Indiana- Walk into the Family Video store in Beech Grove, and you can’t miss the ad for “The Passion of the Christ” — the Mel Gibson movie can be ordered for $17.99, the sign says, and customers are urged to reserve copies quickly.

So how about some porn with that passion? No way, says a friendly clerk behind the counter. Sorry. No X-rated stuff at her store.

Then, visit any of the other 12 or so Family Videos in Indianapolis, and you’ll see, lo and behold, that each offers a big selection of X-rated movies in a room behind swinging doors at the store’s rear.

So what gives? Why is a private, family-owned chain in Springfield, Ill., that calls itself Family Video peddling “Servicing Sara,” “Hot Girls” and “Perfect Pink” in some stores and a Jesus movie in others?

Welcome to America — and a perfectly legal, in fact successful, business model. Family Video invites children into its stores with a huge array of video games, but it rents dirty movies aplenty, local laws permitting. All under the family banner.

Perhaps it had to come to this, so we’d have something to talk about on Sunday besides politics.

But first, let’s look at Indiana Code 35-49-3-3, which allows this weirdness to happen. It is illegal to “sell, display or disseminate matter harmful to minors within 500 feet of the nearest property line of a church or school.” Hence, the Beech Grove Family Video is X-less — it’s across from Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church and School.

These contradictions were noted scornfully last week by frustrated reader Nora Hovee, a Southside mother of four, including three teenagers. Hovee says Family Videos are popping up all over the Southside. (Indeed, the company, with 350 stores in 10 states, is No. 4 in national revenue, behind Blockbuster, Hollywood Entertainment and Movie Gallery. The first two don’t rent X-rated movies and are struggling. No. 3 and No. 4 do and are doing fine.)

Hovee heard from irate friends about the Family Video adult room. She went to see for herself. “I was in there five seconds before I couldn’t stand it anymore. The pictures on the video covers were enough to make me retreat.”

What galls Hovee is the legal notion that children and teens are vulnerable only when a church or school is nearby — that, and the Family Video name. Eastsider Norm Pace agrees with her. The Warren Township activist was pleased when a Family Video first located in his area. He soured when he saw the smut section. “We would have remonstrated,” he says, had he known in advance what the store sold.

Access is also a big issue, critics say. At Family Video, the adult-movie room is entered through swinging half-doors at the end of a short hall. No clerks are there to monitor action. This is in sharp contrast to two local independent video stores that offer adult selections along with regular fare — Video Vault on the Northside keeps its X-rated material behind a heavy, closed door. MassAve Video in Downtown Indianapolis keeps it in the basement.

Family Video spokesman Craig Hartener says: “We are not doing anything that is against the law. We adhere to all local regulations. We get a very small number of complaints regarding this issue.”

He can add two to his list. But Hovee and Pace need to know they are not just taking a stand for decency but also fighting a $4 billion industry. “If Family Video wasn’t making any money, they would take it (adult movies) out,” says Don Rosenberg, editor of Video Store Magazine in California. “The truth is, it is a very profitable business.”