Porn, Legislative Battles and A New Organization
National
Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families
Opens Chapter in St. Louis
By Jim Day
In
a 2005 interview, Bill O’Reilly of FOX News put Governor Blunt on the spot,
challenging him on Missouri’s low ranking from groups like the Jessica’s Law
and Megan’s Law organizations. That interview served as a “wake up call” to
many legislators.
According to Senator John Loudon (R-Chesterfield), “Before that interview,
most of us thought that we had pretty good laws in place because there were
no organized groups complaining. All we had were anecdotes, like those from
my brother.” (Loudon’s brother is a
probation officer who supervises sexual predators in St. Charles County.)
Loudon said his brother would taunt him at holiday gatherings with comments
like, “What are you guys doing in Jefferson City?
You should hear about the guy you just turned loose.” Loudon said the stories were shocking, but it
wasn’t until a national rating group gave Missouri a failing grade that the
gravity of the situation set in for State Legislators.
Loudon’s
assistant, Mike Reid, is a father of six. Loudon and his wife Gina have five
children. Now aware of the gravity of
the problem they joined a number of other Legislators including Senator Matt
Bartle (R-Lees Summit) in writing tougher laws against predators and child
pornographers. Bartle has been a champion not only in protecting kids, but also
in going after the ‘adult entertainment’ industry.
Three
Fronts
The
battle to protect kids and families needs to be fought on several levels. With
the explosion of the Internet, the availability of child porn has become
greater than ever. The Legislature has broad authority to clamp down on the
production, distribution and possession of child porn and they have been
working tirelessly to clamp down not just on predators who pursue kids but also
on strengthening the penalties for those who trade in this smut.
Local
municipalities have greater control over adult clubs through zoning laws than
counties. However, many county officials are frustrated because the clubs are
grandfathered in and local leaders have little ability to control them. That’s where the State comes in.
Senator
Bartle has passed several pieces of legislation that would strengthen State
regulation of these businesses, including key legislation in 2004. What
particularly irked Bartle was driving on interstate highways (including driving
home from Jefferson City on I-70 each week) and having to drive right past
sexually explicit billboards with his kids in the car. Bartle scored a major
victory in 2004 but it turned out to be somewhat hollow. According to Loudon, “Bartle’s
2004 bill was designed to keep adult businesses from advertising near
Missouri's major thoroughfares. Under the measure, sexually oriented businesses
could not advertise within a mile of Missouri highways. The law allowed these
businesses to post just two signs, which could only display basic information,
such as hours of operation, and warn minors that the premises were off limits.
Unfortunately, the measure was struck down by a federal appeals court in 2006.
The court said the law's effect was overly broad, and in order to meet
Constitutional muster, it needed to be more narrowly targeted. Although I
disagree with that ruling, I am pleased the court offered some guidance on what
needed to be fixed with the law.”
Amazingly, Bartle and Loudon have taken some heat for their actions.
In what can only be characterized as total hypocrisy, left-wing bloggers went
after Loudon after he removed strip club language from his child porn bill
(SB714) in 2008. “Matt and I agreed that he probably got too aggressive when
he broadened the Senate Committee Substitute SB714, which was my bill about
child porn and predators, to include his adult strip club language. Sen. Chuck
Graham (D-Columbia) spun around right after the Judiciary Committee voted
to pass the bill and promised me that Matt’s adult club language ‘was going
to be a problem for me’ and ‘definitely made the bill unconstitutional.’
Further research by Mike and I confirmed that was probably the case.
It was an extremely tough decision, but as much as I revile the strip
club industry, protecting kids from predators was too important to jeopardize
by trying to get too much done with this bill.
So we offered a Senate floor substitute version of the bill with everything
in place except the adult club language. Within days, the left-wing bloggers
and 
opponents
of my wife’s campaign for my Senate seat started making wild claims and sending
email messages about our ‘supporting’ the adult porn industry,” said Loudon.
Parents’
Responsibility
From
a legislators’ viewpoint, the first duty is to tighten laws against child
pornography and real-life predators. A legislator can also work on placing
restriction on live entertainment at adult clubs. What they cannot do is go into homes and help
parents do what they need to do to protect their children. That is where organizations such as the National
Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families (NCFPCF) can help.
NCFPCF
Comes to Town
St. Louis is extremely fortunate to have
the newest chapter of the National Coalition. Formerly known as the National
Coalition Against Pornography, the Cincinnati, Ohio, based organization is the
country’s largest organization focused on teaching biblical sexuality. Their
St. Louis launch is a story in itself.
The
way the story goes, the patriarch of the family-owned Drury Hotel chain, Charles
Drury, got a call from National Coalition Executive Director Rick Schatz. The
Drury family had taken an amazingly courageous stance and Schatz had gotten
wind of it. The Drurys manage several hotels under other labels. The Hilton
Hotel downtown is one of them. There was
one problem for the Drurys: the Hilton Hotel contract required that adult
pornographic movies had to be provided to all the hotel rooms. The Drurys chose
to fight that requirement and settled on an agreement that they would pay the
Hiltons almost $50,000 per year for lost porn revenues so that they could have
a porn-free, family hotel.
The
NCFPCF has chapters all over the country, including one in Kansas City, but
Schatz saw an opportunity through the Drurys to launch a new chapter in St.
Louis. Schatz found the seed money to
get things going from generous commitments from the Drury family and also his
contacts at Central Presbyterian Church in Clayton. Knowing Senator Loudon’s passion, Drury
suggested a meeting between Schatz, Loudon and his wife Gina, with a goal of
Loudon possibly spear-heading the new chapter. “We even went to the
headquarters in Cincinnati. Gina and I were amazed by what we saw in terms of
the quality of the people, their dedication and results. When you have a chapter
in your town, you have a focal point for real cultural change and a general
improvement in the sexual morality of a town.
The purveyors of filth get nervous,” said Loudon.
As Drury hosted
several invitation-only meetings of regional leaders, one man really stepped up
to the plate, John Lewis. The upshot was
the formation of the newest NCFPCF chapter, including an advisory board of area
pro-family leaders, chaired by Lewis. Loudon is a founding member as are Donna
Hearne, Michael Geller, Ed O'Donnell, Harry Langenberg, Lois Linton, Molly
Kertz, Nancy Prentis, Norman Baxter, Rebekah Baxter, Stuart Campbell, Joe
Schluchter and Tess Doerhoff. John
Splinter is the new Executive Director.
Splinter joined the Coalition on March 1, 2008. He
brings 35 years’ experience in pastoral ministry, two master’s degrees, a
Ph.D. in family therapy, and has published three recovery-oriented books.
He’d never heard of the Coalition until his friend Ted Winters (Sr. V.P. Cass
Bank) called him at his home in La Crosse, Wisconsin, last October with the
news
that he’d put Splinter’s name in for the position of St. Louis executive director.
Splinter asked, “What was the name of the organization again?” Winters
knew that Splinter had been praying about the possibility of returning to
St. Louis. After a few months of checking each other out, plus a lot
of prayer, the Coalition offered Splinter the position and he accepted.
For his part, Splinter finds the position an answer to prayer.
The National Coalition
is a strictly non-denominational Christian organization. Its mission is “to move the people of God to
embrace, live out, preserve and advance the truth of biblical sexuality.”
According to their website (www.nationalcoalition.org) the organization operates
under the prompting of the Holy Spirit with the desire for all people to live
under the Lordship of Christ, seeking to: “educate the community on sexual
ethics according to a biblical worldview, encourage and challenge Christians
to live sexually pure lives, engage Christians in public policy relative to
sexual ethics, and embrace those harmed by pornography and help restore them
to sexual wholeness.” They do this by offering programs to churches free of
charge.
The Need
In
describing the need for this program, Schatz will assure you that the ‘customer
base’ of the porn industry is comprised not only of non-Christian men but Christian
men as well. And, according to their research, 34% of church-going women admit
to searching for porn on the Internet. Schatz will also tell you that nationwide,
more money is spent on pornography than on professional football, baseball and
basketball combined. Needless to say, these are some shocking and disgusting
facts.
Loudon
cites a chilling statistic right here at home. According to law enforcement
figures, over 22,000 Missouri computers
have downloaded hard-core child pornography. As readers of the MetroVoice may recall, in our April
issue we covered the fact that law enforcement lacks the manpower and budgetary
resources to pursue these people the way they should be pursued.
Perhaps
it’s not surprising but Post-Dispatch
columnist Bill McClellan in a recent editorial actually expressed sympathy for
a guy who was caught with child porn on his computer in West St. Louis County.
At the end of his commentary McClellan suggested, “Perhaps we should spend more
resources trying to catch the people who make these videos instead of spending
them on the people who view them.”
Going
after the producers and distributors of this horrific garbage should of course
be a top priority and they should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
However, what McClellan fails to recognize is the fact that pornography is a progressive,
addictive, drug. Those who view it tend to graduate from just fantasizing in
their mind’s eye to actually acting out their fantasies. I will however grant
that people such as the man who McClellan described in his editorial (assuming
it’s an honest account), or someone who has unwittingly downloaded child porn,
should not have the book thrown at them. Those cases should be investigated
thoroughly and, should they fall into this category, the offender should be
given a severe warning, placed on some sort of probation, and/or given an
appropriate lesser penalty for his or her actions other than being sentenced to
years in prison and being labeled a sex offender for the rest of their lives. That’s
my opinion.
At
any rate, at the end of the day we may look to our law makers to fix problems
and protect our children from such dangers, but the bottom line is the fact
that it’s up to parents to ultimately monitor
and protect their children. God’s Word
provides the foundational guidance and instruction on how parents and
children conduct themselves. The Church has a responsibility to teach God’s Word and make sure those foundational principles/guidelines
are thoroughly understood. Fortunately we now have an organization in St.
Louis that can help the Church confront the sin of sexual immorality within
its walls as well as within the community as a whole.
