ARTICLES

We Wrestle Powers and Principalities

CRUSADER CALLS FIGHT AGAINST PORN A "SPIRITUAL BATTLE"

By Allyson Smith

"It's The Blood That Runs through my veins -- stamping this out and drawing a line and protecting children and families."

So proclaimed anti-pornography activist Tonya Flynt-Vega on Roger Hedgecock's August 7 radio talk show. Flynt-Vega was referring to her protest that weekend at the first World Pornography Conference, held at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City August 6-9. As an anti-porn crusader, Flynt-Vega has unusual credentials: her father is Larry Flynt, publisher of Hustler magazine and head of a hugely lucrative empire of pornographic magazines and products.

During her 15-minute interview on the Hedgecock show, Flynt-Vega discussed her background as a childhood victim of her father's pornography; her current role as a born-again Christian and nationally known anti-pornography spokesperson; and pornographers' manipulation of the First Amendment to disguise escalating violence in pornographic material. She said the World Pornography Conference -- which was presented by the Center for Sex Research of California State University, Northridge and the Free Speech Coalition -- included workshops such as "Porn 101: Assimilating Pornographic Material into the College Classroom" and a panel discussion of the pornographic film Daddy, Make Me a Star. She denounced the conference as an attempt to normalize pornography at taxpayers' expense.

Flynt-Vega spoke with News Notes August 14.

News Notes: How did things go on Saturday and Sunday [at the pornography conference]?

Flynt-Vega: To say the least, it was an unpleasant experience. I felt very alone in there. I was saddened and discouraged that there weren't more anti-pornography organizations there. There was one other group there that was not allowed to use its name in conjunction with its protesting efforts because of a court case they are involved in, and I thought that was wrong.

Do you think it was that anti-pornography protesters were unaware of the conference?

It's the responsibility of organizations that combat pornography on the state and federal level -- and collect so much money from people to do that -- to know about it., especially a conference that was planned as far in advance as this one was. The conference organizers said that they contacted several anti-pornography groups in advance, because they wanted to get their opinions, but the attorneys for those anti-pornography organizations told them to stay away from it because "they wouldn't get equal time" or something like that.

This sounds similar to efforts to quiet the pro-life movement.

People need to understand that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood but against powers and principalities. We can't always go on what our thought processes are telling us and our own minds, because that's not how the battle is won. We have to go in faith and we have to go when God calls us to go and not always rely on attorneys and people like that to tell us what to do. We've got to listen to God's voice more in this because it is a spiritual battle.

When trying to book speaking engagements at churches, do you ever get reaction that your message is too negative and that they don't want their congregations to hear it?

Initially I came up against that. I still feel that many churches are not talking about the problem of pornography. I think that has been a big problem, that they don't want to bring up the topic because it's a dirty subject. And that's a shame, because the church needs to hear it. It's not preaching to the choir when you go into a church and talk about pornography. It's a problem, and as long as pastors stay away from talking about pornography, the more of a license it gives to people to be involved in it.

I think a lot of pastors are addicted to pornography. Also, it's the kind of subject that a lot of people don't know how to talk about because they're not educated about it. That's why it's easier for pastors to bring me in to speak than to speak about it themselves, because I am an outsider and a Christian. People just are not aware [about pornography], especially the Christian religious communities. They live in ivory towers and have no idea what a real victim even looks like.

What can the churches do to help combat the problem of pornography more effectively?

They can get involved with supporting anti-pornography organizations and groups around the country. The smaller the group is, the more they need the funds and the more I think they do with the money than the larger organizations.

Are pornographers using the First Amendment to avoid prosecution for violent pornographic material?

First of all, I believe in the First Amendment. Pornographers say that if you're anti-pornography, you're anti­First Amendment, but it's not true. I'm using my First Amendment freedom to speak out against pornography.

But they're exploiting the First Amendment for their own personal gain. Pornography is not about the First Amendment, it's not a women's issue, and it's not a political issue -- it's a human rights issue. It crosses all the lines. It's about the degradation, torture, bondage, bestiality, necrophilia, urination, defecation, torture, and even complete evisceration of women -- and now children are being brought into this. You know, for years children have been in pornography. My father used his pornography to break down my inhibitions when I was a little girl and to molest me. [Larry Flynt has denied her charges of molestation.] I was desensitized to pornography from a very early age and I was around it all the time. I know what it does to people, and I know there are victims.

I'm an adult now and I have a voice and I'm going to speak as long as I have this platform. I have a ten-year-old daughter myself and I have to look at her in the face every day and ask myself, "What kind of an environment am I leaving for her to grow up in? Am I doing all that I can do to protect her from being hurt or being violated or being used or abused because or pornography?" If I can't answer myself honestly, then how can I look myself in the mirror? How can I protect her?

My main goal is to give pornography victims a voice and to stop pornographers from lying to people by saying that there are no victims and that this material is good for the mind, the body, and the soul. The World Pornography Conference used this same kind of propaganda. Yet the FBI's own study shows that the most common link among serial killers is pornography. There's so much evidence -- such as the Department of Justice report by Judith Reisman -- that shows pornographers' claims are completely untrue. Pornography today is not [only] naked airbrushed pictures of women anymore. It's about mutilation, it's about women's body parts with fishhooks in them, and it's about trying to eroticize violence in an attempt to give sexual stimulation and say that our laws ought to protect that. People in prison don't have any rights. People who want to mutilate women and children for their sexual gratification ought not to have any either.

If the images in Hustler magazine or in this type of pornography were of any other life form -- if it were a black man or a Jew or even a dog, for instance, being shoved head-first through a meat grinder with its flesh pouring out the other end, it would be protested everywhere. But because it's a woman, it's okay in our society. I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, "No, it's not! Let's not protect it! Let's draw the line on obscenity."

My father is currently facing obscenity charges in Cincinnati. If he loses his case there, he plans to take it to the Supreme Court and overturn all the obscenity laws. He said that on national television. [To make his case more favorable], he offered every member of Congress a subscription to Hustler magazine last year. Only 16 turned it down. So that's the kind of legislative environment we have.

If we're not all fighting and if we're not all banding together, then what do you think is going to happen when we have no more obscenity laws and are not allowed to decide anymore, as communities, what is obscene? Right now, communities are able to determine obscenity, as stipulated in Miller vs. California. But if that case is overturned, then we as communities can't stand up and say "Wait a minute -- this is obscene in our community" and get rid of it. We won't be able to protect our kids at all then -- or ourselves.

Our nation is falling from within and people don't realize it.

Exactly. And that is part of what is getting hold of us, is the pornography. It's a huge part of it. "In the last days, when good shall be considered evil and evil shall be considered good" -- we're definitely living in that time. It's time for us to start realizing that this is a spiritual battle and we better put on our armor, the armor of God, and get out there.