June 15, 11:00-12:30
Capitol Visitors Center-HVC-201
Washington DC

Description: Join us to hear recognized experts. Outline:
-The four leading harms of pornography
-How existing law can and should be enforced against illegal material
-What congress can do to protect and prosecute

Thanks Women for Decency members for following up on this!

Bath & Body is one of my favorite stores but recently I received a coupon through the mail with a full shot of a nude woman. Bath & Body is owned by Victoria Secret who often crosses the line with inappropriate advertising and perhaps they are testing the market to see what we will accept with this new ad.

If this is an issue that you feel strongly about go to this link http://www.facebook.com/l/55648;www.bathandbodyworks.com and click on customer service at the top and then choose Contact Us. Write a brief message on your feelings about this type of advertising. Feel free to forward this message on.

If we don’t speak up we can’t expect change.

Shelly DeVries (Co-Founder of Women for Decency)

From the website:

Addiction Recovery Program

A Guide to Addiction Recovery and Healing

Click here to download

Let Our Voices Be Heard

By Elder M. Russell Ballard
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles

For LeadersChurch leaders have the responsibility to speak out on moral issues and to counsel individuals and families. Full Article

PORNHARMS.COM

Information Alert—February 18, 2010

Pornography Harms Website Launched

Contact: Patrick Trueman, 703-938-1776; pornharms.com

MEDIA ADVISORY, Feb. 17 /Christian Newswire/ — The devastating harm from pornography is becoming more evident with each passing day. Now a website has been launched to provide ready access to credible, peer-reviewed research documenting that harm. “Pornography Harms, is a one-stop location for sound research, news articles and opinion pieces demonstrating the harm from pornography,” said Patrick Trueman, creator of the site. The site will be of great help to researchers at all academic levels and the press and concerned public.

Trueman, the former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, expressed strong concern for the direction of America due to the prominence of pornography in the daily lives of our citizens. “Since the advent of the internet, pornography has flooded homes, businesses, public libraries, and even schools. The results have been devastating to the social and family fabric of America,” Trueman said.

Trueman observed that, for nearly two decades, a large segment of America’s children have had ready access to internet pornography. In the latest trend called, “sexting,” children are producing and distributing cell phone child pornography. This phenomenon may well be an outgrowth of the viewing of internet pornography over long periods of time by children resulting in diminishment of their natural inhibitions against such activity. “Pornography, in other words, is altering minds, destroying taboos, and reordering society,” Trueman said.

Addiction to pornography, Trueman noted, is now common among men, women, and even many children, bringing life-long consequences. Pornography use is a significant factor in divorce; a contributing cause of the spread of prostitution and the sexual trafficking of adults and children.

Trueman credited a multi-disciplinary group of professionals and concerned citizens from around the country for the research work on Pornography Harms.

“Pornography is a neglected pandemic and it will remain so until knowledge of its destructive forces is widely understood and disseminated. The Pornography Harms website is dedicated to this task of education,” Trueman said.

The above article was provided by an e-mail newsletter from Morality in Media.

Educate Your Family

In this world of eroding values, who will step up to define an acceptable standard of decency?

Creating a Family Decency Standard

Have you ever considered a movie’s rating in making a decision whether or not to see it, only to be shocked or feel betrayed by what is contained? Ratings generated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), gaming and music labels, TV ratings, and the Supreme Court’s “Miller Test” all attempt to define what is and what is not decent. Certainly any meaningful endeavor to protect individuals and families from indecent entertainment must begin with a working definition of what is and what is not decent, but can we depend on the current rating systems to protect our families ?

Unfortunately, in the present environment we simply cannot rely on these inadequate gauges of appropriateness. In this world of eroding values, who will step up to define an acceptable standard of decency? Recent research done on behalf of Communities for Decency suggests decency standards must originate in families and communities.

Creating a family decency standard is one way to empower individuals to make informed entertainment choices. The following method of discussing decency standards works well for adults and children ages 11 and older.

Preparatory Steps:

• Familiarize yourself with the MPAA rating system and other public sources on decency standards.
• Set up two one-hour family meetings to discuss family decency standards.
• Obtain movie reviews on several current movies from relaible websites such as pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com. Note: Descriptions of movie content are factual and detailed. CFD encourages parents to use these websites.

Ground Rules and Intent

• Parents should act primarily as facilitators whose job will be to listen and learn what decency means in their family and to carefully guide the discussion toward the desired end.
• All topics related to entertainment and what the family views are open for discussion.

Meeting One: Creating a Meaningful Framework

• Review the ground rules and intent of the session.
• Review the MPAA rating system and other definitions of decency.
• Allow family members to comment on how these frameworks help or do not help your family. For instance, is a PG or PG-13 movies rating an adequate measure of appropriateness for your family?
• Brainstorm a list of what is sacred to your family. Examples may include God, our bodies, marriage, and human life.
• Translate your list of what is sacred into a watch list of ways in which offensive content is woven into entertainment. This list may include violence or taking human life, lifestyles with no respect for a moral code, use of profanity-laden dialogue, portrayals of inappropriate sexual relationships–even if those portrayals do not include explicit images.

Meeting Two: Creating a Family Standard of Decency

• Review the framework notes from the first meeting. Discuss other sources of information on movie content such as current movie reviews from pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com.
• Explore point by point the content from current movie reviews. Do these movies violate what is sacred in your family? Do they fit your framework of what is decent or indecent? Should your family view these movies? Movie reviews may contain explicit information generating a mature but necessary family discussion.
• Finalize a list of more specific definitions of what is and is not appropriate content for your family. For example: We will not watch explicit images (violent or sexual) that offend our family’s definition of what is sacred. We will not watch thematic or interpretive indecency that presents “evil as good” and “good as evil.” We will not watch movies with profanity or actions that run contrary to or offend our sense of what is sacred.
• Examine your library of DVDs, movies, and other forms of home entertainment. Agree to discard entertainment that violates your new family decency standard.
• Commit your family to using pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com, or like information sources for reviewing content prior to viewing or purchasing home entertainment.

What One Family Can Do

1. Hold Family Councils and decide what our media standards are going to be.
2. Spend enough quality time with our children so that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not their friends or the media.
3. Make good media choices ourselves. Set a good example.
4. Limit the time of TV watching or video games or Internet use each day.
5. Use internet filters and TV programming locks.
6. Place TVs and computers in a much-used room of the home.

Watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy.

Calvin Klein is not only using group sex on billboards but has a pornographic clip with group sex on its website.

I am sorry to offend you with this but, did you think the day would come when a non-porn company would use pornographic advertisement to sell products?  The ground is moving fast from under us.  We can still make a difference.

Will you take time to call Calvin Klein?  866.513.0513.  Please get those in your organization and in your email contacts to call.  …”

You could also

• write letters to Calvin Klein
• contact local retailers who carry the Calvin Klein brand and suggest they no longer support a line of clothing that publicly displays and uses pornography for advertising.
• leave comments on this post with additional ideas on how to make our voices heard in opposition to this outrageous public display

Now, I want to say to you, and I say it with a plea in my heart-get involved!  Get involved on the side of righteousness and truth and decency.

God bless you to speak up for truth and decency.” -GB Hinckley

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and to share current events, updates & opportunities to “Stand For Decency”.