by Rusty Pugh
(AgapePress) – In the latest example of concerned citizens making a difference, a Georgia man was successful in having a convenience store chain remove pornography from its shelves.
Citizens in Georgia are beginning to change the way some businesses operate. There have been recent examples of citizen activists who have convinced store owners to drop the sale of pornography. Brian Rudnicki noticed porn magazines in a Dalton, Georgia, convenience store and decided to do something about it. He challenged the 150-store chain, Favorite Markets, to stop selling porn.
Initially, he says the company ignored his request. But with the help of the American Family Association, Rudnicki finally persuaded the company to stop offering porn. He says store owners must realize they are part of the community.
“They are generating their business income off of us, and while [the business community has] achieved a great deal … they're participants in our community the same as we are,” Rudnicki says. “They have a responsibility to conduct their business in a way that is beneficial to the entire community.”
“If they're going to be acting irresponsibly, then it really is our responsibility to point that out and let them know that we don't have to do business with them.”
Meanwhile, the director of special projects for AFA, Randy Sharp, says one south Georgia store owner is still refusing to remove porn. In Waycross, Georgia, Prime South Bank chairman Carl Jones owns a chain of Flash Foods stores that continues the anti-family practice.
(This update courtesy of Agape Press.)
TV Too Trashy, Poll Says
by Ed Vitagliano
(AgapePress) – A survey of Family Circle readers reveals once again the deep disgust of viewers confronted by television dramas and sitcoms that steam up their living rooms with graphic sexual content.
In the magazine’s poll, published in its May 15 issue, 72% of respondents said there was too much sexual content in the media, while even more (77%) said there was too much on television.
“The American people have said in dozens of different ways that they are tired of explicit sexuality, but Hollywood doesn’t seem to be listening,” said AFA President Donald Wildmon. “I don’t know what it will take for the truth to sink in.”
In an interview with the New York Post, Los Angeles clinical psychologist Dr. Robert Butterworth all but called poll respondents hypocrites for complaining about sexual content. “They’re all complaining but they don’t turn it off, do they?” he said. “Look at the ratings on some of these shows.”
Wildmon said he saw no contradiction between the public’s weariness of hyper-sexualized TV programming and the popularity of some shows that contain explicit sex. “I firmly believe that people don’t want the sex, but they are also so starved for good television that they will endure the bad just to get the good,” he said. “A well-written show is often popular despite the sex, not because of it.”
