Excerpts from mail: 13-Feb-96 Re: Spin Control Alert (LI .. by Sten Drescher@grendel.te
As someone who would prolly be considered part of the 'religious right' (why don't we ever hear of the 'religious left', who are prolly just as much in support of banning porn?), I have to take exception to this. I'm appalled by the CDA, and, if you start pointing out to religious supporters of the CDA that it has already resulted in the King James version of the Bible being removed from (at least) one web site, I'm sure that some of them will be as well,
I do hope the religious right keeps fighting against GAK. However good their intentions may be on *that* issue, it is transcendently obvious to anyone who has been following the flux on Capitol Hill that they were behind the recent push to regulate the Internet. (I assume your Bible argument is just posturing. No U.S. Attorney, political appointees they, ever will prosecute someone who puts the complete text of the King James Bible online.) So you are trivially correct in asserting that not everyone who identifies as a member of the "religious right" supports all the actions of their lobbyists in Washington. However, that does not change the fact that conservative theocrats were the architects of the cyberporn scare and the accompanying "indecency" legislation. The selfsame theocrats, in fact, used Marty Rimm's cyberporn study and the TIME cyberporn cover as a vehicle to promote their agenda. The very conservative Sen. Chuck Grassley in July 1995 organized a hearing around Rimm's study to justify his anti-smut legislation. "Not a study by an advocacy group!" he crowed on the Senate floor. Of course, he neglected to say that religious right lobbyists *helped write* Rimm's study, and a member of his staff likely was involved. Let's see who the players are, as identified by Mike Godwin: 1) _The National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families._ Formerly the National Coalition Against Pornography, this organization renamed itself last year, perhaps in anticipation of its legislative compaign against online "indecency" (a broader category than pornography). 2) _The National Law Center for Children and Families._ This orgnization was formerly headed by antiporn activist Cathy Cleaver -- it is now headed by Bruce Taylor, formerly a prosecutor specializing in obscenity cases and formerly the general counsel of a an antiporn group based in Phoenix, Arizona, and founded under the name "Citizens for Decency through Law." The organization was founded by Charles Keating, himself a veteran of the Attorney General's Commission on Pornography (a.k.a. the Meese Commission). 3) _Enough is Enough!_ Presenting itself as a secular effort, this organization provides a platform for former party girl and ex-No Excuses-jeans model Donna Rice-Hughes, who has leveraged her fame from the Gary Hart candidacy into a career as an antiporn activist. (With almost suspiciously frequent meetings with Bob Dole.) Enough is Enough is headed by Dee Jepsen, who testified about the dangers of online nastiness at Grassley's cyberporn hearing. Bob Chatelle from the Boston Coalition for Freedom of Expression reports that Jepsen is Chairman of the Board of Regents of Pat Roberson's Regent University, is Cochair of Washington For Jesus, and has served on the Steering Committee of the Coalition on Revival, closely linked with the Christian Reconstructionist movement. Reconstructionists believe that Christians should "take dominion" and establish Old Testament law. Many Reconstructionists openly advocate death for homosexuals, preferably by stoning. I'd be happy to expand on the links between the religious right and the move to regulate the Net, but Mike Godwin has already done it quite eloquently, at: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~declan/rimm/ Some additional background about Donna Rice's censorship efforts, including recent media profiles of her: http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/fight-censorship/dl?num=1178 http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/fight-censorship/dl?num=302 -Declan