August 30, 2012
Column #1,618a
Hard Core Porn: the Cancer of
Marriage
By
Mike McManus
Hard-core
pornography is involved in more than half of all divorces. It
is also addicting our youth, distorting their values, and
rendering many young men sexually dysfunctional.
However, there is
hope. One change in the Republican Party Platform this year
over previous years is very important to American families.
Past Republican
platforms only opposed child pornography. The new platform
adopted this week states: “Current laws on all forms of
pornography and obscenity need to be vigorously enforced.”
Believe it or not,
“Current federal obscenity laws not only prohibit distribution
of hardcore pornography on the Internet, but also on hotel/motel
TV, on cable/satellite TV and in retail shops.” according to
Patrick Trueman, president of Morality in Media.
“Yet most children
in America have free access to obscene pornography as soon as
they learn how to use a computer. The average age of first
exposure to obscene internet pornography is 11,” he said
Trueman knows what
he is talking about. He once led the Justice Department’s
prosecution of obscenity in the Reagan and Bush I
Administrations, when more than 100 major cases were filed and
won in the courts.
However, that
prosecution virtually ended in the Clinton Administration. It
was not revived during the Bush II years, and there has not been
one case filed by the Obama Justice Department, and Justice’s
Obscenity Prosecution Task Force was quietly shut down by
Attorney General Eric Holder
Democratic
Administrations must shoulder most of the blame, but there was
very little prosecution under George W. Bush‘s 8 years in
office, either.
Why not?
According to Jill Manning of the American Society of Divorce
Counselors, 56% of divorces cite Internet pornography as a major
factor in the breakup of their marriage.
Dr. Patrick Fagan,
Director of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute of the
Family Research Council (FRC), wrote a report explaining that
“Married men who are involved in pornography feel less satisfied
with their conjugal relations and less emotionally attached to
their wives. Wives notice and are upset by the difference.
Pornography use is a pathway to infidelity and divorce.”
“Among couples
affected by one spouse’s addiction, two-thirds experience a loss
of interest in sexual intercourse. Both spouses perceive
pornography viewing as tantamount to infidelity.”
Therefore, it is
encouraging that Fagan’s boss, Tony Perkins, FRC President, was
able to add the anti-obscenity plank to the Republican Platform
as a delegate from Louisiana. “We are most grateful to Tony
Perkins who led the effort to get this tough new language into
the platform,” said Trueman. “Without enforcement of federal
obscenity laws, pornographers have had a green light to target
our children and families.”
However, if Mitt
Romney is elected President, he pledged to Morality in Media
that there will be enforcement. As Vice Presidential Nominee
Paul Ryan said in his acceptance speech, Romney is a “defender
of marriage.”
America is
suffering “an untreated pandemic of harm from pornography, which
touches nearly every family in America,” asserts Trueman.
“Research shows children and adults are developing life-long
addictions to pornography; there is a very substantial increase
in demand for child pornography because many adult-porn users
are finding they are no longer excited by adult images.
“On average four
of five 16-year-olds now regularly access pornography on line.
Girls consuming pornography are several times more likely to
engage in group sex than those who do not. And significant,
growing numbers of men in their twenties are developing
`porn-induced sexual dysfunction,’ said Trueman.
What priorities
would he suggest for a Romney Justice Department?
1.
Prosecute the handful of companies, such as Vivid Video,
which produce most of the material on the Internet.
2.
Target the one company, Lodgenet, which makes millions in
distributing hard core porn to motels and hotels.
3.
Go after Verizon, Comcast and other cable and satellite
providers of obscenity.
Will Congress ever
pass legislation that would have such a sweeping impact?
Trueman’s Morality
in Media launched a “War On Illegal Pornography” in 2010 that
Involved 127 national, state and local
groups (including Marriage Savers that I lead). He helped Sen.
Orrin Hatch draft a letter seeking federal enforcement of
obscenity law by Obama’s Justice Department and secured the
signatures of 42 Senators, including California’s Dianne
Feinstein and Amy Klobuchar who are Democrats.
It will be much easier to win
bipartisan support – if Mitt Romney is elected President, and he
leads the battle to enforce existing laws, as he has pledged to
do.
Really, there’s hope! |