Religious Rights Attack on Sex

Blame The Real Enemy Of The Adult Sexual Rights
Highlights of article at http://sin-city.net/alanmiles_story_pornraids0517.htm

05|17|01 -- Los Angeles - The latest porn busts in Los Angeles and in other parts of the country are being blamed on a renewed effort by a conservative administration to step up the war against pornography -- something the Clinton administration avoided for eight years. The general consensus is that Attorney General John Ashcroft, being a devout religious zealot himself, will see that the Department of Justice increases federal obscenity prosecutions. Because of this perceived threat from Washington, local authorities will step up their prosecutions in this new prosecutorial atmosphere.

George W. Bush, our court-appointed president, cannot be soley blamed, as there is absolutely nothing new about the hostility towards the adult entertainment industry as a whole. The real enemy has been around for literally hundreds of years and has continually attacked all "unGodly" things such as adultry, abortion, homosexuality, alcohol, gambling and above all, any sexual activity other than procreative sex between a man and woman who are married to each other. They were successful in establishing Prohibition in this country -- failed miserably and went away.

The real enemy of all adult businesses is a relatively small group of fundamentalist Christians who have successfully elevated their brand of evangelical religion into the limelight. These are not mainstream Christian religious groups. The Southern Baptists are not a mainstream religion. Evangelicals do not represent mainstream religion. Many from these groups are on-the-lunatic-fringe zealots who believe in their literal translation of the Bible and preach that virtually anyone, who dares to disagree with their beliefs or their narrow-minded definition of "morality" are not only wrong, but destined to go to Hell.

Virtually powerless and disorganized 20 years ago, these fundamentalists formulated a new game plan. To avoid church-state separation problems, the churches began financing and establishing "political action organizations" with catchy names like the Christian Coalition, Focus on the Family and the American Family Association. "Preachers" immediately began to build large membership rolls by extolling the evils of pornography and other societal ills from their collective pulpits. They began their own television shows, like the Christian Coalition's 700 Club. Knowing full well that most adult Americans were very protective of their private sex lives and sexual preferences, they began using, and still use, catchy phrases like "it's all for the children." They screamed "child pornography," and their flock just naturally assumed kiddie-porn was readily available at the corner newsstand and certainly in those horrible adult bookstores. These zealots preached that homosexuals were preying on young children, and their "believers" escalated their new hatred of gay men to the point of murder.

These newly established "political action" groups, nothing more than a front for fundamentalist churches, began backing their own slate of political candidates throughout the entire political spectrum. They successfully elected school board members, city councilmen and county commissioners. The grassroots effort expanded to the state and national scene quickly, and now we even see fundamentalists in charge of our House of Representatives and the presidency.

These groups are very well funded, too. If a small town wants to rid itself of an adult business and hasn't the funding to successfully prosecute, one of the afore mentioned fundamentalist groups will, at no charge to local officials, send a competent attorney or team of attorneys to assist in the prosecution. It has happened many, many times in the past.

It only takes one fundamentalist in authority, or a similarly inclined citizen, to file a complaint, to wreak havoc upon an adult business. For the most part, the cop on the beat could care less about hassling an otherwise legally operating adult business operation. I've seen one little "bluehair" Baptist lady cause the closure of a legally licensed adult bookstore in Texas. I know of one current court case involving a swingers club that has been targeted for "hassle-by-cops" due to the efforts of a single fundamentalist police official who disapproves of that type of behavior. I could go on for hours, and cite literally hundreds of similar cases, as this same type of religious harassment is going on continually in towns and cities across America.

The fundamentalists are very proficient in knowing how to use law enforcement to enhance their religiously inspired war against "unGodly" adult businesses everywhere.

So, even though we see nothing but badges and black jackets physically enforcing the raids, seizures and general harrassment against all forms of adult businesses, the real enemy is fundamentalist churches. The fundamentalists declared "war on porn" many years ago, and most people in the adult industry ignored them. Now, the hard work and unyielding dedication of the Christian fundamentalist minority to enforce its morality upon all other American citizens is working. They are using the law to enforce their religious beliefs, and they have no organized opposition.

Don't blame "little-Bush" or Ashcroft -- they are simply the messengers of the opposition. It's time to go after the root problem -- an out-of-control minority element of well-organized and funded religious zealots. The only effective way to fight the opposition is to organize our efforts under a single banner. The time for an effective opposition of rational thinkers is now, before we lose years of hard-fought achievement.

--- Alan Miles

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