Stopping pornography is like fixing a broken dam. You may be able to patch one section, but that does little to stop the rest of the dam from breaking.
This futile effort isn’t stopping Christian minister and 2008 Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Greg Thompson. Thompson is part of a nationwide effort to boycott Family Video, a movie rental store that sells hardcore pornography.
With more than 500 stores, Family Video is the third largest video franchise, after Movie Gallery and Blockbuster. Family Video opened four stores in the Springfield area in 2004.
Anti-decency groups such as the American Family Association have boycotted Family Video since the mid-1990s, claiming that the store name is deceptive. As new stores pop up across the Midwest, the protests follow.
In fairness to Family Video, the name simply refers to the family who founded the company. The business remains privately owned. The name has nothing to do with the type of videos that they sell.
I declined a management position with Family Video in 2002 because I wanted to finish my two-year church mission, put on temporary hold due to hand surgery. It bothered me that the chain had a back room full of adult videos, with an “adults only” sign but accessible to children.
I refused to rent from Family Video, choosing instead Movie Gallery. After discovering that Movie Gallery also sold hardcore pornography, I gave up my boycott and instead shop for the best deals.
That’s why boycotts seldom work. People give up when they realize that they can’t stop a multi-billion dollar industry.
Pornography in the United States is bigger than Major League Baseball, the National Football League and the National Basketball Association combined, raking in more than $13 billion annually. Worldwide, pornography hauls in about $100 billion, more than double the earnings of Microsoft.
In numerous polls, more than half of adult Christians surveyed have admitted to viewing porn, including church pastors. Porn use isn’t restricted to men. Women account for a third of all visitors to pornographic Web sites.
Like his efforts at Humansville High School to keep the 10 Commandments posted in the cafeteria, Thompson is fighting a losing battle. There is simply no way to stop people from viewing pornography.
Even if Thompson succeeds in shaming people from renting adult movies at one store, he can’t stop the unrestricted easy access of the Internet. Boycotting Best Buy won’t stop Internet porn.
With the growing problem of pornography addiction, many local churches are offering counseling services. While this may save marriage and careers for the addicts, it doesn’t solve the problem of where to rent videos.
If local residents truly want to support a video store that doesn’t sell pornographic titles, including soft core titles like “Girls Gone Wild,” someone should open a local video store that caters to this market. Let market forces decide if people want to shop at video stores that don’t offer pornography.
While I support Thompson’s First Amendment right to protest Family Video, I believe it’s a wasted effort. If anything, he’s increasing publicity for Family Video and generating more sales for their porn.
The average video renter will be looking for the back room to see what the protest is all about. Some will be outraged and not rent videos from Family Video. Others will laugh it off, or worse, make Family Video their main source for video porn.
Like smoking and drinking, pornography is a deadly vice that should be avoided. With the exception of child pornography, it’s not the responsibility of the government to protect you from porn addiction.
Individually, we can’t stop the flood of pornography sweeping our culture. We can determine how much we allow into our homes.