be in
business with them in one area if they are
going to attack our main business in
another.”
Neither of the civil rights groups—
ACLU or People for the American
Child joins
fight against
entertainment filth
AFA recently received the following
letter when their “WE ARE OUTRAGED”
ad ran in Baltimore. “American Family
Association: I am seven years old. My
brother was killed in a drive by shooting
by people because of no reason. Because
of TV violence, they got the idea. I think
it’s not fair. Thanks for helping. Love,
Penelope Jackson.
“P.S. Sorry I can only give you 3 cents
but that’s my allowance! I could give
more every week though.”
Americans believe
homosexuality a
threat to society
“American society is likely to collapse,”
said 70% of U.S. adults, “if the traditional
family unit falls apart.” Though most
Americans in theory support a person’s
right to be a homosexual, pollster George
Barna noted, “when it comes down to
interacting with people whose lifestyle
they perceive to be immoral, or whose
behavior they believe will ultimately lead
to cultural decay or lost productivity, they
draw the line.” Among evangelical
Christians, 52% consider homosexuality
a private matter, 92% consider it immoral,
and 80% favor upholding the ban.
Natl. & Intl. Religion Report, 5/3/93
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
3
Churches dedicate
the unborn
Some churches now have a ceremony
to dedicate unborn children to God. AFA
has received some letters encouraging us
to encourage other churches to do this.
AFA is willing to publish a “ritual” of
the ceremony blessing the unborn child if
someone wishes to write one and forward
it to us. We will share what we consider
the best with our readers. Approximately
180,000 pastors and churches receive the
AFA Journal each month.
Send it to: Blessing for the Unborn,
AFA, P.O. Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS
38803.
CBS, ABC, NBC
hit a new low
in TV viewing
People continue to tune out the major
networks. The three major broadcast networks’ combined share of primetime
viewing fell to a new low this television
season, dashing hopes of TV executives
who just a year ago hailed the end of a
longtime slide.
The CBS, ABC and NBC networks say
their share of nightly viewing fall three
points, or 5%, to just 60% of the total
television audience in the first-run season
that ended Sunday night. Only a year ago,
the three-network share edged up one point
to 63%, marking the first year-to-year
increase in 15 years.
Wall Street Journal, 4/20/93
AFA gets good report
from secular paper
The following recently appeared in the
Roanoke, Virginia, newspaper after our
“WE ARE OUTRAGED” ad ran in that
paper:
Question: There was a petition on the
back of the Sunday comics recently from
the American Family Association asking
for better family values in TV, movies and
music. What percentage of any money we
might contribute would go to actually
helping with petition, and would any be
going to salaries, for example?
C.L., Roanoke
Answer: The American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi, has operated
for 15 years with a good record for honesty.
A spokeswoman said all donations with
this petition, addressed to boards of directors in the entertainment industry, go into
an account to buy more advertisements
like the one you saw.
4
June 1993
We checked four other sources, one a
major Protestant denomination and another
an evangelical association with 700 members nationwide. No one doubted the money
will be used as the donors specify.
Words like “sincere,” “up front” and
“pretty clean ship” were offered in describing the American Family Association, run
by the Rev. Donald Wildmon.
The other two sources, both generally
favorable, were newspapers in the Tupelo
area. Some recent high-profile TV evangelists wouldn’t have fared as well with their
local papers.
Roanoke Times & World-News, 3/22/93
Local church
withholds funds in
gays-in-pulpit fight
One of the largest and richest Presbyterian churches in the country has flexed its
financial muscle in a fight to prevent practicing homosexuals from becoming
ministers.
St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church announced Sunday that it would withhold its
$300,000-a-year funding to a regional
synod—one of eight in the country—until
the synod drops its support of a gay and
lesbian advocacy group called the Lazarus
Project.
“We cannot endorse homosexual and
lesbian practices as a God-ordained
lifestyle,” said the Rev. John A. Huffman,
senior pastor of St. Andrew’s.
Associated Press, 4/20/93
Congressman
uninvited because
he “might” pray
An Indiana congressman has been
uninvited as a high school graduation
speaker because he threatened to open his
remarks with a prayer.
Rep. Steve Buyer, a freshman Republican, won’t be speaking at the Kankakee
Valley High School graduation in
Wheatfield, Indiana, June 6 because he
wouldn’t pledge in writing not to say a
prayer.
Associated Press, 4/29/93
AFA affiliate
blankets town with
anti-porn billboards
The Waycross, Georgia, affiliate of AFA
has put up 22 anti-porn billboards in their
community in an effort to get Flash Foods
to pull the pornography from their stores.
AFA JOURNAL Christians & Society TODAY
The billboards were erected by 18 local churches and will be in place for two
months, according to Bill Mullis, president of the Waycross AFA. Those involved
have been getting good, positive comments from members of the community.
The group plans to continue to promote a boycott of Flash Foods until the
company gets out of the porn business.
The Fact of the Matter
Clinton plan no
friend of family
Under President Clinton’s new
tax plan, if both parents work and
earn $12,000, they will save $4,040
by living together outside marriage
instead of getting married.
Wall Street Journal, 3/3/93
New York sex
clubs increase
There are more sex clubs in New
York City today than there were
when the AIDS epidemic began in
the early 1980s.
New York Times, 3/5/93
AIDS in Cuba vs.
AIDS in New York
Cuba has the same population as
New York City...[which has] 42,737
reported cases of full-blown AIDS.
Cuba has 159.
New York Times, 2/16/93
Teenagers join porn
fight, get results
When some Christian teenagers in
Searcy, Arkansas, saw that several video
stores were renting pornographic videotapes, they decided to do something. With
the help of the youth ministers in Searcy,
they organized and approached video store
managers to get rid of the porn. All but
one did so. The group, Teens Against a
Pornographic Environment (TAPE), has
hired a lawyer and intends to pursue legal
action against that one.
Thanks, teenagers, for leading the way
for adults who are apathetic.
Christians and Society TODAY is published by American
Family Association, P.O. Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803, to
be reproduced for use as a supplemental insert for church
newsletters and bulletins and for use by other concerned
organizations. Sources cited indicate source of basic information only.
TELEVISION
TV’s link to violence well
documented by studies
An Indiana school board had to issue an advisory to children,
who had been crawling into storm drains that there were no
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles down there. To understand why
this was necessary is to understand one of the causes of America’s
epidemic of violence.
And the path to understanding that Indiana advisory can begin
in a remote Canadian community that in 1973 was due to acquire
television (signal reception problems having been overcome).
Social scientists seized the opportunity to investigate the effects
of television on this community’s children, using for comparison
two similar towns that had long had television.
Before television was belatedly introduced, they monitored
rates of inappropriate physical aggression among 45 first- and
second-graders. After two years of television, the rate increased
160%, in both boys and girls, and in both those who were
aggressive to begin with and those who were not. The rate in the
two communities that had had television for years did not change.
U.S. and Canadian studies
establish correlations between
prolonged childhood exposure
to television and a proclivity for
physical aggressiveness.
Other researchers studied third-, fourth- and fifth-grade boys
in two Indian communities in northern Manitoba. One got
television in 1973, the other in 1977. The aggressiveness of boys
in the first community increased immediately, in the second it
increased four years later.
A study from 1960 to 1981 of 875 children in a semirural
American county (controlled for baseline aggressiveness,
intelligence and socioeconomic status) found that among persons
subsequently convicted of crimes, the more television they had
watched by age 8, the more serious their subsequent crimes. A
“second generation effect” was that the more television a parent
had watched as a child, the more severely that parent punished
children.
Seven U.S. and Canadian studies establish correlations between
prolonged childhood exposure to television and a proclivity for
physical aggressiveness that extends from preadolescence into
adulthood. All this is reported in The Public Interest quarterly by
Brandon S. Centerwall, an epidemiologist at the University of
Washington.
He used a historical oddity—because of disagreement between
Afrikaner- and English-speaking South Africans, that nation had
no television prior to 1975—to study the effect of television on
violence rates in the prosperous industrial society of white South
Africans.
He studied homicide rates among white South Africans, white
Americans and all Canadians. From 1945 to 1974 the white
homicide rate in the United States increased 93%; in Canada,
92%; in South Africa, the white homicide rate declined 7%.
Neither economic growth, civil unrest, age distribution,
urbanization, alcohol consumption, capital punishment nor the
availability of firearms explain the 10- to 15-year span between
By George F. Will
Washington Post Writers Group
the introduction of television and the doubling of the homicide
rate in the United States and Canada—or the similar lag in South
Africa after 1975. Furthermore, Centerwall believes that the
introduction of television helps explain different rates of homicide
growth for American whites and minorities.
White households began acquiring television sets in large
There is no hope for cooperation
from the television industry.
numbers approximately five years before minority households.
White homicide rates began increasing in 1958. A parallel
increase in minority homicide rates began four years later.
A 14-month-old infant can adopt behavior it has seen on
television. Because young children are unable to distinguish fact
from fantasy, they regard television as information about how
the world works. (Hence the need for the Indiana school board’s
advisory). And, Centerwall says, in the world as television
presents it, violence is ubiquitous, exciting, charismatic and
effective:
In later life, serious violence is most likely to erupt at
moments of severe stress—and it is precisely at such
moments that adolescents and adults are most likely to
revert to their earliest, most visceral sense of the role of
violence in society and in personal behavior. Much of this
sense will have come from television.
So what can be done? Centerwall believes that violence is a
public health problem deserving measures as practical as nutrition,
immunization and bicycle helmet programs. He suggests
requiring all television sets to be manufactured with locking
devices by which parents can control children’s access to a set
or to particular channels. But such devices presuppose the sort
of parents who would not need them: parents alert to the
Because young children are unable
to distinguish fact from fantasy, they
regard television as information
about how the world works.
dangerous degradation of taste and behavior by entertainment
saturated with violence.
Wiser parents are the only hope because, as Centerwall
understands, there is no hope for cooperation from the television
industry. It exists to draw audiences for advertisers. Desensitized
Americans are attracted by ever stronger doses of ever more
graphic violence. A decline of 1% of advertising revenues would
cut the television industry’s revenues a quarter of a billion
dollars.
So as Centerwall says, it is as idle to expect television to help
combat the epidemic of violence that is derivative from violent
entertainment as it is to expect the tobacco industry to help
combat the epidemic of lung cancer that is a comparable sign of
that industry’s sickening health.
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
5
Jewish, Catholic
characters demeaned,
homosexuality upheld
The April 8 episode of CBS’s bizarre
PICKET FENCES featured an obnoxious,
arrogant rabbi who was treated with
disdain by series regulars. The rabbi, who
requested permission to sit with the body
of an unidentified Jew, taunted the coroner
regarding an autopsy. He was generally
ugly and insensitive. Written by Kimberly
Costello, the show was produced by Mark
B. Perry and Robert Breech.
In the April 22 repeat, the series belittles
priests in an episode written by David
Kelley and Perry, and produced by Perry,
Breech and Alice West.
The priests, one Catholic and one
Episcopal, are clearly self-serving, petty
and childish. The Catholic punches the
Episcopalian in the face.
Sheriff Brock admonishes them not to
resort to violence.
“Where have you been?” shouts the
Catholic priest. “Every war in the world is
based on religion. There’s no greater
source of violence!”
The confrontation occurs as a result of
the Episcopal priest’s incendiary remarks
about Sister Cray, a nun who aided a
suicide by providing poison.
In addition to the caring, sensitive nun,
every other authority figure comes down
on the side of mercy killing. Right to Die
Society displays appear outside the
courtroom during the nun’s trial. The
sheriff’s wife, a doctor, champions death
with dignity and makes an impassioned,
yet reasoned, plea for euthanasia to be
supported by the medical community. She
insists that we can’t be left to a “posse of
good citizens on the loose.”
The judge rules invalid the law Sr.
Cray broke. “Since suicide is...a protected
right,” he states, “aiding and abetting a
suicide cannot be illegal.”
Homosexuality is the theme of the April
29 episode in which Sheriff Brock’s
teenage daughter Kimberly and her friend
Lisa “experiment.” After discussing
boyfriends with the best kisses and most
talented tongues, they share a kiss, and a
bed in the opening scene.
Little brother Matthew listens in on a
subsequent conversation, and rumors
begin to fly. Sheriff and Mrs. Brock (Kim’s
step-mother) are distraught that they think
themselves liberal, yet don’t want
Kimberly to be a lesbian. Kim’s mother
Lydia, it is revealed, had told Kim about
her own lesbian affair. The episode leaves
the story open, with Lisa confessing her
“love” for Kimberly.
It was written by Kelley, and produced
by Perry and Breech.
Advertising on all three episodes was:
6
June 1993
Chrm. S. Daniel Abraham, Slimfast Foods
Company, P. 0. Box 5047, FDR Station,
New York, NY 10150, Phone 212-6884420, FAX 212-415-7171, Slimfast diet
aids.
Bisexuality, illicit
sex promoted in NBC
sitcom with MCI ads
NBC’s SEINFELD stayed on the series
course of promoting illicit sex and
perversion in an April 15 episode written
by Larry David and Peter Mehlman, and
produced by Andrew Scheinman. The teaser
has star Jerry Seinfeld in his stand up routine
in a club: “If you’re a guy and you ask for
a doggie bag on a date, you might as well
just have them wrap up your genitals, too.
You’re not gonna be needing those for a
while either.”
Later, he drives Elaine (close friend and
former bedmate) to Carl’s home.
“Is tonight the night [for your first sex
with Carl]?” asks Seinfeld.
“You never know!” she replies, the sound
of hope in her voice.
At the video store, George, also a series
regular, runs into ex-lover Susan and her
new lesbian lover, Mona. He worries that
he “drove” her to lesbianism.
Kramer, the fourth series regular,
eventually “steals” Mona away from Susan.
On April 29, the series repeated an
episode in which Seinfeld, Elaine, George
and Kramer enter into a bet on which one of
them can go the longest without
masturbating. The entire 30 minutes—every
scene, every conversation, every thought—
is focused on masturbation.
Advertising on both episodes was: Chrm.
Bert C. Roberts Jr., MCI Communications
Corporation, 1133-19th Street N.W.,
Washington, DC 20036, FAX 202-8872195, TOLL FREE: 1-800-444-3333, MCI
telecommunications.
Extremist, irrational
Christian characters
presented by NBC, Ford
The “separation of church and state”
myth is the focus of the April 27 episode of
REASONABLE DOUBTS on NBC. It was
written by Kathy McCormick and Ed
Zuckerman, and produced by McCormick.
Profanity and obscenities are scattered
liberally throughout the two-hour movie.
Major characters include Mr. Ellis and
his daughter Martha, about nine, who was
expelled because her “Christian” behavior
led to classroom disruption. According to
her teacher, Martha “repeatedly told the
other children they were going to hell.” She
AFA JOURNAL
distributed anti-Catholic literature in the
classroom, and brought an aborted fetus
to show and tell.
Authority figures in the episode are as
a rule condescending toward the child and
her father. Maggie, series heroine, cites
Martha’s
“parents’
hysterical
interpretation” of the Bible.
Maggie and her illicit lover Dickey,
the series hero, also have a conversation
concluding that Christian faith and reason
are not compatible, but mutually exclusive.
“It would be nice to believe it all,”
Maggie muses, “Heaven would be
waiting—everything explained.”
“He--, do it!” laughs Dickey. “Sign
up.”
“And check my brain at the door?!”
Later Maggie asks Dickey, “Do you
believe in God?”
“Look,” he says, “my religion—
whatever you want to call it—is based on
20 years in the streets. It’s much more a
feeling than it is a one-minute speech.”
In the Ellis case, a jury finds for the
school board against Martha.
The most objectionable element of the
episode is not so much the Ellises’
irrational behavior as it is the implication
that they are representative of all
Christians and that Christianity is without
reason.
Top advertiser was: Chrm. Harold
Poling, Ford Motor Company, P. 0. Box
1899, Dearborn, MI 48121, TOLL FREE:
1-800-392-3673, Ford, Lincoln
Continental, and Mercury automobiles.
Perverse sex pushed
by ABC, PepsiCo ads
ABC continues to use its ROSEANNE
sitcom to push the homosexual agenda,
promoting the fallacy that sexual
perversion is normal. The April 6 episode
featured series star Dan Conner and his
poker buddies in a series of double
entendres about Nancy’s lesbianism.
Roger, new to the poker table, doesn’t
catch on, and asks what kind of guy Nancy
goes for.
David, (17-year-old boyfriend to Dan’s
daughter Darlene), replies, “The kind that
wears a bra—she’s into chicks!”
At their prom, Darlene reveals a surprise
she has for David: “I rented a motel room.
I wanted tonight to be the night.” They
leave immediately for the motel to have
sex, but David can’t perform.
“I can’t believe this is happening!” he
commiserates. “I’m ready all the time!
I’m ready at school. I’m ready at the
dinner table. Why can’t I be ready in a
motel room?!”
In the April 20 repeat, Arnie, Nancy’s
ex-husband, returns to try to patch things
up. Roseanne—true to her hateful nature—
takes delight in telling Arnie that Nancy is
lesbian. Arnie has trouble accepting it,
and proposes a threesome, or at least that
Nancy let him watch her and Marla having
sex.
Executive producers of the series are
Tom and Roseanne Arnold. Sy Dukane
and Denise Moss wrote both episodes.
Advertising on both were: Chrm. D.
Wayne Calloway, PepsiCo, Anderson Hill
Road, Purchase, NY 10577, FAX 914253-2070, TOLL FREE: 1-800-433-2652,
Doritos corn chips, Pizza Hut restaurants,
Taco Bell fast food, Tostitos tortilla chips.
Fox series keeps casual,
sex, homosexual theme
Matt, the homosexual character in the
Fox network’s MELROSE PLACE, has a
new suitor in the April 7 episode. It was
written by Jordan Buddle and produced
by Chip Hayes. The script has at least a
dozen profanities and obscenities.
Matt is at a restaurant when Scott
approaches, introduces himself and asks
Matt out. Scott’s law firm once represented
Matt in a job discrimination suit.
Another scene features illicit lovers Jo
and Jake in bed.
In still another, Kim, a doctor,
propositions Michael, who is married. In
subsequent scenes, they share a long kiss,
and have foreplay on her kitchen table.
Yet another scene has Nancy trying to
seduce Billy, many years her junior. When
he declines, she warns him to forget about
a promotion. (She’s his boss.)
Sex—homo,
hetero,
casual,
promiscuous, adulterous—is the theme of
the series, as long as it’s not in marriage.
Top advertiser was: Pres. Gary Mulloy,
Maybelline, Inc., P. 0. Box 371, Memphis,
TN 38151, Phone 901-320-2011,
Maybelline cosmetics.
Homosexuality, illicit sex,
porn on Bochco NBC series
Simon Matz is a homosexual who deals
in stolen art in the April 8 episode of
NBC’s LA LAW. He is arrested by Det.
Greg Riley in an undercover operation,
but Matz’s defense is entrapment. He also
contends that he and Det. Riley had sex.
Riley first denies being homosexual, but
finally confesses. He is reassured that the
police department can not discriminate
against him now that he is out of the
closet. Matz, though clearly guilty, is found
innocent.
Another plot line follows Roxanne and
Tommy, a recovering alcoholic, trying to
decide if they should marry when their
baby is born. Initially, Roxanne only
wanted Tommy to father a baby, but now
she wants marriage. Tommy, however,
nobly declines, declaring, “I don’t want
this kid to have a drunk for a father. If I can’t
protect him from anything else, let me
protect him from this.”
On April 15, the series featured a porn
collection. Leland McKenzie, senior partner
in the series law firm, handles the estate for
the widow of an old friend. When Leland
takes a stamp collection for appraisal, he
discovers an extensive porn collection
hidden under false bottoms in the stamp
boxes. The porn collection sells for
$110,000, but only after Leland (the series’
closest semblance of ethics or morality)
lies to a bidder that he has higher offers.
The former episode was written by Anne
Kenney, Roger Lowenstein and Jennifer
Flackett; the latter by William M.
Finkelstein, Paul Manning, Peter Schneider
and Julie Martin. Finkelstein is executive
producer. The series was created by Steven
Bochco.
Top advertiser on both episodes was:
Chrm. John G. Smale, General Motors
Corporation, 3044 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit,
MI 48202, Phone 313-556-5000, Cadillac,
Chevrolet, Pontiac and Saturn automobiles.
ABC movie offers graphic
violence, electrocution
The tragic story of 1950s serial killer
Charles Starkweather was the focus of
ABC’s May 3-4 four-hour special. The
script was written by Michael O’Hara and
produced by Bryan Hickox.
In telling the tale, ABC felt impelled to
include graphic scenes of Starkweather
shooting some of his victims in the back.
The most chilling segment, however, was
the climactic scene in which Starkweather
is strapped into the chair and electrocuted.
Family-time viewers are then treated to the
execution itself.
Three times, the lever comes down,
electric currents cause Starkweather’s body
to thrust violently upward against the
restraints, and the body slumps back
motionless into the chair.
Leading advertisers were: Chrm. Robert
E. Allen, AT&T, 1301 Ave. of the Americas,
New York, NY 10019, FAX 212-605-6248,
TOLL FREE: 1-800-222-0300, AT&T
phone services, NCR office machines and
computers.
Chrm. S. Daniel Abraham, Thompson
Medical Company, 222 Lakeview Ave.,
West Palm Beach, FL 33401, FAX 407832-2297, TOLL FREE: 1-800-352-8466,
Dexatrim diet capsule, Sportscreme
ointment, Tempo anti-acid.
Kellogg, NBC mix casual
sex, booze, mock faith
Fortunately NBC’s CHEERS sitcom is
in its last season–all of the characters are
certain to need treatment for alcohol abuse
and/or sexually transmitted diseases.
In the April 29 episode, barmaid Carla
mixes a pitcher of “a little drink my
grandfather taught me. It’s called, ‘I Know
My Redeemer Liveth.’” The CHEERS
bar regulars all get drunk on the concoction
before heading home.
However, bright and early next morning
they’re back at the bar boozing it up again.
(One character explains that it’s been less
than eight hours since they left the bar.)
In one story line, Carla worries about
which man she went home and had sex
with—she was so drunk she can’t
remember.
Dialogue also uses God’s name in vain.
The Heide Perlman script was produced
by Tim Berry.
Leading advertiser was: Chrm. Arnold
G. Langbo, Kellogg Company, One
Kellogg Square PO Box 3599, Battle
Creek, MI 49016, FAX 616-961-2000,
TOLL FREE: 1-800-962-1413, Just Right
cereal, Pop Tarts, Product 19 cereal.
Kodak, Pepsi ads bring
soft porn to family-time
BODIES OF EVIDENCE, a CBS crime
drama, used its April 23 plot to air softcore porn scenes in family-time hours.
Joel J. Feigenbaum and Christopher Seitz
produced the Michael Fisher script.
In an early scene, former governor
Phillip Kindle (married) dies while having
sex with his lover, a woman some 40 years
his junior. The scene can be described as
nothing less than soft pornography. During
the ensuing investigation, detectives
discover home sex videos featuring the
governor with numerous lovers. Short
clips are, or course, shown in the episode.
Another story line features a religious
group called Master Age. The group’s
leader describes it as a church, and is later
arrested for murdering a reporter who was
prepared to expose the cult’s illegal
activities.
Still another sub-plot focused on Det.
Walker and his seduction by Grace Devlin,
a woman who appeared in the porn films
with the governor. Mrs. Devlin’s husband
urged her to seduce Walker because he
might be a good political ally.
Top advertisers were: Chrm. Kay
Whitmore, Eastman Kodak Company, 343
State Street, Rochester, NY 14650, FAX
716-724-0663, TOLL FREE: 1-800-2422424, d-Con products, Lysol disinfectant,
Red Devil paint.
Chrm. D. Wayne Calloway, PepsiCo,
Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY
10577,FAX 914-253-2070, TOLL FREE:
1-800-433-2652, Chee-tos cheese puffs,
Kentucky Fried Chicken, Lay’s potato
chips Taco Bell fast food.
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
7
Profanity, debauchery
brought by CBS, Nabisco
The April 16 CBS debut of DUDLEY
introduced series hero Dudley Bristol,
pianist/comedian at a New York club. In
the teaser, he introduces special guest,
“Congressman Wayne, best known
recently for his sexual harassment of a 17year-old girl.”
Dudley continues, “Congressman, this
one’s for you!” and begins to croon, “Baby
love, baby love....” People laugh and
applaud as the angry, drunken
Congressman staggers out of the club.
In scene two, Dudley is at home when
his scantily-clad lover strolls in and
announces, “We do have to talk about our
future.”
“We’ve only known each other a couple
of months,” whines Dudley.
“I’ve been living here four months!”
she exclaims.
“You live here?”
Ex-wife Laraine appears from
California demanding that he let their
teenage son Fred live with him. Mom
calls Fred “a mess, a menace to society.”
Dialogue includes at least a dozen
profanities, more than half of them the use
of God’s name in vain. Susan Beavers
wrote this debut episode, which was
produced by Gail Schenbaum-Lawton and
Jan Siegelman.
Helping bring it to family-time TV
was: Chrm. Lawrence R. Ricciardi, RJR
Nabisco, 1301 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10019, FAX 212-9699173, TOLL FREE: 1-800-932-7800, A.l.
Steak Sauce, Chips Ahoy cookies, Milk
Bone pet food, Oreo cookies, Triscuit
snack crackers.
Adultery, promiscuity
are themes of sitcom
The CBS debut of GOOD ADVICE on
April 2 brought promiscuous and casual
sex to another 30-minute slice of familytime television.
The cast includes Dr. Susan DeRusa, a
marriage counselor; Jack, a divorce
lawyer; and Artie Cowen, a chiropractor.
They share an office suite and a
receptionist.
In this episode, one of Jack’s clients is
intercepted by Susan who tries to help her
deal with her husband’s many infidelities.
Jack explains that he doesn’t believe in
marriage because he doesn’t know anyone
who is happily married.
“I am!” declares Susan. She then returns
home to discover husband Joey in bed and
his lover in the closet. “This is mine!”
Susan screams, pointing at Joey’s genitals.
Joey tries to excuse his adultery,
declaring that it’s just a “one time fling. I
8
June 1993
feel nothing for this woman.” Nonetheless,
Susan kicks him out.
Son Michael, about seven, asks, “Do
you hate Dad?”
“Yes, I do,” Susan says with a big smile.
“Aren’t you supposed to love him?”
When she explains that Dad won’t be
living with them, Michael remembers a
friend’s divorced mom and grins as he asks,
“You’re gonna start drinking?”
Joey comes to Susan’s office to try to
reconcile and relates his infidelity in front
of her associates. She physically attacks
him and screams, “I want you to die!”
The April 9 episode began with Susan
counseling a couple. “And it doesn’t bother
you that Amber is a prostitute?” she asks.
“Oh,” the man replies, “I like that she
works.”
Amber interrupts to collect her $200
from Howard—his hour is up.
In the main story line, Susan counsels
Claire, who is trying to decide whether she
wants to stick with her husband or her
lover. When Claire decides in favor of the
adulterous lover, Susan discovers the lover
is Jack.
Angry at Susan, Jack declares, “You
failed me! It (Claire’s) was a good marriage
until I came along. Now I’m stuck with
her. I’m not ready for marriage, especially
to a woman who cheats on her husband!”
The next week, April 16, Jack has
another illicit lover who comes to the
office to get her panties which she’d left at
his house. It is also revealed that Jack is a
compulsive gambler, drives a Porsche,
and can’t pay his rent.
Dialogue focuses on Joey’s numerous
infidelities and Jack’s promiscuity.
The debut, written by Danny Jacobson
and Norma S. Vela, was produced by
Bruce Chevillat. The second episode, a
Jacobson script, was produced by Pamela
Grant and Chevillat; the third, by Jacobson
and Daniel Palladino, was produced by
Grant.
Top advertiser on the first two episodes
was: Chrm. D. Wayne Calloway, PepsiCo,
Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577,
FAX 914-253-2070, TOLL FREE: 1-800433-2652, Diet Pepsi soft drink, Doritos
corn chips, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizza
Hut restaurants.
Positive values upheld
by ABC, Wal-Mart
Corporation, 1 Kroc Dr., Oak Brook, IL
60521, Phone 708-575-3000, FAX 708575-6941, McDonald’s fast food.
Chrm. S. Robson Walton, Wal-Mart
Stores, Inc., 702 S.W. 8th Street,
Bentonville, AR 72716, Phone 501-2734000, FAX 501-273-1969, Sam’s
American Choice brands, Sam’s stores,
Wal-Mart stores, Wholesale Club stores.
In an April 9 repeat, ABC’s FAMILY
MATTERS continued its tradition of humor
and positive family values without
profanity, illicit sex or sleaze in any fashion.
The episode was written by Fred Fox and
produced by Kelly Sandefur.
The story follows nerdish Steve Urkel’s
hospitalization for an appendectomy.
Though he sometimes seems a curse to his
neighbors, the Winslows, they are quick to
visit him in the hospital. Typical sitcom
banter occurs especially after Mr. Winslow
is injured and winds up sharing the hospital
room with young Steve. The two conclude
the episode with a warm affirmation of
their friendship.
The following week, April 16, the series
focused on teen sex. Teenager Laura
Winslow is ecstatic to be dating Ted, a
popular athlete, but crushed when she learns
that he led his friends to believe they are
having sex.
Conversations among the teen characters
make it clear that they consider being
sexually active in high school the norm.
Rumors abound throughout school, and
even Maxine, Laura’s best friend, assumes
they’re true. In fact, Maxine is disappointed
only because Laura didn’t tell her first.
Laura and her brother Eddie confront Ted,
forcing him to confess his lies in front of
many witnesses.
Laura’s conversation with her mother
about the ordeal supports traditional moral
values. Gary Goodrich wrote the episode.
Advertising on both episodes were:
Chrm. Michael R. Quinlan, McDonald’s
AFA JOURNAL
NBC, ABC classics
contrast current shows
On April 4, ABC aired the timeless
TEN COMMANDMENTS movie, thus
meriting the network and advertisers praise
for again bringing the epic to family-time
television.
Relating plot and details is unnecessary;
AFA urges readers to write a letter of
thanks or call the leading advertiser: Chrm.
Lawrence R. Ricciardi, RJR Nabisco, 1301
Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY
10019, FAX 212-969-9173, TOLL FREE:
1-800-932-7800, Care-Free chewing gum,
Milk Bone pet food, Move Over Butter,
Ortega Mexican foods.
NBC sponsored another positive
movie with its April 11 re-airing of
SOUND OF MUSIC. Again, the movie’s
story has already been enjoyed by
generations and need not be repeated in
print. NBC should be commended for
offering it in our homes again.
Leading advertiser was: Chrm. John
G. Smale, General Motors Corporation,
3044 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, MI 48202,
Phone 313-556-5000, Cadillac, Chevrolet,
Geo, Oldsmobile and Saturn automobiles.
NEWS OF INTEREST
Homosexual march brings typical actions
After months of free publicity, worth
many millions of dollars, by the secular
media stating that there would be up to
one million marchers, the best the homosexual movement could gather on a
beautiful Sunday afternoon was less than
300,000. The United States Park Service
said that the 300,000 total they reported
was generous. “This number (300,000) is
our official estimate,’ said Park Police
Sergeant John Farrell, explaining the number was determined with aerial
photographs, subway ridership figures and
a count of busloads arriving at the site.”
Some examples of the homosexuals
“Putting a Face on the Issue,” a goal of the
homosexual movement with the march:
1. “Josh Mandell sat in the shade and
slipped off his five-inch high heels—flaming red, size 13—so his friend, Robert
Slagle, could massage his tired feet.” (USA
Today, April 26, 1993)
2. One of the parade organizers, former
Marine Sergeant Tom “Gator” Swann,
was photographed by the Washington
Times (April 25, 1993) in his uniform
with a black arm band (saying LIFT THE
BAN) beneath his sergeant insignia. If
prosecuted, he could get up to six months
in jail for breaking the law (Title 18,
U.S.C. and Title 10, U.S.C. 771 and 772).
3. One homosexual marcher knocked
off the hat of black evangelist Anthony
Lawrence of Auburndale, Florida. (Washington Times, April 26, 1993) Kevin
Callegari, president of Dignity USA, a
“Roman Catholic homosexual group” said
about the homosexual march, “We’re
looking at this as a religious procession,”
(noting the Christian crosses that were
carried during the march). The Washington Post (April 26, 1993) noted that a
“David Austin, age 48, probably irritated
the preacher (Rubin Israel who came all
the way from Los Angeles) to no end.”
Someone thrust a sign in Israel’s face
saying “God Is Gay!”
4. Seven shirtless exuberant men
shopped for “husbands,” out of the window of Hotel Washington. According to
the Washington Post article (April 26,
1993), they were holding a sign that said
“WE NEED HUSBANDS!” A group of
marchers from San Francisco must have
empathized. They began a chant, “What
do we want?” “HUSBANDS!” “When do
we want them?” “NOW!”
5. A Washington Times article (April
26, 1993) categorized some of the proceedings going on during the parade, “...a roiling
scene of flesh (women bared their breasts
and hairy armpits); spangles, nipple rings,
‘Dykes on Bikes,’ Sadomasochistic (S&M)/
Leather/Fetish, Transgender and Drag” and
on and on. “One man, who described himself as a veteran of the Persian Gulf war was
dressed in his combat jacket, an Army skirt,
sleek silk stockings and red high-heel
pumps.”
6. At the U.S. Navy Memorial across
from the National Archives, women and
men in only bikini briefs splashed in the
water, then embraced and kissed, the men
with men, and the women with women.
(The Washington Times, April 26, 1993)
7. “Other homosexuals attacked Army
Gen. Colin Powell, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, for his position opposing
homosexuals in the military in language
that might have made a drill sergeant blush.
‘Colon Bowell Needs a Five-Star Enema,’
said one sign. Another said ‘Bill, clean out
your Colin.’” (The Washington Times, April
26, 1993)
Innocent tourists from around the country were caught in the crossfire. A couple
from Texas picked the wrong day for
tourism. “I think it’s disgusting how some
people justify their immorality,” the
husband said. “The right to be immoral is
not one of our fundamental rights.” (The
Washington Post, April 26, 1993)
Finally, a USA Today (April 26, 1993)
column by Gary Bauer, President of Family Research Council, entitled “Beware
Hidden Gay Agenda,”said the marchers
were asking not for equal rights but special
rights and political power. “Sunday’s homosexual march on Washington was
dressed up like a civil rights event, but these
garments mask a darker purpose. The
marchers say they want civil rights enjoyed
by all Americans (which they already have).
But they really want special rights ...With
perverse logic, AIDS activists blame those
who oppose the behavior that spreads the
disease... No culture in history has cut the
bonds of sexual restraint and devalued
marriage and family—and survived,”
Bauer said.
PAW upset over
political involvement
Americans United for Separation of Church
and State, the American Civil Liberties
Union, American Israel Public Affairs
Committee and the National Jewish
Democratic Council.
These groups have been attacking people
who are conservative Christians who work
in the democratic system to get candidates
People for the American Way (PAW),
the political group founded by Norman
Lear, is upset because some people are
getting involved in politics. Joining PAW
in their concern are other groups including
elected. PAW is especially upset that
individuals who happen to be conservative
Christians won 42% of 500 school board
and other local races last November.
Because these Christians are conservatives
they are “dangerous” people who should
not be elected to a public office.
PAW criticizes candidates for not
telling voters that they are Christians,
calling them “stealth” candidates. But
when the candidates state that they are
Christian, PAW criticizes them for
bringing religion in politics.
Barry Lynn, head of Americans United
for Separation of Church and State, is
upset that some Christian organizations
distribute information letting voters know
where candidates stand on issues. “This is
a very dangerous trend for anybody that
takes separation of church and state
seriously,” Lynn said.
USA TODAY, 5/4/93
Groups endorse
homosexual march
Several well known groups endorsed
the recent homosexual march in Washington. Included were NAACP, National
Organization for Women, American Civil
Liberties Union, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, People for the
American Way, Unitarian Universalists
Association of Congregations, United
Church of Christ Office for Church in
Society, Union of American Hebrew Congregations, World Congress of Gay and
Lesbian Jewish Organizations, SIECUS—
Sex Information and Education Council
of the U.S., American Humanist
Association.
NEA to get increase
President Clinton’s promised budgetcutting does not include the National
Endowment for the Arts. Instead, OMB
Director Leon Panetta—who favored
abolishing the agency as a congressman—
proposed a $134,000 budget increase over
the current $175 million.
The NEA has gained fame by funding
homosexual pornography and antiChristian “art” during the past several
years.
Human Events, 4/24/93
Surgeon General pushes
back seat “sex education”
Joycelyn Elders, President Clinton’s
choice for surgeon general, often talks in
favor of condom distribution with such
News of Interest Sources
Sources cited for News of Interest items
indicate source of basic information only.
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
9
• AFA BOYCOTT BOX •
COMPANY
K Mart
Chrm. Joseph E. Antonini
3100 West Big Beaver Rd.
Troy, MI 48084
1-800-63-Kmart
Holiday Inns
Chrm. Bryan Langton
3 Ravinia Dr., Ste. 2000
Atlanta, GA 30346
1-800-HOLIDAY
S. C. Johnson & Son
Chrm. Samuel C. Johnson
1525 Howe Street
Racine, WI 53403
1-800-558-5252
REASON
Kmart, through its subsidiary Waldenbooks, is
one of the leading retailers of pornography in
America. Kmart has the authority to order
Waldenbooks to get out of the pornography business at any time. All profits from the sale of
pornography go to Kmart. Kmart owns
Waldenbooks, American Fare Stores, Pay Less
and Pay N Save Drug Stores (in the Northwest
U.S.), Office Max, Bargain Harold’s, Builders
Square home supply stores, Sports Authority and
PACE Membership Warehouse stores. (For additional companies owned by Kmart, see article on
page 1.)
All corporately owned Holiday Inns carry Satellite Cinema movie service which includes in-room
porn movies known as Sensations Features. Holiday Inns is the largest provider of in-room
pornographic movies in the U.S.
S. C. Johnson & Son has been cited by CLeaR-TV
for a one-year boycott. The company has been
among the leading sponsors of sex, violence and
profanity in prime-time television programming
for more than two years. (See article on page 1.)
AFA Law Center wins case on pro-life picketing
In a major victory for pro-life advocates,
a state court judge in Greenville, South
Carolina, has declared that the city’s antipicketing ordinance, used to restrict
pro-life demonstrations, violates the First
Amendment. In his order, state judge
Stephen S. Bartlett declared that the
Greenville ordinance violated the free
speech rights of pro-life demonstrators
because it limited their total number to 10
per “block” even when there was no
disorder or blocking activity. The
ordinance had been used to arrest pro-life
activists who had merely engaged in
peaceful prayer on sidewalks in front of
abortion clinics in Greenville. In declaring
the ordinance unconstitutional the court
dismissed criminal charges against over
100 pro-life demonstrators, including South
Carolina AFA affiliate representatives from
Piedmont, Cherokee County, Greenville,
Spartanburg County, and Union County.
The memorandum of law filed with the
court by the AFA Law Center on behalf of
the defendants argued that the ordinance
was unconstitutional. The judge ruled
without oral argument.
This is a major constitutional victory for
pro-life demonstrators across the nation.
The police need to realize that civil rights
laws and the First Amendment also protect
the free speech rights of pro-life
demonstrators.
fervor that it almost seems to be selfparody.
Take her recent speech to the
Association of Reproductive Health
Professionals. Elders called for
“comprehensive health education from K
through 12th grade” and said that parents
just aren’t up to the job. “The parent is
doing the best they can. They don’t know
how to do it.”
Parents do have a role, Elders conceded,
but they need training. “We’ve got to
educate our parents so they will know
how to reach out and begin to educate
their children.” The goal is simple, she
said. “We taught our children in driver’s
education what to do in the front seat.
Now it’s time to teach them what to do in
the back seat.”
Insight, 4/12/93
Porn found in home of man
charged with molestation
Police found thousands of photographs
of children in the home of Robert Lee
Hollis of Atlanta, a physician’s assistant
and suspected pedophile who chronicled
his alleged crimes in a diary. Hollis is
charged with crimes against five boys.
When officers searched his two-story
home, they said they found a pickup load
of pornography and sexual paraphernalia.
Atlanta Constitution, 4/21/93
Clinton’s military ally
wants homosexual ban
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Calvin Waller,
second-in-command of Operation Desert
Storm and a campaign supporter of
President Clinton’s, testified that the
president’s plan to allow open
homosexuals in the military would make
it a “second-rate force.”
Gen. Waller, who is black, also told the
Senate Armed Services Committee he
finds “offensive” the homosexual
movement’s linking itself to the struggle
blacks have fought for civil rights.
“I had no choice regarding my race
when I was delivered from my mother’s
womb,” the three-star officer said. “To
compare my service in America’s armed
forces with the integration of avowed
homosexuals is personally offensive to
me....
“While I can sympathize with what
gays are going through, I draw the line
when gays want to openly foist their
lifestyle upon soldiers, sailors, airmen
and Marines,” Gen. Waller said.
The Washington Times, 4/30/93
Homosexuals upset
with size of crowd
Even before the last marchers had
stepped off, U.S. Park Police officials
10
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
were saying homosexual rights activists
had fallen far short of their goal of bringing
one million supporters to Washington,
sparking outrage among the event’s
organizers.
“Yes, one million is worth more than
300,000 or 500,000,” said Billy Hileman,
a march co-chairman. But “everyone here
has had an experience that is tremendously
powerful and important to them. Hundreds
of thousands of people will take that
experience home with them.”
Washington Post, 4/26/93
Only 1% are homosexual
A new national study on male sexual
behavior shows that about 2% of men
surveyed had engaged in homosexual sex
and 1% considered themselves exclusively
homosexual.
The figures on homosexuality in the
study released by the Alan Guttmacher
Institute are significantly lower than the
10% figure that has been part of the
country’s conventional wisdom since it
was published in the Kinsey report more
than four decades ago.
But the new findings are in line with a
series of surveys of sexual practices done
in each of the last four years by researchers
at the University of Chicago, and with
recently published reports from Europe.
Commercial Appeal, 4/15/93
Missionary Church, SBC
take stand on porn, some
Holiday Inns change
A report in the May AFA Journal
reported on recent negotiations between
the Missionary Church (MC) and Holiday
Inns. According to AFA sources, a group
of 10 franchised Holiday Inns in Florida
had misled MC officials concerning the
hotels’ porn movies. However, an MC
spokesman called AFA to explain that the
Florida Holiday Inn group in no way
misled the Church; in fact, a positive
result is in the works.
The MC board had chosen a Holiday
Inn for a 1995 conference and the hotel
had agreed to disconnect all pay-per-view
movies during the conference. Then a
pastor approached MC officials
concerning AFA’s boycott of Holiday
Inns.
An editorial in a May/June MC
publication continues the story: “Since a
contract was scheduled to be signed within
a week, and the Missionary Church
supports the AFA’s stand on pornography,
the owners at that property became active
in an attempt to retain our business....
“Unfortunately, the hotel is five years
into a 10-year contract....
“Fortunately, a backup convention
hotel in Florida was holding space....
“The long and short of the story—the
franchise holder of ten hotels in Florida has
written a letter to their provider of
pornographic movies canceling all payper-view films at each respective property
as their individual contracts expire.”
In South Carolina, Piedmont AFA
coordinator Henry Lord was disturbed to
discover that the Southern Baptist
Convention (SBC) had scheduled Family
Fest 1993 at a Holiday Inn in Gatlinburg,
Tennessee. Lord, a Southern Baptist, wrote
of his concerns to Dr. James Draper,
President of the SBC Sunday School Board.
Subsequently, the Sunday School Board
decided that their testimony is more
important than a contract made with
Holiday Inn. The conference was moved
to Days Inn.
“Both the Missionary Church and the
Southern Baptist Convention are to be
commended for taking a firm stand for
positive family values,” said AFA
President Don Wildmon. “The Missionary
Church’s efforts reflect the positive results
that sometimes occur when we enter the
battle with right motivation, sound
judgment and prayerful concern.”
Resources from AFA
Public School Sex Education: A Report. A documented study on sex
education programs and school-based health clinics.
A Guide to What One Person Can Do About Pornography. Step-bystep guide to how you can fight porn in your community.
Christianity and Humanism: A Study in Contrasts. A six-session
study written by AFA. Biblically based, good for Sunday school, bible
study.
Pornography: A Report. An in-depth look at the effects of pornography. Some of the finest material available on the subject.
Anti-Christian Bias in America. Reveals bias in government, media
and education.
The Fight Back Book. Gives addresses of TV advertisers and government officials.
For Each of the above titles send:
One copy $2; 2-9 copies $1.50 each;
10-49 copies $1 each; 50 or more copies $ .50 each
Fathers, Come Home. New release by Bill Swindell, former AFA
Associate Director. Emphasizes the need for fathers to be spiritual
leaders in the home. $9.
AFA T-Shirts. AFA logo in blue on white all-cotton shirt. Minimum
order 5 shirts. 5-9, $5 each; 10-24, $4.50 each; 25 or more, $4.00 each.
Bumper Sticker. “Porn banned” sticker (3.75" x 4.5") The word
“PORN” on black background with familiar red circle and cross bar
superimposed. Order in quantity only: 100/$12; 250/$27; 500/$50;
1000/$90.
Anti-Porn Billboard. Ready to apply to standard-size billboard. Red
and black; “Pornography victimizes women and children” slogan with
photo of child. Has AFA name. $25 each, includes shipping. Junior
Billboard, $15.
AIDS Billboard. Standard-sized billboard reads “Abstinence or AIDS:
It’s your choice.” Red and blue on white background. AFA i.d. line can
be replaced with local sponsor, $25.
The Gay Agenda. Video containing vital information about the
homosexual movement and lifestyle which the major media is not
reporting. Some scenes are offensive. $9.95.
AFA
JOURNAL
1993
Send check with order to:
AFA,
P. O. Drawer 2440,June
Tupelo,
MS 38803
11
Playboy funds pro-drug, pro-abortion causes
For years rumors have fluttered: Playboy
not only sells abortion but pays for it too.
Last month a 181-page report published by
the Capital Research Center, a conservative
think tank, documented how Hugh Hefner’s
Playboy Foundation gave away at least
$1.25 million to promoters of the Playboy
philosophy.
The report, “The Playboy Foundation:
A Mirror of the Culture?” by Cliff Kincaid,
chronicles 890 grants made by the
foundation from 1966 to 1991. Much of the
bunny money went to pro-abortion
organizations, the American Civil Liberties
Union, and homosexual-rights groups.
The ACLU ranks number one for largest
grant recorded ($50,000 to its national office
in the years 1981-82) and most grants (25).
“Women’s groups” were the second biggest
recipients, with most of the money in the
form of pro-abortion grants.
Other big grant getters were the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws, a group Playboy helped start, and
pro-abortion groups such as the National
Abortion Rights Action League. NORML,
the marijuana-legalization group, posted
eight grants, Kincaid reports, all but one of
which (for $20,000) were for undisclosed
sums.
The exact dollar total of all Playboy’s
grants is secret. Kincaid gathered
information from Playboy issues,
newsletters, and records, but could find
dollar amounts only half the time. “You
have to remember that the Playboy
Foundation is not a real foundation,”
Kincaid told World. It does not have nonprofit status and is not required to reveal the
amount of money it gives.
A few feminists have criticized other
feminists for taking money from a
foundation that makes its profit from
exploiting women. In a section of the report
titled “Women and Pornography,” Kincaid
quotes law professor Catherine A.
MacKinnon asking why Playboy supports
abortion: “Could it be because it facilitates
males’ sexual access to women?”
In the early 1980s, the National
Organization for Women’s Legal Defense
and Education Fund received $16,418 from
the Playboy Foundation. But in 1984 NOW
voted not to accept funds from Playboy and
to remove Hefner’s daughter, Christie
Hefner, from the Corporate Advisory Board.
“Pornography ... is a systematic practice
of exploitation and subordination which
differentially harms women and children.
This harm includes dehumanization, sexual
exploitation, forced sex, forced prostitution,
physical injury, and social and sexual
terrorism and inferiority presented as
entertainment,” the 1984 NOW resolution
states.
Since then, NOW has not taken any
12
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
Playboy Foundation money. The board of
directors of the Ms. Foundation went one
step further by returning the $11,000 it
had received from Playboy.
But Playboy support for feminist causes
has continued through other channels such
as the National Women’s Political Caucus,
which received an undisclosed sum in
1986, and the Women’s Action Alliance,
which took an unspecified amount of
Playboy money in 1990.
In addition, feminist political campaign
organizations have received recent
personal support from Christie Hefner.
Over the last three election cycles from
1988 to the present, Ms. Hefner gave a
total of $14,000 to EMILY’s List (a
feminist PAC) and Voters for Choice.
Hugh Hefner donated $1,000 toward Bill
Clinton’s presidential effort; his daughter
backed Bob Kerrey and Paul Tsongas.
In 1983, just as the Reagan
administration was hitting its stride, the
Playboy Foundation battled back–doling
out more than one third of the total grants,
362, awarded in the foundation’s history.
Playboy is also devoutly anti-Christian.
Kincaid quotes in his report Hefner’s belief
that organized religion “exercised a
pervasive and noxious influence on
society.” In 1982 Playboy published “The
Second Coming” about a modern
Madonna named Shirley. She and her
husband, modeled after Joseph, arrange
for the wife to be impregnated by a
neighbor infused with the “Spirit of God.”
As Kincaid describes the story, “An
angel resembling a sexy young woman in
bare feet and hippie garb tells them the
child will be a billionaire, as well as the
Messiah, and will be born on December
25.”
Leading advertisers supporting
Playboy’s philosophy with advertising
dollars include Philip Morris, Inc.,
Chairman Michael A. Miles, 120 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10017, TOLL
FREE 1-800-343-0975 (products Kraft
foods, General Foods, Miller beer); and
RJR Nabisco, Chrm. Lawrence R.
Ricciardi, 1301 Avenue of the Americas,
New York, NY 10019, TOLL FREE 1800-932-7800 (products Nabisco foods,
and Reynolds tobacco products).
WORLD, 1/9/93
Send AFA
Responses
Please send AFA copies of
replies you receive from advertisers
and other companies. Also, send
news clippings on family issues.
Your assistance is deeply
appreciated.
CHRISTIAN VALUES AND SOCIETY
Can we be good without God?
By Chuck Colson, Prison Fellowship
Reprinted from Imprimis, April 1993
Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan
Editor's Note: This address by Chuck Colson was delivered at
the 73rd Shavano Institute for National Leadership seminar,
“Culture Wars,” in Palm Beach, Florida, for over 400 business
and community leaders from around the country.
Boston University, says that if you look around the world you
will find that the most religious country is India, and the most
irreligious country is Sweden–and America is an interesting
combination of Indians who are governed by Swedes.
Last December, newspapers ran a striking photograph of a
group of people held at bay by armed guards. They were not
rioters or protesters; they were Christmas carolers. The town of
Vienna, Virginia, had outlawed the singing of religious songs on
public property. So these men, women, and children were forced
to sing “Silent Night” behind barricades, just as if this were
Eastern Europe under communist rule instead of Christmas in
America in 1992.
We have spent the past 30 years determined to secularize our
society. Some months before the incident in Virginia, the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled in Lee v. Weisman that a rabbi who
delivered a very politically correct “To Whom It May Concern”
prayer at a Rhode Island junior high school commencement had
violated the constitutional rights of a 15-year-old student in the
audience. The Court said, in effect, that the girl must be legally
protected against listening to views she disagreed with. There
was a time when it was a mark of civility to listen respectfully to
different views; now you have a constitutional right to demand
that those views are not expressed in your presence.
In another case that went all the way to the Supreme Court,
visual religious symbols have been banned. Zion, Illinois, in the
“heartland of America,” was forced to eliminate the cross featured
in its city seal, because the Justices ruled it a breach of the First
Amendment.
In education, the same kind of court-enforced secularism has
been so successful that teachers may hand out condoms in school,
but they are forbidden to display a copy of the Ten Commandments
on a bulletin board. Students, meanwhile, may indulge in almost
any kind of activity in school, but they are forbidden to pray.
The Supreme Court is not the only institution out to protect us
from the “threat” faith poses. The media assault upon religious
A post-Christian society
In our zeal to accommodate our
so-called enlightened and
tolerant age, we have lost the
ideal of public virtue.
believers has been fierce. Cardinal O’ Connor has been excoriated
by the New York Times for even suggesting that he might deny
the sacraments to a pro-choice legislator. (This was the same
New York Times that praised a Louisiana archbishop who
refused to administer communion to a segregationist legislator in
1962.)
In February of 1993, the Washington Post featured a frontpage article that characterized evangelical Christians as “largely
poor, uneducated, and easy to command.” If a journalist said that
about any other group in America, he would be fired on the spot,
but the Post didn’t fire anyone. It merely expressed surprise that
many readers found the description offensive. A few days later,
one of the bemused editors explained that they felt they were
simply printing something that is “universally accepted.”
It is no wonder that Peter Berger, professor of sociology at
These Swedes have done their job well. In 1962, polls indicated
that at least 65% of all Americans believed the Bible to be true.
In 1992, polls indicate that only 32% do, while 50% say that they
actually fear fundamentalists. If the polls are right, our JudeoChristian heritage is no longer the foundation of our values. We
have become a post-Christian society.
The process of “shedding” our religion began with the cultural
revolution of the 1960s, which exalted existentialism and a kind
of “live-for-the-moment-God-is-dead-or-irrelevant” philosophy.
Today, that Sixties philosophy has become mainstream; it is in
the White House, it is in the poetry of Maya Angelou, it is in every
walk of life. This is not to say that people aren’t going to church.
Forty-four percent of the American people still attend religious
services regularly. But we live in a Donahue-ized culture in
which we sit and watch, hour by hour, the banality that passes for
knowledge on television, and we rarely think about issues in
terms of Judeo-Christian truth. We hear carolers singing “Silent
Night” or an invocation at a public ceremony and we are filled
with trepidation; we are worried that we are infringing upon the
rights of nonbelievers. We see the symbol of the cross and we feel
compelled to paint it out because it might violate the principle of
separation between church and state. We exalt tolerance, not
truth, as the ultimate virtue.
The city of man
Can we really sustain the city of man without the influence of
the City of God? St. Augustine argued that it was impossible.
Any society, especially a free society, depends on a moral
consensus and on shared assumptions: What is ultimate reality?
What is meaningful in life? By what standards should we be
governed? These common values are the glue that holds society
together.
In America, the glue is wearing pretty thin. We are in the
middle of an identity crisis in which we are attempting to redefine
our basic values all over again. We can no longer assume that
right and wrong have clear meanings or that there is universal
truth. After all, pollsters tell us that 67% of the American people
say there is no such thing.
What we fail to realize, however, is that rejecting transcendental
truth is tantamount to committing national suicide. A secular
state cannot cultivate virtue–an old-fashioned word you don’t
hear much in public discourse these days. In his classic novel,
The Brothers Karamazov, the 19th century Russian novelist
Dostoyevsky asked, essentially, “Can man be good without
God?” In every age, the answer has been no. Without a restraining
influence on their nature, men will destroy themselves. That
restraining influence might take many abstract forms, as it did for
the Greeks and Romans, or it might be the God of the Old and the
New Testaments. But it has always served the same purpose.
Even before Dostoyevsky posed his timeless question, an 18th
century German professor of logic and metaphysics, Immanuel
Kant, had already dismissed it as irrelevant. God exists, said
Kant, but he is separate from the rest of life. Over here are the
things that we can empirically know; over there are things we can
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
13
accept only on faith. What does that do to ethics? Kant’s answer
was to separate them from faith; we can, on our own, with only
our rational capacities to depend upon, develop what he called
the “categorical imperative.” He explained: “Act as if the maxim
from which you act were to become through your will a universal
law.”
This rational, subjective view is the basis of ethics being
taught in nearly every school in America today, from Public
Grammar School No. 1 to Harvard Business School. Students are
never exposed to traditional moral teaching in school, only to
rationalism. Pragmaticism and utilitarianism are substituted for
Judeo-Christian ethics, and students are taught that they have the
inner capacity to do good rationally, apart from God.
The danger of self-righteousness
Nothing could be more dangerous. Let me give you a case
study: Chuck Colson. I grew up in the Depression years. My dad,
who was the son of a Swedish immigrant, used to tell me two
things on Sunday afternoon. Although no one in my family had
ever gone to college, he said, “If you work hard, you can get to
the top. That’s the American dream.” And the second thing he
used to say was, “Always tell the truth. No matter what you do in
life, always tell the truth.” (One could not go through Watergate
and claim much distinction for anything, but the fact was that I
testified under oath 44 times and I was the only defendant who
was not charged with perjury. My dad’s lesson stuck: tell the
truth.)
I kept both of these pieces of advice in mind as I grew up,
earned a scholarship to college and then went on to law school.
I also remembered them when I joined a very successful law firm
and years later in 1969 when President Nixon asked me to come
to work at the White House. I took everything I had earned and
put it into a blind trust. (If you want to make a small fortune, let
me tell you how: You take a large fortune and put it in a blind
trust.) I did everything to avoid even the appearance of a conflict
of interest. I passed unsolicited gifts on to my employees. I
refused to see people whom I had practiced law with or made
business deals with–I mean, I really had studied Kant’s categorical
imperative, and I knew that I would always do right.
What happened? I went to prison.
Why? Because we are never more dangerous than when we
are feeling self-righteous. We have an infinite capacity for this
feeling and for the self-justification that accompanies it. It was
only when Jesus Christ came into my life that I was able to see
myself for who I am. Indeed, it is only when we all turn to God
that we begin to see ourselves as we really are–as fallen sinners
desperately in need of His restraint and His grace.
Kant’s philosophy, like much Enlightenment thought, was
based on a flawed view of human nature that held that men are
basically good and, if left to their own devices, will almost
always do good things. It was also dead wrong in assuming that
the categorical imperative could take the place of moral law. Just
because men can think the right thing, it does not mean that they
will heed it. Remember Pierre, one of the central characters in
Tolstoy’s War and Peace? Torn by spiritual agonies, he cried out
to God, “Why is it that I know what is right and I do what is
wrong?” We can know what is right, but we don’t always have
the will to do what is right.
How shall we live?
In books like Mere Christianity and The Abolition of Man, the
20th century British Christian apologist C.S. Lewis attempted to
refute Kant and make a powerful intellectual case for the City of
God that did not wall it off from the city of man. In an essay
entitled, “Men Without Chests,” he drew an analogy between the
spiritual life and the body that sums up his objections to the
supreme rationalism of the Enlightenment. The head, Lewis said,
is reason, and the stomach is passion or appetite. The head alone
14
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
cannot control the stomach. It needs the chest, which is spirit, to
restrain our baser passions and appetites.
Yet after World War II schools began to teach ethics based on
subjective standards without transcendent moral truths. Lewis
challenged this, writing, “We make men without chests and we
expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and we
are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the
geldings be fruitful.” That is what we are doing in America today.
We live in a Donahue-ized
culture in which we sit and
watch, hour by hour, the
banality that passes for
knowledge on television, and we
rarely think about issues in
terms of Judeo-Christian truth.
We are taking away the spiritual element and abandoning morality
based on religious truth, counting instead on our heads and our
subjective feelings to make us do what is right.
In our zeal to accommodate our so-called enlightened and
tolerant age, we have lost the ideal of public virtue. I am reminded
of Samuel Johnson, who, upon learning that one of his dinner
guests believed morality was merely a sham, said to his butler,
“Well, if he really believes that there is no distinction between
virtue and vice, let us count the spoons before he leaves.” Today,
there aren’t any spoons left to count. Look at Washington, Wall
Street, academia, sports, the ministry–all the spoons are gone
because we can no longer distinguish between virtue and vice.
Recovering that ability depends on asking the right questions.
Our brightest and best leaders are concerned with the question,
“How shall we be governed?” But in the Book of Ezekiel the Jews
asked: “How shall we live?” It doesn’t matter who governs if
society has no spiritual element to guide it. Unless we learn how
to live–as men with chests–we are doomed.
The city of God
I have seen this truth most powerfully in the area in which I’ve
been called to spend my life. With the help of my friend Jack
Eckerd and others, I work with men and women in prison in 54
countries around the world. The crisis is grave. In Washington,
D.C., for example, 46% of the inner city black population
between the ages of 18 and 31 is either in prison, on parole, or on
probation. America as a whole has the highest per capita rate of
incarceration in the world, and, for the last 25 years, the crime rate
has gone up every year. We can’t build prisons fast enough. In the
last seven years, we have seen a 120% increase in murders
committed by those between the ages of 18 and 20. According to
some sources, 20% of all schoolchildren carry a weapon.
Criminologist James Q. Wilson, among others, has tried to
identify the root cause of this epidemic of violence. When he
began his inquiry, he was certain that he would discover that in
the great period of industrial revolution in the latter half of the
19th century there was a tremendous increase in crime. But, to his
astonishment, he discovered a decrease. And then he looked at
the years of the Great Depression. Again, there was a significant
decrease in crime. Frustrated by these findings which upset all
our preconceived notions, Wilson decided to search for a single
factor to correlate. The factor he found was religious faith.
When crime should have been rising in the late 1800s because
of rapid urbanization, industrialization, and economic dislocation,
Victorian morality was sweeping across America. It was a time
of intense spirituality. It was not until the conscious rejection of
Continued on page 24
HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVISM
What homosexual activists are demanding
Hundreds of thousands of homosexuals converged on
Washington last week for the “Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights
and Liberation March.” The media provided supportive coverage
linking the gays’ cause to civil rights crusades of the past, and
portrayed homosexuals as innocents just asking for a fair shake.
But even as gays yearn to be counted among the mainstream,
their record betrays a lifestyle and agenda far out of line with
what most Americans consider normal, decent and just.
Unfortunately, much of the real homosexual agenda—and the
realities of “gay” life—remains buried in the homosexual
subculture to which the average American is seldom exposed.
Prominent homosexual leaders and publications have voiced
support for pedophilia, incest, sadomasochism, and even bestiality.
What we need to give the
Christian right is a solid sock
to the jaw—not a whiny plea
for forgiveness.
No taboo is inviolable. Gay activists routinely call for legally
binding “marriage” between homosexuals—even while ridiculing
traditional standards of fidelity. In fact, most Americans would
be shocked to hear how loosely many gays define “monogamy.”
As shown by the following quotations—all taken verbatim
from the gay press and gay-authored documents—homosexuals
demand that their bizarre lifestyle must be both accepted and
legalized.
Much of this dubious agenda will be solidified should
homosexual activists succeed in their current fight for acceptance
in the U.S. military and passage of a national law that gives gays
legally protected “minority” status based on their “sexual
orientation.”
Gay victories in these areas would put the force of law behind
their sexual behavior—effectively forcing others who find
homosexuality repugnant to modify their views to accommodate
gays, all in the hallowed name of “civil rights.”
Ultimately, homosexuals seek validation for their way of
life—through the manipulation of law and culture. Their cause
gains in the eyes of many Americans when it is mistakenly cast
as a fight against “discrimination.”
Gay activists know that the more Americans know about their
real agenda and conduct, the less sympathetic they will be toward
their cause. It is easy to see why when one considers the
quotations below. Let us begin with some of the demands of the
gay organizers of the April 25 “March on Washington.”:
“Civil Rights” bill/repeal sodomy laws
“We demand passage of a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and
Transgender civil rights bill...; repeal of all sodomy laws and
other laws that criminalize private sexual expression between
consenting adults.”
—1993 March on Washington Demand #1. [Note:
“Transgender” refers to transvestites (cross dressers) and those
who have had or desire sex-change operations.]
By Peter LaBarbera
Human Events
May 1, 1993
Adoptions/redefining the family
“We demand legislation to prevent discrimination against
Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals and Transgendered people in the areas
of family diversity, custody, adoption and foster care and that the
definition of family includes the full diversity of all family
structures.”
—1993 March on Washington Demand #3
Gay curricula in schools
“We demand full and equal inclusion of Lesbians, Gays,
Bisexuals and Transgendered people in the educational system,
and inclusion of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender studies
in multicultural curricula.”
—1993 March on Washington Demand #4
Multiple partner “unions”
“Legalization of multiple partner unions.”
—Demand #46—under the “Discrimination” category—of
unofficial draft list of 55 demands first put forth by the organizing
committee for the 1993 March on Washington, reported in
Washington Blade, May 22, 1992.
Pedophilia defended
“NAMBLA’s [North American Man/Boy Love Association’s]
position on sex is not unreasonable, just unpopular....
“The love between men and boys is at the foundation of
homosexuality....”
—Editorial, “No Place for Homo-Homophobia,” San
Francisco Sentinel (one of that city’s three main gay newspapers),
March 26, 1992.
“The implementation of laws that recognize sexual
relationships among youth, between consenting peers.”
—Demand #7—under the “Civil Rights” category—of
unofficial draft list of 55 demands for 1993 March on Washington,
Washington Blade, May 22, 1992.
“I think it’s something [referring to pedophilia] that is a
legitimate area for exploration.”
—Sasha Alyson, owner of Alyson Publications, the largest
independent gay publishing house, which also publishes Daddy’s
Roommate and the line of pro-gay children’s picture books that
ignited the “Children of the Rainbow” curriculum controversy
in Queens, New York City. Reported in Lambda Report, February
1992, based on interview with author.
“How many gay men, I wonder, would have missed out on a
valuable, liberating experience—one that initiated them into
their sexuality—if it weren’t for so-called molestation?”
—Carl Maves, “Getting Over It,” The Advocate, May 5, 1992,
p. 85, in review of Growing Up Gay in a Dysfunctional Family,
by homosexual author Rik Isensee. Maves is critical of Isensee
for concurring with the presumption of “homophobic” society
that sexual molestation is always a harmful developmental
experience in the life of a child.
“All youth need to be provided with positive information
about homosexuality that presents it as a viable adaptation. We
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
15
must accept a homosexual orientation in young people in the
same manner we accept a heterosexual orientation. Finally, we
need to assist gay and lesbian young people in the coming out
process and support them in the many conflicts they presently
face.”
—Paul Gibson, San Francisco social worker and gay activist,
“Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide,” paper in HHS Task
Force on Youth Suicide, January 1989, 3-134.
“Many in the military seem scared to death of homosexuality,
and it is easy to laugh at the pathetic men frightened to shower
with those bold enough to call themselves gay. If we are to have
any chance at freeing them from their fear, we must insist on
everyone’s right to gay conduct. That’s what the fight is all
about.”
—Editorial, “Slick Willie’s Unbecoming Conduct,” Guide
magazine (a national gay magazine), April 1993, p. 6.
Boy Scouts to accept gays
Clinton ally on Nunn “bigotry”
“New Jersey’s statewide civil rights law prohibits the Boy
Scouts from offering valuable services to the public, making use
of public facilities, holding itself out as all-American and open to
all, and then driving away a young man because he is gay....
“The law clearly says that a large enterprise like the Scouts
cannot exclude boys and men from participating because of their
race, religion, or sexual orientation.”
—Evan Wolfson, attorney for Lambda Legal Defense and
Education Fund, the largest homosexual legal group, quoted in
Washington Blade, D.C.’s gay newspaper, August 14, 1992.
Wolfson is representing James Dale, a New Jersey Scoutmaster
who was ousted from the Scouts when his homosexuality became
public. The Blade reports that Dale’s lawsuit is requesting the
New Jersey Superior Court to invalidate the Boy Scouts’ policy,
reinstate Dale as assistant scoutmaster in his local troop, and
“award him both compensatory and punitive damages.”
“Military leaders are fighting to keep ancient apartheid laws
on the books and to resist ending 50 years of repression and
persecution.... They resort to the same bigoted arguments that
have been used for centuries to deny every emerging minority
their freedom and equal rights. They sought the cover of legitimacy
in Armed Forces Chairperson Sam Nunn.
“Let me be clear about Sen. Nunn.... [This] is not an enlightened
man.... Sam Nunn is our George Wallace. He is an old-fashioned
bigot who will abuse his power to deny us our freedom. His
hatred runs so deep that he is willing to jeopardize the nation’s
economic hopes in order to deny freedom to millions....”
—David Mixner, long-time friend of and senior campaign
adviser to Bill Clinton. Above excerpts are taken from Mixner’s
March 28 speech at the gay Metropolitan Community Church in
Dallas, reported in Outlines (April 1993), a homosexual Chicago
newspaper. He reacted with outrage to Clinton’s statement in his
first presidential press conference that open homosexuals might
be limited to holding certain jobs and barred from others, as a
compromise for allowing them to serve in the military.
Train servicemen (and Chaplains) to accept gays
“Institute training for all personnel on the acceptance of
homosexual or bisexual personnel in the military. Training shall
include didactic and experiential opportunities addressing
prejudice, stigma, and discrimination with regard to sexual
orientation.... Training programs needed include, but are not
limited to, the following:
“1. Individual, Unit, Service Schools and academies.
“2. Chaplains and Medical Corps.
“4. [sic] Law enforcement and investigative agencies.
“5. Sexual orientation with regards to sexual harassment and
equal opportunities.”
—Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Military Freedom Project
Recommendations for Accepting Homosexuals and Bisexuals
into the U.S. Armed Forces, two-page document.
Military draws gays
“Because homosocial environments such as the military contain
concentrated numbers of potential sexual partners, search costs
for same-sex partners will tend to decline. The number of
potential partners is also somewhat higher than for the population
as a whole, because the higher search costs of different-sex
partners will impel more ‘opportunistic homosexuals’ [read
heterosexuals who engage in gay sex merely to obtain sexual
release] to accept same-sex partners instead. As a consequence,
bisexuals, gay men, and lesbians might be expected to gravitate
toward the military in disproportionate numbers.”
—William N. Eskridge, Jr., “A Social Constructionist Critique
of Posner’s Sex and Reason: Steps Toward a Gay Legal Agenda,”
Yale Law Journal, October 1992.
Gay “status” equals gay conduct
“...President Clinton has sought to reassure homophobes that
he is not trying to ease [military] restrictions on ‘conduct.’ He
stresses that his objection is to treating people unfairly because
of their status....
“We should be clear...on the insidious implication of defending
a person’s right to be gay while abandoning his or her right to act
gay.... Freedom that cannot be exercised is no freedom at all.
Freedom to be gay requires that we all have freedom to act gay.
16
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
Choosing to be gay
“Remember that most of the line about homosex being one’s
nature, not a choice, was articulated as a response to brutal
repression. ‘It’s not our fault!’ gay activists began to declaim a
century ago, when queers first began to organize in Germany and
England.... One hundred years later, it’s time for us to abandon
this defensive posture and walk upright on Earth. Maybe you
didn’t choose to be gay—that’s fine. But I did.”
—Donna Minkowitz, “Recruit, Recruit, Recruit!” The
Advocate, December 29, 1992, page 17. Minkowitz also writes
for the Village Voice.
We can undermine the moral
authority of homophobic
churches by portraying them
as antiquated backwaters,
badly out of step with the
times and with the latest
findings of psychology.
“But [Simon LeVay’s research purportedly showing that gay
men’s brains are different than heterosexual men’s brains], like
all such research, is a futile attempt to convince people who
intuitively know better that under no circumstances can their
children be lured by queer ideas if the urge is not embedded in
their brains from birth; nor will husbands be seduced from their
wives.
“I have found that even many of my most unbiased friends
grow skittish with my homosexual candor—say, kissing my
mate—when their children are around. For underneath it all, they
too understand that sexually free ideas are infectious and that,
once introduced to the suggestion of same-sex love, their kids
might just try it and like it....
“Ultimately...it seems to me cowardly to abnegate our
individual responsibility for the construction of sexual desires.
Rather, refusing the expedient lie and insisting instead on the
right to fulfill ourselves affectionally—in whatever direction our
needs compel us, however contrary to the social norm they may
be—is both honest and courageous, an act of utter freedom....
“...Many gay activists vacuously continue to rely on sensitizing
heterosexuals to the ‘native’ differences of gays and on
encouraging them to accept the ‘gay community’ as a
constitutional minority, innocuously akin to Jews and blacks.
But the ruse won’t fly....”
—Darrell Yates Rist, “Are Homosexual Born That Way?”
Nation magazine, October 19, 1992, pp. 428-9. Rist is cofounder of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and
a prominent gay author.
Provoke the right!
sexual contact in a man’s life.”
—Dr. Charles Silberstein and Felice Picano, The New Joy of
Gay Sex (HarperCollins: New York, 1992), p. 171.
Gay strategy: Undermine the church
“...We can undermine the moral authority of homophobic
churches by portraying them as antiquated backwaters, badly out
of step with the times and with the latest findings of psychology.
“Against the mighty pull of Institutional Religion, one must
set the mightier draw of Science and Public Opinion (the shield
and sword of that accursed ‘secular humanism’). Such an unholy
alliance has worked well against the church before, on such
topics as divorce and abortion. With enough open talk about the
prevalence and acceptability of homosexuality, that alliance can
work again here.”
—Marshall Kirk and Erastes Pill, “The Overhauling of Straight
America,” Guide magazine, October/November 1987.
“What we need to give the Christian right is a solid sock to the
jaw—not a whiny plea for forgiveness.
“Tell America how much it can gain by emulating us. How
much like Madonna, it already envies us. Be guided by the dream
of liberation, not by fear. Provoke the Right.”
—Donna Minkowitz, “Recruit, Recruit, Recruit!” The
Advocate, December 29, 1992, page 17.
“Religions need to reassess homosexuality in a positive context
with their belief systems.... Religions should also take
responsibility for providing their families and membership with
positive information about homosexuality that discourages the
oppression of lesbians and gay men.”
—Paul Gibson, San Francisco social worker and gay activist,
“Gay Male and Lesbian Youth Suicide,” paper in HHS Task
Force on Youth Suicide, January 1989, p. 3-135.
Bestiality (sex with animals)
Gay strategy: Desensitize Americans
“Moralists condemn sex with animals as disgusting, immoral,
and generally horrible. Fortunately it’s no longer a crime in a
great many places, and nowhere in the United States is it a capital
crime.
“We disagree with the moralists. Lots of children looked at
and played with the genitals of their pet cats and dogs, and we’ve
heard of more than one who has masturbated his pet dog. Like
other inexperienced city dwellers, we may not so readily fathom
the mechanics of cow-, sheep- or horse-f------, but see no reason
to condemn it out of hand. We hope it doesn’t become the only
“The first order of business is desensitization of the American
public concerning gays and gay rights. To desensitize the public
is to help it view homosexuality with indifference instead of with
keen emotion....
“You can forget about trying to persuade the masses that
homosexuality is a good thing. But if you can get them to think
that it is just another thing with a shrug of their shoulders, then
your battle for legal and social rights is virtually won.”
—Marshall Kirk and Erastes Pill, “The Overhauling of Straight
America,” Guide magazine, October, November 1987.
The homosexual cop in the newsroom
Weeks before the recent homosexual rights rally in Washington,
D.C., all the major news organizations were dutifully reporting
projections that some one million people would be present. It
would be, they promised, the largest “civil rights” demonstration
Editorials are running on
the front-page disguised as
news stories. And activists—
not reporters—are writing
the stories.
in history. And favorable comparisons were frequently made
between this rally and the one organized by the Rev. Martin
Luther King, Jr., in the nation’s capital 30 years earlier.
When the fateful march and protest actually occurred,
journalists found themselves in a bit of a pickle. Objective crowd
estimates ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. And, for those
unfortunate enough to witness the event on C-SPAN, the
demonstration resembled not so much a civil rights march as a
By Joseph Farah
carnival sideshow. Nevertheless, the major print and broadcast
media put the best possible spin on the event, downplaying the
disappointing numbers, the vulgarity, the obscenity, the foppish
stereotypical behavior, the public sex and the outrageousness of
many of the speakers and performers.
Why? Why would the media give the homosexual rally a free
ride? Why would so many reporters, from so many different
news organizations, leave all pretense of objectivity and balance
behind in their coverage of this event? What forces are at work
in managing the news when it comes to such a politically charged
issue as gay rights?
When I broke into journalism some 20 years ago, there was a
loose journalistic code of ethics summed up in an oft-repeated
truism that went like this: “I don’t care if you sleep with
elephants, just don’t cover the circus.” That was an accurate
representation of the laissez faire attitude of most newspaper
editors. It meant simply, “I don’t care about your private life as
long as it does not cause a conflict of interest in your work.”
Somewhere along the way to the 1990s, this simple and sound
idea of avoiding inappropriate appearances and relationships has
been lost in mainstream journalistic circles—at least when it
comes to certain issues.
For example, on February 22, 1993, the Los Angeles Times
published a front-page story headlined “Anti-Gay Video
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
17
Highlights Church’s Agenda.” It was an unflattering portrayal of
a conservative Pentecostal church that produced “The Gay
Agenda,” a video that has been widely distributed in the Pentagon,
Congress and throughout the United States. The story linked that
The National Lesbian and
Gay Journalists Association
is growing. And it has
increasing clout in newsrooms
across America.
church with disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker and suggested it
was exploiting the gay issue for financial gain.
Of course, that kind of unfavorable press coverage of
conservative Christian activism should surprise no one, least of
all me, in this day and age of politically correct journalism. That
is the norm. That is what we should expect. What did shock me
about the story, however, was the byline—David Colker.
Colker, a former colleague, is a card-carrying member of the
National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. He is an
active member of the group. Meetings have been held at his
home. Is it possible the Los Angeles Times simply wasn’t aware
of these connections. Otherwise, how could they have sent an
activist out to do the job of a reporter?
After I read the story, I dashed off a letter to Shelby Coffey, the
editor of the Los Angeles Times, the largest metropolitan daily
in America. A few days later, I got a response from Bob Rawitch,
an executive editor at the Times, that cleared up any illusions I
might have had that the Times simply wasn’t aware of this rather
blatant conflict of interest.
“David makes no secret of his involvement with the National
Lesbian (and) Gay Journalists Association,” Rawitch writes. “I
do not accept the premise that because he belongs to that group
that he cannot fairly cover any topic involving gays just as I
would reject the fact that an African-American belonging to the
Black Journalists Association could not cover the black
community.”
Mr. Rawitch’s comments should be an insult to every member
of the National Association of Black Journalists, the correct
name of the organization to which he referred. It is an inappropriate
For those unfortunate enough
to witness the event on
C-SPAN, the demonstration
resembled not so much a
civil rights march as a
carnival sideshow.
analogy not only because being black should not be equated with
having sex with members of the same gender. The NABJ has no
political ax to grind. It does not attempt to influence coverage of
the civil rights movement nor even provide more favorable
coverage of black people. It is, in every sense of the term, a
“professional organization,” designed to raise the level of
professionalism among black journalists and to provide more
opportunities and encouragement to blacks in the media. On the
other hand, the NLGJA says flatly it is “dedicated to improved
coverage of lesbian and gay issues.”
18
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
The difference between the two organizations is as distinct as
those between a professional journalists association and a media
lobbying organization. The L.A. Times is aware that it is dealing
with a media lobbying organization but has nevertheless chosen
to treat the national officers of the NLGJA the same way it treats
national officers of other professional and minority journalist
associations—groups that have no editorial or political agenda.
But it’s not just the L.A. Times that has lowered journalistic
standards of fairness, accuracy and balance in an effort to be
fashionable. On Sunday, March 7, 1993, the New York Times
The major print and
broadcast media put the best
possible spin on the event,
downplaying the
disappointing numbers,
the vulgarity, the obscenity,
the foppish stereotypical
behavior, the public sex.
published a news story headlined: “For Gay New Yorkers, Some
Victories and Fear.” This prominently displayed story in the
nation’s newspaper of record was so completely one-sided that
the reporter didn’t even bother to talk to anybody on the other side
of the debate. In an article about such curricula, he talked only to
gay activists and their partisans.
Then I noticed the byline: Jeffrey Schmalz. Schmalz, I
remembered a few months back, was the reporter who wrote a
compelling first-person account of what it is like to be a
homosexual man dying of AIDS. He has also participated in
National Lesbian and Gay Journalist Association meetings and
seminars. Again, how could such a person be objective about a
subject so close to his heart?
Maybe the New York Times has lost sight of such lofty goals
as balance and fairness. Last year, Arthur Gelb of the New York
Times Foundation, announced that he had approved a grant for
the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.
This group is growing. And it has increasing clout in newsrooms
across America. Its membership roster includes staffers and
decision-makers at such important papers as the New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Francisco
Chronicle and Philadelphia Inquirer.
The press, when digging up scandals and misdeeds in others’
back years, likes to remind the public about its “right to know.”
How often have we heard the media self-righteously condemn,
even the appearance of conflict of interest by some politician or
businessman. Does the public have any less of a “right to know”
who is reporting the news? Are media people above any possible
conflict-of-interest impropriety?
The articles by Colker and Schmalz would be appropriate by
any standard on the editorial pages of our major newspapers,
where their authors could be identified as activists for their cause.
But these stories are illustrative of a dangerous new trend in
journalistic arrogance. Editorials are running on the front-page
disguised as news stories. And activists—not reporters—are
writing the stories.
This, my friends, is the recipe for the kind of woefully
unbalanced coverage of major national news event like the gay
rights march in Washington.
ISSUES IN CONGRESS
AFA surveys U.S. Senate on abortion
and homosexuals in military
The new AFA Washington D.C. office surveyed the United
States Senate on the issues of homosexuals in the military and the
Freedom of Choice Act (FOCA). These are two issues of concern
to pro-family groups now under consideration in the U.S.
Congress. The AFA survey found 36 senators in favor of keeping
the ban on homosexuals in the military, 30 senators opposed to
the ban, and 34 senators undecided or waiting until the Senate
hearings in the Armed Services Committe conclude to make a
decision. President Clinton is expected to issue an order lifting
the ban on July 15 and then Congress is expected to vote on
legislation to keep it. To override an expected veto by the
President, a vote of two thirds of both Houses is needed.
The survey found 46 senators intend to vote for the FOCA, 35
will vote against, and 14 senators are undecided. Five senators
would not give their opinion. FOCA would mandate abortion in
the states through all nine months of pregnancy by striking down
all meaningful state abortion restrictions. (See “The Freedom of
Choice Act” AFA Journal, May 1993.)
The questions posed to senate office and responses follow:
(1) Does the Senator favor the ban on homosexuals in the
military that was in effect on January 1, 1993?
(2) Will the Senator vote to overturn an order issued by
President Clinton allowing homosexuals in the military?
(3) Does the Senator intend to vote for the Freedom of Choice
Act?
For more information on how your Senators stand, write them
at U.S. Senate, Washington, D.C. 20510, or call 202-224-3121.
Y=Yes; N=No; U=Undecided; NR=No Response Given
Senator
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Senator
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3
Heflin (D)
Shelby (D)
Murkowski (R)
Stevens (R)
DeConcini (D)
McCain (R)
Bumpers (D)
Pryor (D)
Boxer (D)
Feinstein (D)
Brown (R)
Campbell (D)
Dodd (D)
Lieberman (D)
Biden (D)
Roth (R)
Graham (D)
Mack (R)
Coverdell (R)
Nunn (D)
Akaka (D)
Inouye (D)
Craig (R)
Kempthorne (R)
Braun (D)
Simon (D)
Coats (R)
Lugar (R)
Grassley (R)
Harkin (D)
Dole (R)
Kassebaum (R)
Ford (D)
McConnell (R)
Y
Y
Y
Y
U
Y
U
NR
N
N
Y
N
N
U
U
N
U
Y
Y
Y
N
N
Y
Y
N
N
Y
U
Y
U
Y
NR
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
U
U
Y
NR
NR
N
N
Y
NR
N
U
NR
NR
U
NR
Y
U
N
N
Y
Y
N
NR
Y
Y
Y
N
U
NR
N
NR
NR
Y
N
N
N
N
U
NR
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
U
Y
N
N
U
Y
Y
N
N
Y
Y
N
N
N
Y
N
Y
N
N
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3
Breaux (D)
Johnston (D)
Cohen (R)
Mitchell (D)
Mikulski (D)
Sarbanes (D)
Kennedy (D)
Kerry (D)
Levin (D)
Riegle (D)
Durenberger (R)
Wellstone (D)
Cochran (R)
Lott (R)
Bond (R)
Danforth (R)
Baucus (D)
Burns (R)
Exon (D)
Kerrey (D)
Bryan (D)
Reid (D)
Gregg (R)
Smith (R)
Bradley (D)
Lautenberg (D)
Bingaman (D)
Domenici (R)
D’Amato (R)
Moynihan (D)
Faircloth (R)
Helms (R)
Conrad (D)
Dorgan (D)
Glenn (D)
Metzenbaum (D)
Boren (D)
Nickles (R)
Hatfield (R)
Packwood (R)
Spector (R)
Wofford (D)
Chafee (R)
Pell (D)
Hollings (D)
Thurmond (R)
Daschle (D)
Pressler (R)
Mathews (D)
Sasser (D)
Gramm (R)
Krueger (D)
Bennett (R)
Hatch (R)
Jeffords (R)
Leahy (D)
Robb (D)
Warner (R)
Gorton (R)
Murray (D)
Byrd (D)
Rockefeller (D)
Feingold (D)
Kohl (D)
Simpson (R)
Wallop (R)
AFA JOURNAL
U
U
U
N
N
N
N
N
U
U
U
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
U
Y
U
U
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U
Y
Y
N
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Y
N
N
Y
Y
U
N
U
N
U
Y
U
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U
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N
Y
Y
U
Y
U
U
Y
U
Y
U
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Y
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U
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U
Y
Y
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U
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N
N
U
NR
U
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
NR
U
NR
U
U
NR
NR
Y
N
U
N
NR
U
N
Y
Y
U
NR
U
N
U
Y
U
U
NR
N
U
N
NR
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Y
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Y
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Y
Y
June 1993
N
N
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
Y
N
Y
N
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N
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Y
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N
Y
Y
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N
N
Y
Y
Y
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Y
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U
U
Y
Y
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Y
Y
U
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Y
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19
THE CHURCH
Church partly responsible for divorces?
Six out of 10 new marriages are failing, and many of the rest
are unhappy. Yet I am convinced nine out of 10 marriages can not
only be saved but joyful. That’s why I wrote my new book,
Marriage Savers.
It is aimed at helping any reader achieve one of three major
goals:
• Avoid a bad marriage before it begins.
• Strengthen any existing marriage.
• Save and restore even the worst of marriages.
This is the first of a series of columns that condense the book’s
findings and also show how YOU can be a “marriage saver” of
broken relationships.
In a foreword to the book, George Gallup Jr. writes movingly:
“If a disease were to afflict the majority of a populace, spreading
pain and dysfunction throughout all age groups, we would be
frantically searching for reasons and solutions. Yet this particular
scourge has become so endemic that it is virtually ignored.
“The scourge is DIVORCE, an oddly neglected topic in a
nation that has the worst record of broken marriages in the entire
world. Divorce is a ‘root problem’ in our country and is the cause
of any number of other ills,” Gallup wrote.
And the issue is far broader than divorce. The American
family itself is splintering. I think it is the central domestic issue
of our time:
1. Divorces have tripled since 1960, from 393,000 to 1,187,000
in 1991. But statistics are cold. What does it mean? A friend still
When was the last time you
heard a sermon on chastity,
cohabitation or divorce? Most
pastors sidestep the tough issues.
grieving over her marriage that broke apart eight years ago said:
“Divorce is like suffering death without a funeral. The pain never
ends. It is a living death and our society does not let us grieve.
There is something wrong if one is divorced. You are tainted.”
2. Cohabitation has soared six-fold since 1960, and now
precedes the majority of all marriages in America. Tragedy lies
ahead for most of them. “Marriages that are preceded by living
together have 50% higher disruption (divorce or separation) rates
than marriages without premarital cohabitation,” reports the
National Survey of Families and Households.
3. Fewer young adults are getting married at all. In 1991 there
were 41 million adults who had never married—twice the number
in only 1970!
4. Only 65% of adults are married—the lowest figure ever.
5. Those hurt the most are the innocent—the children. Each
year a million kids see their parents divorce. Indeed, before age
18 three-fifths of children will lose a parent to divorce. Another
million children a year are born out of wedlock, mostly into lives
By Mike McManus
of bitter neglect and poverty.
What makes me furious is that the church is a silent accomplice
of this galloping tragedy. When was the last time you heard a
sermon on chastity, cohabitation or divorce? Most pastors sidestep
the tough issues.
Why? Surely, Scripture is clear. “Flee fornication” (I Cor.
6:18).
In 1981, I began my eighth column with these words: “It is
time to acknowledge that the American church is partly responsible
for the soaring divorce rate.” In this, my 600th weekly column,
nothing has changed.
Most houses of worship are only
‘blessing machines,’ preparing
couples for weddings, not
lifelong marriages.
During a generation that divorces tripled, more than threequarters of all marriages were blessed by priests, pastors and
rabbis. Sadly, however, most houses of worship are only “blessing
machines,” preparing couples for weddings, not lifelong
marriages. Gallup Polls reveal less than a fifth of marriages had
premarital counseling. And what was given was ineffectual.
Divorced couples and those who are still married are equally
likely (15 and 18%, respectively) to have had premarital
preparation.
But I have seen extraordinary churches that are “marriage
savers.”
Let’s begin with teens, a million of whom get pregnant a year.
Sexually active teenagers are not learning discipline needed for
lifelong marriage, but habits that lead to divorce and welfare.
Some 60,000 churches have shown an answer, a video series that
makes a case for chastity: “Why Wait?” by Josh McDowell.
There is more good news.
Parents can be more influential than a teen’s peers in making
a case for chastity says Stan Weed of the Institute for Research
Gallup Polls reveal less than
a fifth of marriages had
premarital counseling.
and Evaluation. Problem is, only 15% of mothers and 8% of
fathers have ever talked to their children about premarital sex!
Tell them of a study proving that those who remain virgins till
marriage have a divorce rate 60% lower than non-virgins!
Chastity increases the odds of lifelong marriage.
Porn involved in crimes
University of Northern Iowa professor
Alfred Pelham was arrested at his
apartment on charges that he made a lewd
videotape of a 16-year-old girl in Des
Moines. In a search of Pelham’s
apartment, Des Moines officers said they
20
June 1993
found a variety of sexual objects, including
videotapes of sadism and forms of torture
and pornography.
In an unrelated case, David and Debra
Willis of Des Moines were charged with
sexually exploiting a teenager. The couple
AFA JOURNAL
wanted to make a pornographic movie
with a 14-year-old boy they described as
their “nephew.” Authorities raided the
Willis’ home, seizing porn videotapes,
“sex toys” and other items.
Des Moines Register, 3/20/93
PORNOGRAPHY
By Muriel Larson
Bible Advocate, April 1993
Pornography: A bane in society
When I was younger, women could walk down a street at
night. But any woman doing that now would be thought out of her
mind. Why? Because sexual assaults have become commonplace
in our society. Those who committed sex-related crimes fill our
prisons. And no one knows for sure how many children in our
society are victims of incest and other abuse.
Concerned about a rash of rapes hitting the Charleston area,
Dr. Dean Kilpatrick of the Medical University of South Carolina
had Louis Harris and Associates conduct a survey. The results
revealed that almost 10% of the women in Charleston County had
been victims of rape or attempted rape at some time.
Why has the number of rapes risen to such gigantic proportions?
What factors are now common in today’s society that were not in
yesterday’s?
Increased use of drugs and alcohol are certainly factors. But a
newspaper article I read pinpoints the main reason. Women on
the west side of my city had been terrorized by a series of break-
If we feed our bodies tainted
food, it makes us sick. Likewise,
when we feed our minds tainted
media, it perverts our lives.
in sexual attacks. When a suspect was arrested, piles of explicit
pornographic pictures and magazines were found in his room.
This pattern has been found again and again in the cases of serial
rapists, torturers, and murderers.
Today we are bombarded with emphasis on sex. Television,
radio, billboards, fashion clothing, and magazines use sex to
attract attention.
Pornographic books, magazines, films, and music are available
to almost anyone. Young people especially are having their
minds debauched by junk, so that the sweet, romantic love that
women and men once dreamed of has been tainted.
When He lived on this earth, Jesus Christ declared, “The evil
man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart” (Luke
Life...
Continued from page 2
law excelled at was athletics. Russ played college football during
the late 1980s at Delta State University in Mississippi and a
couple of months after his death his coach established a memorial
award in Russ’s name. I drove Alison over for the banquet. I
guess 12 awards or so were given to different players but the
coach made the statement that “the Russ Hardin Memorial
Award is the most important.” Why? Because it represented the
qualities which Russ exemplified: Hard work, dedication,
commitment, dependability, effort, responsibility, good
sportsmanship, unselfishness and good attitude. These weren’t
trite words but rather powerful and personal words from a coach
Russ had spent just two years with. All these made for credibility
with Russ’s peers and coaches. In short, Russ’s life—although
short in our way of thinking—touched so many people in such a
6:45, NIV). “Heart” in this passage stands for a person’s entire
mental process.
What we feed our mind comes forth in words and deeds. If we
feed our bodies tainted food, it makes us sick. Likewise, when we
feed our minds tainted media, it perverts our lives. In many cases,
the desires that pornography arouses literally drive men to ruin
the lives of others with their lust.
In many public schools today, young people are taught all the
cold details about sex without any moral backing. Several years
ago, a father told me that an English teacher in a local high school
had his students reading Playboy magazines, with nude centerfolds
intact. When the father objected, the school board did nothing
about it. Is it any wonder we hear about teachers and students
being assaulted and raped in classrooms and school halls?
It’s ironic—while prurient literature is made available by
teachers, God’s Word and the mention of God have been banned.
We give children poison, but withhold the antidote for it.
A number of law enforcement agents believe sex crimes bear
a corresponding relationship to the availability of pornography.
Because of a loose interpretation of Iowa’s obscenity law, cities
that border neighboring states blossomed with all kinds of
pornographic enterprises. In Council Bluffs, sex crimes increased
by 57% in one year, compared to an increase of 38% statewide
and 12% nationally.
Porn degrades and brutalizes the sexual act. Many of us may
not be aware of the gross violence and immorality portrayed in
hard-core pornography. One doctor became physically ill when
he saw samples of materials police had confiscated. They grossly
pictured every evil act imaginable. Even more horrible to realize
is that women and children are the main victims of pornography.
What can we do to clean up the moral environment in our
nation and make it safer for ourselves and our children? First,
let’s work to rid our homes of porn in literature, TV programs,
and videos. Let’s crusade for tighter laws in our states and
communities. We can check our schools and libraries for
pornography or teaching that might hurt our children’s minds. If
we find such things, we must protest. We can also protest against
pornography that is promoted by our government with our tax
money.
Men, women, and children have a right to be safe from sexual
attack and pollution. But today we have to fight for that right.
positive way.
I think the Lord’s will for us all is to live our lives in such a
manner that when we pass on to heaven, our values and influence
for Christ will keep touching lives. Like the pebble’s ripple in the
pond.
I miss you, Russ. I love you, Russ.
S. C. Johnson...
Continued from page 1
Company. We are watching this situation very closely. If any
reprisal occurs against Mr. Kalashian, rest assured that we will
take legal action against you and any other employees of Johnson
Wax,” Bull wrote.
“In my opinion, the reason that Mr. Calder contacted John’s
employer, Allstate, was that he was hoping that Allstate would
take action against John because of John’s involvement in the
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
21
boycott,” said AFA president Donald E.
Wildmon. “It is tragic that, instead of
working to reduce the amount of filth they
help sponsor on television, they take this
approach.”
In a similar event, when a policeman in
Florida called S.C. Johnson Wax to tell
them he was joining the boycott, he said
that the person who answered the phone,
Nancy Chase, told him AFA had
demanded a contribution of $1 million to
AFA in return for AFA’s dropping of its
boycott of S.C. Johnson Wax. When the
policeman contacted AFA and told them
of the incident, the AFA Law Center
contacted S.C. Johnson Wax. The
company confirmed that they do have an
employee named Nancy Chase but denied
that the comment about the $1 million
was made.
Furthermore, a letter which S.C.
Johnson is sending to those who contact
the company about their sponsorship of
sex, violence and profanity is extremely
misleading. “We have communicated with
AFA/CLeaR-TV and we’ve sent them
lists of television programs that we
purposely avoided advertising on because
we felt their content was inappropriate,”
Thomas R. Conrardy, Director, Consumer
Resource Center, writes.
One is left with the impression that
S.C. Johnson has communicated with
AFA/CLeaR-TV after being notified of a
potential boycott and after the boycott
was called. The truth is that CLeaR-TV
made repeated efforts to discuss the
situation prior to calling a boycott,
including letting S.C. Johnson know that
a boycott was being considered and an
invitation to meet and discuss the matter.
CLeaR-TV made the offer to meet at the
office of Chairman Dr. Billy A. Melvin in
Wheaton, Illinois, about 90 miles from
the Racine headquarters of S.C. Johnson.
The company did not respond and has not
corresponded with either CLeaR-TV or
AFA since the boycott began.
In an internal memo sent to their
employees on April 14, S.C. Johnson
restated that they plan no changes. William
D. Perez wrote the employees: “First and
foremost, we feel our conduct is correct,
and our advertising policy continues to be
appropriate.” “It is not the POLICY of
S.C. Johnson which is at issue here,” said
AFA president Donald E. Wildmon. “It is
the PRACTICE.”
Perez went on to say the boycott was
totally ineffective. “Very importantly, as
was the case two years ago, the ‘boycott’
is having absolutely no impact on our
business. Further, consumer calls and
postcards are running at about the same
level they were in 1991 (when the first
CLeaR-TV boycott was announced),
which is relatively low.”
Perez said they would have been willing
22
June 1993
to get together with representatives of
CLeaR-TV when the group picketed S.C.
Johnson headquarters on April 17, but that
“many of us will be at an important meeting
with customers at the National Association
of Chain Drug Stores Conference.”
CLeaR-TV called for the boycott after
monitoring showed S.C. Johnson Wax as a
leading sponsor of TV sex, violence and
profanity and the company refused many
requests from CLeaR-TV to reduce the
amount of sex, violence and profanity they
helped sponsor.
AFA has boycott card packs available to
help promote the S.C. Johnson Wax boycott.
The boycott card packs contain 100 cards
with the list of of Johnson Wax products
and the reason for the boycott and also 100
pre-addressed and printed postcards which
can be mailed to the company informing
them that the sender is joining the boycott.
These can be distributed in churches,
businesses, among friends, clubs, etc. AFA
has shipped 18,000,000 of the cards to
churches asking that they be distributed
among the local church members. The card
packs are available at only $1 per 100,
shipping included. Order from: Johnson
Wax Boycott Cards, AFA, Drawer 2440,
Tupelo, MS 38803.
CLeaR-TV is composed of over 1000
Christian leaders from nearly 100
denominations. Members of the Executive
Committee of CLeaR-TV include: Dr. Billy
A. Melvin, Executive Director, National
Association of Evangelicals; Rev. Dr.
Milton Efthimiou, Executive Director, Dept.
of Church & Society, Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese of N. & S. America; Dr.
Leonard J. Hofman, General Secretary,
Christian Reformed Church; Dr. G.
Raymond Carlson, General Superintendent,
The Assemblies of God; Rt. Rev. William
C. Wantland, Bishop, The Episcopal
Church; Bishop Stanislaus J. Brzana,
Catholic Bishop of Ogdensburg; Mark
Taylor, Editor, The Lookout; Dr. Richard
Land, Executive Director, Christian Life
Commission, Southern Baptist Convention;
Tom Minnery, Vice President, Focus on
the Family; Dr. Donald E. Wildmon,
President, American Family Association.
AFA urges you to call and write S.C.
Johnson Wax. Be aware, however, that
individuals are being told that some of the
products cited by CLeaR-TV as belonging
to S.C. Johnson “aren’t even S.C. Johnson
products.” What callers aren’t told is the
products Endust, Renuzit and Behold were
sold by S.C. Johnson after the boycott
began and were part of S.C. Johnson during
the monitoring period last fall.
Their address is: S.C. Johnson & Son,
Inc., Chrm. Samuel C. Johnson, 1525 Howe
Street, Racine, WI 53403, Phone 414-6312000, Toll free 1-800-558-5252, FAX 414631-2133.
PERSONAL PRODUCTS: Agree
AFA JOURNAL
shampoo, Aveeno bath products, Curel
skin lotion, Edge shaving cream, Fisher
Price bath products, Halsa shampoo and
conditioner, Off Insect Repellent, Soft
Sense lotion.
HOUSEHOLD PRODUCTS: Drano
Drain Opener, Favor polish, Glade Room
deodorizer, Glory rug cleaner, Mr. Muscle
oven cleaner, Pledge Dusters, Raid
Insecticide, Shout stain remover, Step
Saver cleaner, Toilet Duck cleaner, Vanish
toilet cleaner, Windex Glass Cleaner.
WAXES AND POLISHES: Bravo wax,
Brite floor wax, Clean & Clear wax, Future
floor coating, Glo Coat floor coating,
Johnson Wax, J-Wax, Klear floor coating,
Pledge wax, Pride wax.
Here are just a few examples of the
kinds of programs S.C. Johnson Wax
helped sponsor during the monitoring
period:
Northern Exposure - CBS - 10/19 Series regular Chris has a fantasy of the
“Last Supper Club” in which he is Jesus
surrounded by his disciples. Another
similar fantasy has his dead friend Tooley
coming back to life to do a rock-and-roll
stage show with scantily-clad back-up
singers.
Love And War - CBS - 10/19 - Wally (a
woman) has regular sex with Jack. Sexual
double entendre includes her reference to
“dating a guy with a really big—trophy.”
Prison homosexual jokes and profanity
were a solid part of the dialogue.
Top Cops - CBS - 10/29 - In addition to
graphic camera focuses on gunshot
victims, profanity includes five uses of
God’s name in vain, six uses of son-of-abi---, plus bit--, bast---, he-- and da--.
Golden Palace - CBS - 10/30 - Opening
dialogue includes urination jokes. Blanche
makes reference to her promiscuous
lifestyle, and there is lesbian innuendo. A
man and woman meet at a cheap club, get
drunk, and marry all in the same evening.
Rose, Blanche and Dorothy discuss their
“experimental” sexual experiences—they
do it in a barn stall next to animals, on a
dining room table, etc.
Law And Order - NBC - 11/4 - The
story is about Dr. Alex Merritt, a
gynecologist who has raped and molested
countless patients. Photos of a rape
victim’s bruised thighs are shown,
descriptions of rape and an audio tape of
a rape are part of the courtroom scenes.
The program was filled with profanity: d-n, he--, bast---, bit--, son-of-a-bi---, and
the use of God’s name in vain.
Hat Squad - CBS - 11/4 - Graphic
violence marks this program, including a
bomb tossed from an elevator blasting
four guards through the air. In other scenes,
the villain blows up the hero’s home, and
fiery explosions send police officers
through the air at the police station.
Saturday Night Live Special - NBC -
11/1 - This prime-time special, in addition
to political humor, brought jokes about
incest among Arkansas hillbillies, jokes
about the rape and murder of Kitty
Dukakis, sexual sleaze in a brief Rodney
Dangerfield monologue, and porn film
jokes in a skit on the Clarence Thomas
Senate confirmation hearing.
Columbo Cries Wolf (Movie) - ABC 11/14 - This tale of illicit sex and murder
is set in a porn empire. Business partners—
a man and a woman—have for years
published a porn magazine and been illicit
lovers. The woman tires of her lover’s
frequent sexual escapades with their
“Nymphs of the Month” and threatens
him. He, in turn, murders her. S.C. Johnson
Wax and ABC use the story line for a way
to display excessive skin and cleavage.
S.C. Johnson Wax helped sponsor 16
incidents of sex, violence and profanity
with every 30-second commercial they
ran!
Kmart...
Continued from page 1
Capital Cities/ABC, Inc., $661,000 with
CBS, Inc., $4,430,000 with General
Electric (which owns NBC), $17,730,000
with Time-Warner (porn movies on HBO
and Cinemax and porn music, publishing
Madonna’s porn book SEX), $1,554,000
with ITT (which shows porn movies in
their Sheraton motel chain), and $231,000
with Marriott (which also shows porn
movies in their motels).
The Southern Baptist Annuity Board
has investments of $795,000 in Capital
Cities/ABC, $1,182,030 in CBS,
$3,791,225 in General Cinema
Corporation, $25,180,000 in General
Electric/NBC, and $5,315,200 in
Paramount Communications. They also
own 5,000 shares of Multimedia (which
owns the Donahue show), 8,100 shares of
Turner Broadcasting, and 30,000 of
Viacom. The Annuity Board divested
nearly $8,343,000 worth of Time-Warner
stock after Time-Warner published
Madonna’s book SEX.
Sheraton and Marriott motels show
porn movies in all their corporately owned
motels, and Time-Warner shows porn
movies on their HBO and Cinemax cable
channels. All three networks and the movie
studios regularly bash Christians and
Christian values.
Kmart has reported that its earnings for
the first quarter of this year are lower than
the same period last year. Kmart chairman
Joseph E. Antonini said that although
sales did improve in April, “the recovery
has not been sufficient to offset the profit
shortfall.” Not only are the earnings lower
for Kmart stores, but the company’s
specialty stores will not meet profit goals
either, Antonini said.
The financial situation at Kmart has
caused Moody’s Investors Service to lower
its rating on about $5.9 billion of Kmart
debt. Moody’s expressed pessimism that
the retailer can improve its performance in
a competitive market. Moody’s dropped
Kmart’s rating a single notch, potentially
making it more expensive for the company
to borrow money.
Kmart blamed the decline in earnings on
the weather, but part of the decline was
caused by those who are boycotting the
company because of its refusal to get out of
the porn business. Kmart, through
Waldenbooks, is one of the leading retailers
of pornography in America.
Thousands of Americans are doing what
Robert Mackenzie of Florida, an attorney,
has done. Recently Mackenzie wrote
Antonini and sent him a receipt for
$1,922.60 from Home Depot. “Before the
AFA boycott the amount would have been
spent at Builders Square (owned by Kmart).
Actually, the materials cost will total about
$4,000.00 before we are through,”
Mackenzie wrote.
Jessie Randtke of Kansas sent Mr.
Antonini a list showing $2,982.59 which he
would have spent at Kmart, but spent instead
at Walmart because Kmart continues in the
porn business.
Stephen Rodick of Missouri informed
Mr. Antonini that he had spent
approximately $3,000 in the past three years
at other places which would normally have
been spent at Builders Square.
AFA urges conventions and conferences
being held by many Christian
denominations and groups to pass
resolutions in support of the Kmart boycott.
Below is a sample resolution.
“We wish to express our concern to
Kmart regarding the pornography sold
in their Waldenbooks stores. We believe
that pornography is detrimental to the
moral fabric of our society. We are
especially distressed that Kmart, through
their Waldenbooks stores, is one of the
largest retailers of pornography in
America.
“We call upon Kmart to discontinue
the sale of pornography and return the
company to its historic image of a familyoriented company.
“Until Kmart takes such positive
action in disassociating itself with
pornography, we urge concerned
individuals, churches and businesses to
discontinue doing business with the
Kmart Corporation including Kmart
stores, American Fare Stores, Bassett
Book Shops, Borders Bookstores,
Brentanos Bookstores, Coles Bookstores,
CopperSmith Bookstores, Pay Less and
Pay N Save Drug Stores (located in the
northwestern states), Bargain Harold’s,
Builders Square home supply stores,
Office Max, Sports Authority and PACE
Membership Warehouse stores.”
AFA also urges calls to Kmart customer
service. The number is 1-800-63-Kmart.
Please be polite when you call.
Individuals are also urged to call their
local Kmart store and tell the manager
you are boycotting Kmart and asking
others to do the same. The pornography is
sold in Waldenbooks, owned by Kmart.
Kmart has the authority to order
Waldenbooks to get out of the pornography
business at any time. All profits from the
sale of pornography go to Kmart.
AFA still has “Boycott Kmart”
postcards available. The cards, which
contain information about the Kmart
boycott along with a postcard to mail to
Kmart, are available from AFA for $1 per
hundred. “We hope that many individuals
and pastors will order the cards and
distribute them to their friends, family
and church members,” Wildmon said.
Order from Kmart Boycott Cards, P.O.
Drawer 2440, Tupelo, MS 38803.
Also write Chrm. Joseph Antonini,
Kmart Corporation, 3100 West Big Beaver
Road, Troy, MI 48084, phone 1-800-63
Kmart.
AFA JOURNAL
June 1993
23
Colson...
Continued from page 14
Victorian morality during the Roaring Twenties that crime went
up. This was the era when Sigmund Freud’s views were coming
into vogue among “thinking” Americans: people weren’t evil,
just misguided or mistreated, or they required better environments.
Sin was regarded as a lot of religious claptrap.
The crime rate did not decline again until the Great Depression,
a time of people banding together in the face of crisis. Wilson
concluded, therefore, that crime was in large part caused by a
breakdown of morality. Since 1965 the crime rate has steadily
risen. In the same period, religious faith has waned. We have told
people there are no absolutes and that they are not responsible for
The Supreme Court is not the
only institution out to protect us
from the “threat” faith poses.
The media assault upon religious
believers has been fierce.
their own behavior. They are simply victims of a system that isn’t
working any more and they don’t have to worry about it because
the government is going to fix it for them. We thought that in this
brave new world we could create the perfect secular utopia. But
the secular utopia is in reality the nightmare we see as we walk
through the dark, rotten holes we call prisons all across America.
In this context, it always amazes me when I listen to politicians
say, “We are going to win the war on drugs by building prisons,
appointing more judges, and putting more police on the beat.” I
remember when President Bush announced the “War on Drugs.”
24
June 1993
AFA JOURNAL
Having spent seven months in prison, there wasn’t one night that
I did not smell marijuana burning. If you can get marijuana into
a prison, with watchtowers, inspections, and prison guards, you
can get it into a country. You can send the U.S. Marines to
Colombia to burn all the fields, seal all the borders, and build all
the prisons you want, but you won’t stop drug use in this country
because it isn’t a problem of supply; it is a problem of demand.
When there is no greater value in the lives of so many people than
simply fulfilling individual desires and gratifications, then crime
and drug abuse become inevitable. The soaring crime rate is
powerful testimony to the failure of the city of man, deprived of
the moral influence of the City of God.
If we cannot be good without God, how do we sustain public
virtue in society? We cannot do it through the instrument of
politics. Alasdair MacIntyre, moral philosopher at Notre Dame,
says that “Politics has become civil war carried on by other
means.” Without moral authority to call upon, our elected leaders
are reduced to saying, “We can’t say that this is right and that’s
wrong. We simply prefer that you wouldn’t murder.” And crime
and drug abuse are not the only results of this loss of moral
authority. Forty-four percent of the baby boomers say that there
is no cause that would lead them to fight and die for their country.
In the city of man, there is no moral consensus, and without a
moral consensus there can be no law. Chairman Mao expressed
the alternative well: in his view morality begins at the muzzle of
a gun.
There has never been a case in history in which a society has
been able to survive for long without a strong moral code. And
there has never been a time when a moral code has not been
informed by religious truth. Recovering our moral code–our
religious truth–is the only way our society can survive. The
heaping ash remains at Auschwitz, the killing fields of Southeast
Asia, and the frozen wastes of the gulag remind us that the city of
man is not enough; we must also seek the City of God.