The Lighted Candle Society

During the past month we received several new accounts of children who became victims of sexual abuse. The details of these tragedies are not suitable for public dissemination. However, there is a pattern that emerges in most of these accounts. The child is too young to effectively resist the demands of the adult. The adult is almost always a member of the immediate family or else is a near relative of the immediate family. The adult is deeply involved with pornography and pedophilia, which is child pornography. A part of the abuse of the child is to photograph or videotape him or her in sexually explicit poses. One of the compulsions of the pedophile is the desire to produce their own pornographic materials and then sell or trade it to others. These photographs show the specific sexual

abuse of the child. The result is that the child is physically harmed as well as emotionally traumatized.

Because of the age of the child there is seldom a report to adult authorities. Ultimately the child matures sufficiently that he or she is capable of resisting being forced into this type of relationship. By this time the victim has suffered such debilitating trauma and humiliation that he or she will not share it with the authorities. The emotional scars and physical pain and suffering from the sexual abuse often make it impossible for the victim to accept physical intimacy as part of the romance in marriage.

There is also a pattern of events when the perpetrators of such hideous crimes are brought before the court. The producers and distributors of pornography vociferously deny that there is any causal relationship between their products and the behavior of the offender. The motion picture industry and the slick magazine publishers are shamelessly hypocritical as they condemn such merciless abuse of a helpless and innocent child. When confronted with the assertion that in fact in all began with them, that in truth they are the ones who ought to be brought to justice, they hide behind the shibboleth of the “right of free speech and the first amendment.” The documentation of how such pornographic magazines as Playboy, Hustler, and Penthouse have systematically promoted the sexual abuse of children is both extensive and irrefutable.

No organization has been more aggressive in defending the actions of the pornography industry than the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Note the following statements of Policy of The ACLU taken from their own official records:

“The ACLU opposes any restraint on the right to create, publish or distribute materials to adults, or the right of adults to choose the material they read or view, on the basis of Obscenity, Pornography or Indecency.”

Laws which punish the distribution or exposure of such material to minors violate the First Amendment and inevitably restrict the right to publish and distribute such materials to adults…The ACLU maintains that a causal relationship between exposure to sexually explicit material and juvenile delinquency has never been carried (sic) to the point of definitive proof…the First Amendment does not allow suppression of speech because of the potential harm…Victims of sexual offences may also have grounds to sue for torts or contract claims.”

*Taken from the 6^th revised Policy Guide of the ACLU of June 1986.”

We have published on several previous occasions the direct involvement in the production and distribution of pornography by many so-called “respectable” corporate entities. We affirm once again the accuracy of our prior publications regarding the enormous profits from the production and distribution of obscene materials by these entities. If the reader desires to see the documentation of how so-called “respectable” big businesses are reaping huge profits from pornography please go to the Lighted Candle Society web site at www.lightedcandlesociety.org.

In this newsletter, however, we take a more careful look at how often parents fail to protect their children from the initial introduction to pornography.

Failure # 1. Parents simply could not be bothered to take the time to know what was going on in the lives of their children. Consider the following letter received by the Lighted Candle Society from a mother in California. The letter is addressed to her daughter’s 4^th grade teacher:

“Could you please give my daughter another famous Californian to represent? You gave her Mariel Hemingway. Before she told me who she had, she got on the computer tonight to do some research. A few seconds later she called me into the study. She had gone to a usually safe site…but there next to the entry on Mariel is a picture of her on the cover of Playboy. Our daughter doesn’t know what Playboy is, but she guessed that it wasn’t a wholesome magazine. We both started reading the entry together, until two paragraphs into it I had to close it. Mariel’s claim to fame is playing Woody Allen’s teenage lover in “Manhattan”; she’s also famous for a lesbian kiss on “Roseanne.”

To her credit the teacher responded to the mother with appreciation for having made her aware of the facts. She explained that the name was taken from a list provided to her by the school district. Was what the writer’s daughter saw on the web site pornography? Yes it was! To a nine year old girl the photograph and the narrative conveyed an irreversible image to her brain that could only be categorized in her mind as pornography.

Failure # 2. Parents are woefully ignorant of the subtlety with which pornography is being marketed to their children. The author was stunned recently to be sitting in church behind a family of two parents and four young children. A daughter of six years of age was fussing with understandable childish boredom during a sermon from the pulpit. The mother handed her daughter a coloring book entitled, Your Favorite MTV Stars. The Lighted Candle Society in the past has documented the incredible volume of obscene lyrics that are broadcast over MTV. A well meaning but pathetically naïve mother handed her six year old daughter a coloring book which contained glamorized sketches of the female stars who every day are singing about illicit sex, drugs, carnal mayhem, and lesbianism. A six year old girl was being taught to idolize Satan’s handmaidens by her own mother.

Failure # 3. Parents willingly accept pornography in their own choice of entertainment because it is often camouflaged in humor. Recently one motion picture patron recited her experience in attending a newly released motion picture with the comment: “We should have walked out, the language was so foul, but the show was absolutely hilarious.” What is a child supposed to think are their parent’s values when they hear a comment like that?

Failure # 4. Adults are desensitized to sexually explicit materials because it is all about them. Thus, they forget what is happening in the mind of a child when that same material is place before them. Consider the following column by Marcia Herman-Giddens, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

“I was recently standing at the checkout counter of the supermarket with my twelve year old granddaughter when I happened to notice that her eye level was exactly on the level with the Cosmopolitan magazine. The headline on the cover was “10 Ways To drive Your Man Wild in Bed” and my granddaughter was standing there, reading, looking at this half-naked woman. I’m thinking to myself, ‘I wonder what in God’s name is going through this child’s mind. It’s in their face, all the time, literally.”

(“The Making Of An 8 Year Old Woman,” The New York Times Magazine, April 28, 2000.)

What are the solutions that responsible parents should implement in their homes in order to counteract the enormous efforts being made by “Satan Incorporated” to seduce their children into an addiction to pornography?

Nothing is more effective in protecting children from the tragedy of permissive sexual activity than daily involvement by parents in the lives of their children.

Analyze where and how children’s values are being formed. A study conducted by the University of California concluded that when the average student finished the 12th grade, from the first day of Kindergarten until the last day of high school he or she had spent three thousand more hours watching television than in the classroom.

Be aware that so-called “sex education” in the classroom is often a graphic representation of sexual conduct. Would you rather have your child suffer embarrassment because you had him or her excused from such classes or run the risk that he or she will be one more statistic in the epidemic of sexually transmitted diseases among teenagers?
Do not allow the deceptive use of motion picture ratings to hide the true message in a motion picture. Take the time to know for certain about the content of a motion picture that your children will see.

May we be so bold as to suggest that if you are concerned about the lives your children will live as they enter adulthood that you seriously consider:

A. If you must have television, then establish very specific rules regarding what programs can be watched and when. Wise parents use the t.v. set primarily for watching video-cassettes and DVD’s that they have confirmed are appropriate.

B. Attend every back to school night. Personally look at the materials that your children are studying, particularly in “health education” classes. Never assume that what is being presented in the classroom is consistent with your own values.

C. Discuss specific standards of right and wrong with your children. Teach them to commit themselves to principles that will guide them in any situation.

D. Utilize a proven content filter on your computer. Keep computers located in common areas of the home – never in a child’s bedroom.

The Lighted Candle Society

Tel: 801-532-4466 Fax: 801-992-2001

lightedcandlesociety@msn.com

109 E. South Temple, Suite 6E

Salt Lake City, Utah 84111