Do You Like Porn?

Sometimes you just feel so helpless. You want to do great things. All you can do are little things, and even they seem to not be done well. Nothing seems to make any difference. You look at your neighbors, and you just wonder.

In my most recent writing I noted that there are some sacrifices which are bigger than others, and some that just seem big to the beholder. Perhaps that is where I am, this night. I just seem so sad, no not for me, but for everyone, perhaps most of all for everyone else. And I wonder how Jesus felt, and how He feels, even now.

I wrote a note to some of my community friends yesterday. I’ll just print it here, because it is the start, and explains many things. I put a title in the subject line of my note to them. It read: Do You Like Porn?


This is addressed to my Canton neighbors:

If you read my blog (no, I’m not suggesting you should), you know I have been suggesting that we “walk the talk,” and stand up for what we believe in --- and I’ve been trying to do just that.

Last Sunday there was an article in the Canton Observer which noted that some library patrons objected to the porn they saw being viewed on some Canton library computers. You can read the article here:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20110116/NEWS03/101160467/1020/NEWS03/Library+computer+policies+follow+state+law

The librarians responded to complaints by saying that it was not illegal to watch porn, and they were actively discouraging people from letting others see what they were watching. The article implied that the library MUST make porn available. That is not true. Further, the library is turning down available federal dollars (which require filters on computers) in order to make porn available.

I wrote a letter to the editor which printed (largely unedited) in today’s Canton Observer, noting that fact and asking if this is what the community truly desires, porn availability, paid for with our tax dollars. I asked for a survey, and said I would support any results. Here is my letter:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20110120/OPINION03/101200515/1192/OPINION/Letters

Directly opposite my letter today was printed a large and long editorial rebuttal to my letter, citing the library controls and the need to protect our First Amendment rights --- but not disputing anything I wrote. Here is the editorial:
http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20110120/NEWS03/101200517/1020/NEWS03/Porn+patrol

The Observer Editor supports porn in our library and further notes that: “the complaints that spawned our Sunday story are the first two we’ve heard in years.” He is saying, in response to my concern, that no one in Canton cares if porn is available in our libraries.

I dropped a copy of the editorial page at all 3 Catholic churches in Canton; I don’t know what they will do, if anything. All I’m asking you, my friends, is: Do you care? You can address a letter to the Observer editor in Canton, Mr. Brad Kadrich, at: bkadrich@hometownlife.com

I pray all is well with you, and yours.


A day has passed. One friend wrote to the paper expressing outrage at the situation, and forwarded my note on. So now there are two in our community of 90,000 who object. Perhaps there will be more, but it just makes me so sad. Oh, this morning as I wrote, I may have had some level of self-pity in my thoughts, but tonight I am just sad for my community.

Were I one of the many priests or religious leaders in my community, the heads of the many churches and temples here, I’m not sure what I would do, seeing these results of my preaching. For all that the church attendees proclaim, and all that they seem to exhibit of their faith, still they can’t take even five minutes to complain about porn in their libraries; porn which may be killing their marriages, and perhaps their children. If they won’t stand up for even simple, basic things like this, just how much faith do they really have. As a priest or minister, are they even worth my time, or should I just “shake the dust from my sandals” and move on to better pastures. I would be very disappointed in my flock – and perhaps myself.

The Michigan Sexual Offender Registry notes that there are 45 sexual offenders identified within our community. My tax dollars are funding computers for them to have access to pornography in my community library. What would it take for my neighbors to get concerned, to find the time to get concerned, about this gun they are providing to those who have used it in the past? Oh, if their children or grandchildren were violated, I have no doubt they would be at the computers, axe in hand, closing the door after the cat is let out, but not undoing anything, just venting their rage --- their rage that they did nothing, when they could have. Would they explain to their children that they knew their grandchild might be at risk, but “well, you know how busy I am. I was meaning to write a protest note about that.” Would that explain things to their kids? Would that explain things to their God?

Tonight I received an email reminding me that tomorrow is the anniversary of Roe v Wade, the beginning of abortion being legal in our country. Today, 52 million aborted babies later, it still goes on. A nation that kills its own children, is a nation without hope. --- John Paul II. When I look at how much we don’t care, we won’t take even the littlest time to live out the Christian faith we say we have, I wonder if there IS any hope for us. I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever. --- Thomas Jefferson.

I lit a candle and put it outside on my front porch. It is a small light to let anyone know who cares --- if there is anyone who cares, that I care too.

I prayed my rosary this night, saying the sorrowful mysteries, praying for an end to abortion, as I do every night. But tonight was different. I had so many things on my mind, so many of my sad thoughts clouding my thoughts of His sorrows. As I prayed and meditated on His suffering, His pain, His carrying the cross, and His willingly dying on the cross, I found myself asking aloud: “This? This is the humanity You died for?” More than ever, I wondered: why? “Why would You bother? Didn’t you wonder: ‘Will My death matter?’”

All these years later I look at my neighbors and my country, and I ask the question aloud. You died for this?