Pornography and ‘Adult Choices’

In reference to your editorial, there is more at stake than mere freedom of speech. There is also freedom of religion at stake.

The anti-pornography laws were enacted at the request of different religious groups who wanted to jail and silence all those who do not believe in “original sin,” and their doctrine that sex is evil.

Since they could not directly jail the unbelievers, different religious groups got laws enacted by working through surrogates and by using a propaganda campaign that any sexual depiction was “dirty, filthy, and unfit for human consumption.”

However, many Americans do not believe in original sin, or that sex is dirty, etc.

More than a million adult video cassettes are rented each week. Nor, as the propagandists would have you believe, does viewing such material lead directly to violent sex crimes: If it did, there would be over 1 million such crimes per week.

In short, no matter how much religionists may want the manufacture, sale, and viewing of such films to be a criminal event, they should stand back and make this a personal, rather than a governmental, issue.

By keeping up the lie that adult materials cause sex crimes in an era when many households can prove that to be a lie, the credibility of religionists goes down the drain totally.

LYBRAND P. SMITH

Torrance