LIGHTED CANDLE SOCIETY NEWSLETTER

During the past month three items that were mentioned prominently in the news never revealed “…the rest of the story.” Had they done so, matters which resulted in national angst and enormous political distress would at least have been better understood. The “rest of the story” that was known to the national media, but never told, might even have produced a renewed commitment in the nation with regard to eradicating the production and distribution of pornography.

The coverage of the Mark Foley scandal was the top story of the news for over a week in October. The Republican political leadership bungled the handling of the crisis in two ways: first, they let the Democrats and the media frame the critical issue in terms of “who knew what and when;” second, they allowed themselves to make Foley a goat and a villain instead of pointing out that in fact this homosexual Congressman was an addict to pornography. He sent those stupid e-mails and made those inane telephone calls because as an addict he had no power over his own behavior. He had become a victim of the pornography industry.

No one on the right side of the isle raised the question as to why a homosexual man would pay such inordinate focus on teens to the point of public humiliation. The hunting for “who knew what and when” did a whitewash job on the need to address the real problem of which Congressmen Foley and others in the Congress are merely symptoms. The problem is the fact that we have a society in which there are now millions of individuals addicted to pornography. That addiction in turn produces a culture that promotes and cultivates sexual abuse of children and women.

The fact is that the overwhelming production and distribution of pornography promotes a homosexual culture in this country. The American media and entertainment industry devote enormous amounts of time and money to cultivating the very behaviors for which Foley is being criminalized. Had the Republican leadership not fallen into the trap of attempting to prove “…who knew what and when,” but rather had identified the problem for what is really is, (i.e., addiction to pornography) and then pinned the “guilty tail” where it belongs, on the American media and entertainment industry, the political fallout could have been directed to solving the problem instead of blaming one of the victims.

The real problem is not Mark Foley. The problem is the “who knew what and when” and the “Lets have an Investigation” mentality that ignores the root of the problem that lay in the anti-family, anti-innocence culture that is at large and in Washington. Until our elected officials truly care that you cannot kill a weed by pulling off its leaves this problem will continue to grow. We will see more of these scandals as a new generation of men and women influenced by pornography, media and advocacy that stimulates and romanticizes sex with children grow up to become our elected officials.

Addiction to pornography was involved in the recent shootings at an Amish schoolhouse in rural Pennsylvania and a large public high school in Colorado. The killers went out of their way to separate the girls from the boys, and then deliberately attacked only the girls. The media have again totally obfuscated the most essential aspect of these hideous crimes. The killers came to the schools with the specific intention of raping and then murdering the girls.

Why have the media continually failed to point out the fact that in every instance where these hideous crimes of violence against women and children have taken place the ultimate motivation for the crime was the addiction of the perpetrator of the crime to pornography? Very simply, their silence on this issue is because of the need to protect the entities that are also owned by these same media giants that are in the business of producing and distributing pornography. This conspiracy is so blatant and so vile that it ought to produce an outcry of citizen demands that this constant menu of obscenity and violence be stopped before it destroys our society.

During the week of October 16^th to the 20^th, a flyer advertising subscription opportunities to a number of pornographic publications was distributed on the campuses of every major college and university in the state. Printed and distributed by an entity entitled magazineline.com the flyer offers students an opportunity to obtain subscriptions to these popular magazines at “…lowest guaranteed prices.” Three of the five magazine covers featured on the front page of the flyer were of sexually explicit or blatantly pornographic magazines. Included in the listing of magazines available were The Advocate, the well known publication by and for homosexuals; FHM, Maxim, Out, Penthouse, Playboy, Playgirl, and Stuff Magazine, all of which contain explicit graphic pornography.

The flyer in question allows anyone at any age to fill in the order form. In essence the entity involved is pandering pornography to students of any age, with no restriction contained in the flyer as to age. The flyer violates Utah statutes in several specific ways. Yet, there will be no action taken by the institutional officials nor by the county and state law enforcement officials with regard to this matter. There will be hundreds of young men subscribing to these publications. Ultimately because of what they see in these magazines some of them will become addicted to pornography. Equally certain is the fact that ultimately some of them will inflict upon innocent children, youth, and women, the vicious abuse that the hypocritical media wring their hands about each time they print or publish or broadcast the stories of these atrocities. Atrocities that come about because of the financial greed of the parent entities of these media outlets which parent entities in turn are producing and distributing the very material that ultimately causes these crimes.

THE PORNOGRAHIC HOLIDAY CALLED HALLOWEEN

Another October 31^st is soon upon us. Throughout the country billions of dollars will be spent celebrating an event that began as “…worship of the devil,” (See World Book Encyclopedia on “Halloween”). Now, however, the Devil has turned his holiday into an enormously profitable enterprise for the pornography industry.

We refer to the “horror movies” and to the “haunted houses” that are now such an integral part of the Halloween celebration. An examination of these movies and enterprises reveals that they are saturated with sexually explicit scenes of torture and violence. People who ought to be stunned at the vile nature of these motion pictures and “haunted house” virtual reality presentations of violence and sexual perversion will spend hundreds of dollars in decorating their homes and themselves to show their acceptance of the entire spirit of worshiping the devil.

During the build up to “Halloween 2006,” local Salt Lake City television stations ran a commercial for a local Haunted House that featured a beautiful but terrified young woman being chased through the woods by a demonic ghoul. The television commercial ends as the creature leaps onto a bed with the girl, who is screaming in horror.

In essence, the commercial’s message was, “this woman met a horrific death…see it close up in our Haunted House!” These Haunted Houses are no longer trafficking in classic ghosts and witches. Each has skillfully crafted sets and stages that graphically depict the dismemberment of human bodies and sexually explicit torture. Children line up and pay upwards of 14 dollars each to view and ingest this desensitizing and dehumanizing savagery.

This national “haunted house” phenomenon follows on the heels of a plethora of films containing brutality and torture that would make a gulag jailor recoil in disgust. These films are some of the most popular in the nation. Each of these Hollywood “Snuff” films like The Hills Have Eyes and the SAW and Hostle present scenes of brutality, murder, and sexual mayhem made possible because of the ability of the producers to use “simulation” technology in the presentation of these acts. The problem with that is that the brains of the children and youth who are watching these movies can not distinguish between the “simulated” and the actual. For these children and youth the simulated is actual. Thus, step by step their brains become saturated with images of violence and sexual perversion that totally overwhelms the cognitive and inhibiting portions of the brain.

Each movie pushes the envelope of the sordid and the sensational to break new ground in the displaying of “simulated” murder and sexualized mutilation. How can we expect our children to respect women and to protect human life when even the Halloween celebration dwells on the macabre and mind numbing brutality of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre?”