Religious Right Raises the Spector of Porn Over the Land. Again.

While the religious right continues its apparently losing public-relations battle against LGBT equality, it's giving renewed attention to another perceived bogeyman: pornography.

Morality in Media, a decades-old conservative group created with the singular purpose of wiping out porn, has launched a month-long campaign against it."Be Aware: Porn Harms" is sponsored by the War On Illegal Pornography Coalition that includes such 110 anti-gay organizations, such as Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council and the American Family Association.

LGBTs may know Morality in Media from its infamous 2009 news release (here referenced by gay blogger Pam Spaulding). The "news" release purported to show the connection between mass murder and same-sex marriage. It later backed off that assertion, just.

This time around, its anti-porn campaign curiously omits any mention of the word "gay."

In 2007, the organization received $300,000 in federal funds resulting from earmarks inserted in spending bills by a Republican Virginia congressman, but has received no funding since.

The organization has resurrected the specter of porn destroying relationships, teen boys' sock drawers and smooth hand palms because "pornography is silently and secretly destroying men, women, and children," according to President Patrick Trueman. "It is a pandemic ruining lives, marriages and families."

Same-Old Same-Old
It's a familiar stance used against marriage equality and other gay rights, but this time the Bible thumpers are targeting what they call "our now pornified society" for eroding "the cultural norms in America."

The campaign, launched July 11, will focus each week on a different aspect of adult entertainment: porn addiction, harm to children, increased sexual trafficking and violence against women.

"Every day we receive messages from the victims of pornography," said Dawn Hawkins, Morality in Media executive director, in a news release, "men caught in the ravages of addiction, women and children raped, women trafficked and made to perform degrading sexual acts on tape, broken families and devastated hearts."

In an interview, Hawkins said this is the first time the coalition has launched a national campaign. The organization will publicize the campaign through its members. It's using direct mail, distributing billboards and posters and sponsoring online ads on Facebook and the Google Ad Network, she reported.

"The campaign targets people who are struggling with harms relating to pornography by offering free counseling, addiction recovering services and Internet filtering subscriptions," Hawkins explained. Supporters also are making online presentations in a series of web casts.

Thus far, the campaign has not attracted any mainstream media coverage, although some conservative Christian web sites have posted coverage.

Morality in Media was created in 1962, but does not have a record on the surface of sweeping accomplishments; but Robert Peters, general counsel and former president, did provide EDGE with a list of achievements.

It did help the U.S. Department of Justice enforce obscenity laws. It also created an online mechanism for citizens to report violations: The New York Times reported in 2007 that no prosecutions resulted from its tracking efforts. Its officers testified before Congress about obscenity laws that resulted in resolutions but no new legislation.

The organization did, however, help fend off an effort in the 1970s to repeal adult obscenity laws. President Lyndon Johnson in 1968 appointed the Rev. Morton Hill, a Jesuit and one of its founders, to the Presidential Commission on Obscenity and Pornography.

While the commission recommended repeal in 1970, Hill called its report a "Magna Carta for the pornographer" in a dissent, which Congress used in defeating repeal. The Supreme Court upheld obscenity laws in 1973 and established a three-tier test on what is obscene versus what is merely erotic, which is protected by the First Amendment.

The U.S. has no national standard defining obscenity and instead relies on individual court case rulings. The nation's highest justices have a tough time with it. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart probably said the most famous thing about it when he wrote that he would not attempt to define obscenity, "but I know it when I see it."

The American Civil Liberties Union has stated that it does not support pornography, although it does support prosecution of child pornography. "However, we do oppose virtually all forms of censorship," it says in a statement on one of its state's chapter's sites. "Possessing certain books or films, even pornographic ones, should not make one a criminal. Once society starts censoring 'bad or offensive' ideas, it becomes very difficult to draw the line. As the saying goes, 'one man's art is another man's pornography.'"

Diane Duke is the executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an organization that represents the interests of the adult film industry and fights attempts at censoring their wares (or the means of creating them).

"The First Amendment is at the heart of what Americans consider respect about our freedom and constitution. Inherently people don't want people to tell them what to do in the privacy of their own homes. We're on the front lines of fighting for people's rights on that."

Duke dismissed Morality in Media, by saying, "Any organization whose goals are to censor what individuals do in private is dangerous to our civil liberties." She sees the organization capitalizes on the fact that sex remains a hot-button issue in a nation founded by devout religious societies like the Quakers, Puritans and Calvinists.

"Politicians say it's bad for your children," she continued. "Of course it's bad for children, in the same way as driving a car is bad for children. Children are not meant to drive cars or to view pornography or be used in porn. We make sure children are not used in our video content."

So What Fun Thing Isn't 'Addictive'?

Duke also questioned the contention that porn is addictive: "I don't believe that's true. Obsessive-compulsive behavior is a problem in our society and it's important to look at that behavior. But don't blame addiction to shopping, hoarding, eating, hoarding or adult entertainment. It's important for people to look at what the underlying problems are."

Michael Lucas, the outspoken owner of Lucas Entertainment, one of the leading studios producing gay porn, had some choice words for the leaders of Morality in Media. He described them as sexually frustrated people unhappy with their lives.

"A happy person will not try to dedicate their life to fighting the industry that gives lots of pleasure to men," Lucas observed in an interview. "They have unhappy marriages and they are just looking for someone to blame for their problems and vent their anger."

Lucas singled out Jill Manning, a Mormon and licensed family therapist whose specialties include Internet pornography. Manning is offering reading lists and seminars on the Morality in Media's campaign website.

Accusing her and other campaign leaders of incorrectly demonizing the adult entertainment industry, Lucas believes Manning and her ilk are sexually frustrated and insecure. "She just hates men in general," he contended. "Because she hates what men do she is an insecure person and she obviously has struggles with jealousy. It's a personal problem. She made herself into a victim. I'm sure life with her husband is not happy. She doesn't have children, so how can she be an expert? An attitude like hers comes from their own bad experience and they blame porn for their problems."

As to Morality in Media's accusation that porn demeans women, Lucas countered that it is the one downgrading women. "They assume a woman is so helpless that she's not in charge," he said. "By saying porn is degrading to women they are saying women are hopeless and weak. Women are strong, are beautiful and are in charge."

He pointed out that women are the principal characters and are paid more than the men are in straight porn. "Women are the stars and making all the money. So they are full of shit about that."

Been There, Done That

Whatever the outcome of the (so-far, rather anemic but still growing) latest salvo in the war of the self-proclaimed Saved against the Damned, this country has been through this before many times. In the 1890s, people were shocked at popular entertainment in rowdy places like New York's Bowery and San Francisco's Barbary Coast.

The day after the first film starring and written by Mae West, the queen of sexual innuendo, the Catholic Legion of Decency was founded. Protesters carried signs in front of theaters showing West's film "It's No Sin" that proclaimed "Yes, it is." In the 1970s, the Women's Movement was torn by advocates for women's sexuality and those who saw porn as pure violence against women.

The most serious threat to pornography came during the administration of Ronald Reagan with the Meese Report. U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese oversaw an unwieldy tome of 1,960 pages. The conclusion? Pornography is the product of, and abets, organized crime. It provided a litany of the harmful effects of porn. First Amendment scholars pretty much dismissed it and its impact was ultimately minimal.

Whether the latest Great Awakening will make a dent in a large and profitable industry remains to be seen. Ultimately, the judge of the porn industry is probably the public itself, and as long as there is a market for it, someone will most likely be producing it.