Campaign seeks to get Fortune 500 firms out of the porn-distribution business
The Layman Online, October 29, 2002
INDIANAPOLIS – The Religious Alliance Against Pornography and the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families are asking Christian leaders to join with them in their efforts to get AT&T and other Fortune 500 companies out of distributing pornography.
Dr. Jerry Kirk made the announcement Oct. 25 during the historic Confessing The Faith Conference – the first-ever gathering of renewing and confessing Christians in North America. Kirk, a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (USA), is the founder of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, which is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. He previously served as senior minister of College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati.
“We have worked on this for 2-1/2 years,” Kirk said, “and are now asking Christian leaders to join with us in two ways: by writing a personal letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft, encouraging and supporting him in the prosecution of obscenity, including “white-collar” pornographers. Secondly, we are asking every denomination and Christian organization to join together in a petition campaign to the president and attorney general, giving them broad and energetic support that will build a strong team with staying power for this effort and for future efforts against pornography and the sexualized messages of the culture. We cannot allow these companies to legitimize pornography in the minds of so many Americans.”
During a seminar titled “Satan’s Primary Strategy to Destroy the Church: Moral Breakdown Through Pornography and the Sexualized Messages of the Culture,” Kirk said that the messages of pornography – which he said are being promoted “consistently through the pop culture of music, radio, television, cable, satellite, movies, magazines and advertisements” – include:
- Sex is at the center of all relationships.
- Promiscuous sex with anyone in any way you want is not only not harmful, but beneficial.
- Women have one value, and that is from the neck down, to meet the sexual demands of men.
- The most exciting and fulfilling sex is outside of marriage. Children are a hindrance to good sex.
- Everyone is promiscuous and faithfulness within marriage is very rare.
Kirk said these messages have been “devastating to devout Christian men and women, to marriages, to family life and especially to children and youth.” Their effect, he said, “undermines a person’s relationship to God, to self, to spouse, to family and the family of God.”
He quoted Dr. Richard Land of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention: “Satan has devised a strategy to undermine the evangelistic passion of God’s people, the joy and power of their prayer lives, and the health of their marriages and families. His primary strategy is using pornography to seduce Christian men from their heart for God and His Word, and from their wives and children.”
But there is hope, Kirk said, citing 2 Corinthians 12:9-10: ” My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.”
In a supporting document, Kirk summarized recent anti-pornography efforts in the initiative to get AT&T and other Fortune 500 companies out of the porn distribution business:
1. Contacts with AT&T began in January 2000, with numerous letters … to the chairman and CEO of AT&T, expressing deep concern about “Ma Bell” being in the pornography business (similar letters were sent to General Motors).
2. The responses were form letters, not by …[the chairman], but by Daniel Sommers, president of their cable operations.
3. During the summer of 2000, AT&T decided to add hardcore pornography called “The Hot Network” to their cable system. We then wrote … [the chairman], and this time, every member of his board, asking them to stop distributing pornography. We again received form letters.
4. In early 2001, we communicated with … [the chairman] saying that since he would not respond to our letters, we were prepared to hold a national press conference announcing to the nation that AT&T has become a “white collar pornographer” and asking “Ma Bell” to get out of the porn industry. Only then did … [the chairman] agree to a meeting through his vice president.
5. Leaders of [the anti-pornography efforts] met in April, 2001 with [the chairman] and vice president … in which we shared our request, including research that clarifies the harm of pornography. [The chairman’s] response was cordial and respectful, but he clearly enunciated the same point of view as their many form letters:
- “We only distribute pornography to people who want it, seek it and pay for it;”
- “We provide blocking devices to help protect children from this material;”
- “And if we don’t distribute soft-core and hard-core pornography, then someone else will, and they will reap the financial rewards instead of us.” (It’s all about money.)
6. In late summer and fall of 2001, nearly 200 high-level religious leaders wrote personal letters to [the chairman], urging him to change his position.
7. A press conference was planned for December 2001, but was postponed when we learned that AT&T was spinning off their Broadband Cable system and merging it with Comcast. This will get AT&T, as a corporation, out of the pornography distribution business when the merger is complete. But their shareholders will become more directly involved with ownership in the new company (AT&T Comcast), which intends to stay in the pornography business. And [the chairman] will leave AT&T and become chairman of the new company, AT&T Comcast.
8. We communicated our concern by letter to [the] president and CEO of Comcast and of the merging company, AT&T Comcast. We have received no response from him, but have received a phone call from his legal counsel, that we should work through these issues with [the AT&T chairman], which then led to our second meeting with him July 23, 2000. Again, the meeting was cordial, but the same arguments that were given to us in the form letters and personal meetings were forcefully presented with no promise to get out of the porn business. In fact, we received a rationale for AT&T and AT&T Comcast staying in the porn business.
9. The Religious Alliance and National Coalition have decided to join with other concerned citizens, organizations, denominations, and faith groups to recruit high-level Christian and/or religious leaders to do two things: Write Attorney General Ashcroft a personal letter and to launch a petition campaign to the president and attorney general strongly supporting their efforts to prosecute adult obscenity, including “white-collar pornographers.” Copies of the petitions will be delivered to the leaders of AT&T, Comcast, AOL and General Motors, with a letter asking them to get out of the pornography business now, and to stay out of the porn business permanently.
Leaders of the anti-pornography effort also have released a strategy paper, a petition and a sample letter. For more information, contact the Religious Alliance Against Pornography and the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families, 800 Compton Road, Suite 9224, Cincinnati, OH 45231; phone: (513) 521-6227; fax: (513) 521-6337.