We Can Still Win
Remarks by Daniel Weiss at the Conference on Pornography, May 19, 2008.
In 1994, Pat Trueman wrote a column in which he said, "The war against pornography is over. We lost." With all due respect to my good friend, I disagree. And I believe Pat wouldn’t be here today if he didn’t also disagree with his statement from 14 years ago.
We are here—all of us—because we still believe fighting pornography is a winnable war. Today we are making a bold political statement: We have not given up this fight. We didn’t give up under Janet Reno; we didn’t give up under John Ashcroft or Alberto Gonzales; and we aren't giving up under Michael Mukasey or his successor either.
Today we are declaring that we have not abandoned our culture to pornographers who viciously distort sexuality, tear marriages apart, degrade and abuse women, enslave men, and prey upon and consume children. And we are declaring in no uncertain terms that we are not giving a pass to those enforcement officers who actually subvert the law through stalling and inaction. The Department of Justice has a responsibility to the people of this nation. Today we say to this institution with an unequivocal voice: you are failing to execute justice and this will not stand.
Of course, Pat's words about the war against pornography were prophetic. He knew what would happen if the federal government stopped vigorously attacking this criminal enterprise. He knew culture would become what it is today.
I have long felt that the battle against pornography and obscenity must be waged on two fronts: reducing supply and reducing demand. The supply side battle is fought in the law enforcement arena. Federal statutes and most state laws prohibit the sale, distribution and dissemination of obscene materials.
However, if an obscenity law isn't enforced, it's as if it doesn’t exist at all. This is the situation in America today. Many good meaning people, people who are sick and tired of a pornographic culture assaulting them at every corner, actually believe that obscene material—hard core pornography—is legal in this country. And, because they believe it is legal, they have resigned themselves to its existence. This is what the pornographers have worked so hard to achieve.
We must be clear on this next point: An absence of law enforcement is not a neutral act. It is a decidedly partisan act that aids those dealing in illegal materials. Those who sit on their hands at the DOJ or the state or local level, those who would do nothing to protect us from this destructive content, have chosen a side and it is the side of the criminals. I have a question for our next President: will you allow criminal pornographers to flourish during your term? Your actions and those of your attorney general will be your answer.
Our other major task is to reduce demand. This speaks to people's desire for this material. Because of excessive exposure we are seeing a growing number of men and women becoming addicted to pornography—unable to leave it behind.
For many years I have said that the fight to reduce demand must be waged by the Church. Christians and people of faith have a message of hope and healing for a sexually wounded culture. We must proclaim the beautiful vision of God's design for sexuality and gender, that God has blessed us as male and female and called us into oneness in marriage.
Many in this world, even those who access and view pornography, are tired of the ugliness that pornography brings and its message of treating others as sexual objects to use and discard. To reduce demand for this material, the Church must loudly proclaim its beautiful counter-vision, to give people a true choice. Our silence makes us just as complicit as those who would not enforce the law.
However, law enforcement agencies also play a significant part in reducing demand. When pornography is allowed to flourish, a demand is created that can only be satisfied by commercial sex acts.
Dr. Melissa Farley said, “Pornography is men’s rehearsal for prostitution.”
Dr. Donna M. Hughes confirms this. She says, "Pornography, stripping, prostitution – we tend to think of them as really separate categories. But if you’re actually in the sex industry, they’re quite seamless."
There is no difference between porn, prostitution and sex trafficking. Together they form a seamless fabric of exploitation and abuse. If we ignore the threat of pornography, as is happening today with law enforcement agencies throughout the nation, we allow the sexual exploitation of women and children in the criminal sex industry to flourish.
The State Department estimates that at least 600,000 to 800,000 human beings are trafficked across international borders each year. Of those, 80 percent are women and girls, 50 percent are children and 70 percent are forced into sexual servitude.
All of us here have a role to play in ending this cycle of abuse. Woody Allen once comedically said that 80 percent of success is just showing up. However, this issue is no joke. We must start showing up and standing against this evil in our homes, our towns, our communities, our nation and our world. We must loudly protest any abuse we encounter. There is no constitutional right to exploit others. Enslaving a person in addiction and destroying marriages is not free speech. We must begin to shine a light into this darkness wherever it exists, whether in the local strip club or porn shop, in a national hotel chain or satellite provider, in the local police station or even in the nation's top law enforcement agency.
Showing up today is our promise to those who have been harmed by pornography: This war is not over; we are going to win.
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