Va.’s Ex-ACLU Chief Gets 7 Years for Child Porn

From Bill Brubaker and the Washington Post.

“A former Arlington County youth sports coach and civil rights lawyer who once headed Virginia’s American Civil Liberties Union chapter was sentenced today to seven years in federal prison for buying child pornography that prosecutors labeled sadistic and masochistic.

Charles Rust-Tierney, 51, pleaded guilty in June to downloading hundreds of pornographic images of children as young as 4. Authorities said Rust-Tierney used a computer in his 11-year-old son’s bedroom to view the files, which included a six-minute video that depicted sexual torture of children, set to a song by the rock band Nine Inch Nails.”

To read more click here.

How Now Shall We Live? By Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey

This is a MUST read for all Christians.  It is an incredibly powerful book that I highly recommend.  There is also a study guide for this book that I recommend as well.  This book examines the great spiritual battle today that is a cosmic struggle between competing worldviews.  The authors utilize true stories and compelling teaching to demonstrate the following:

– Expose false views and values of modern culture

– Live a more fulfilling life the way God created us to live

– Contend for the faith by understanding how nonbelievers think

– Build a society that reflects biblical principles

I ran across a review on amazon.com that I thought really did a great job of capturing the core of the book.  It is below.   

5 out of 5 Stars – The Way We See The World Can Change The World, June 21, 2006

“Centuries ago, when the Jews were in exile and despair, they cried out to God, “How should we then live?” The same question rings down through the ages. How shall we live today? Pearcey and Colson’s primary observation is that “the way we see the world can change the world.” (pg. 13) This is because our choices are shaped by what we believe is real and true, right and wrong, or good and beautiful. In short, our choices are shaped by what Pearcey and Colson call our “worldview.”Every worldview attempts to answer three basic questions: (1) Where did we come from and who are we? (2) What has gone wrong with the world? And (3) What can we do to fix it? According to Colson and Pearcey, the culture wars are not about extraneous issues like abortion or public education. Fundamentally, they are about worldviews–between competing secular and spiritual answers to those three basic questions.

The demise of objective truth, profoundly expressed in the halls of academia, also extends into the popular press and culture. The result has been a postmodern worldview which embraces relativism and reduces all ideas to social constructions shaped by class, gender, and ethnicity. Under this view, the world is just a power struggle for meaningless prizes. Their one absolute is that morality is not absolute. Other existing worldviews include “traditionalism,” found in many small towns filled with churches; and modernism, found among pragmatic social and business leaders interested in personal material gain, but less interested in philosophical questions and social issues. Against this backdrop, Christians are challenged to provide answers to those three basic questions in a compelling manner.

C. S. Lewis observed, “The Christian and the materialist hold different beliefs about the universe. They both can’t be right. The one who is wrong will act in a way which simply doesn’t fit the real universe.” Thus Colson and Pearcy observe that choices are not without consequences. The Christian worldview says we were created by God. Compelling evidence that life does not have a random origin can be found in the current arguments for intelligent design. Christianity claims that God created the universe with a material order and a moral order. If we live contrary to that order, we sin against God. Thus, what has gone wrong with the universe is human sin.

The way to redeem our culture is to help people realize which universe they’re living in. If it’s a materialist’s universe, then the answers don’t revolve around taking moral principles seriously. But if the real universe was made with a moral law (as Colson and Pearcey argue), then it stands to reason that the solutions to our problems begin with recognizing that fact, and taking steps to educate people in ways that will help them live lives that are not inimical to the way we were designed to live. This, Colson and Pearcey argue, is how we should live.”

For more information on Charles Colson visit his website at www.breakpoint.org and for more information on Nancy Pearcey visit her website at www.pearceyreport.com.

Protect our children from obscenity; sign the petition asking candidates to enforce obscenity laws

From the American Family Association.

“Pornographers go after our children while elected officials refuse to enforce obscenity laws

Our children need your help! It has been reported that there are as many as 10,000,000 pornographic sites on the Internet. The average age for those first exposed to Internet obscenity is 11 and the largest consumer group is 12-17 year-olds. Nine out of ten of 8-16 year-olds have viewed pornography online. Yet, in the past 15 years, under both the Clinton and Bush administrations, there has not been a single federal prosecution of a major distributor of Internet, in-room movie, cell phone or cable TV obscenity. Not one! (There were a couple of prosecutions of small, mom and pop type pornographers.)

The major pornographers have no fear of prosecution. Why? Because those responsible for enforcing the law fear the pornographers more than they fear the mothers and fathers of America, and they care more about the hawkers of pornography than they do our children.

Our children are being robbed of their childhood by greedy pornographers and cowardly officials. Please understand that I’m not referring to trashy TV. I am referring to hardcore pornography.

For a description of the kind of material bombarding our children, and the kind of material officials refuse to prosecute, click here. WARNING! This description is taken straight from movies being offered in hotels, on the Internet, on cell phones and on cable TV. It is graphic and extremely offensive.

Please join me in signing a petition to the presidential candidates asking each candidate to sign a pledge that if elected, they will enforce federal obscenity laws. We will notify you, the public and media of each candidate’s decision. The Supreme Court has consistently ruled that obscenity isn’t protected under the First Amendment.

Thanks for helping protect our children. Our children’s future is indeed dark if caring adults refuse to help them.”

Take Action

Sign the petition to presidential candidates asking them to pledge to enforce federal obscenity laws. Please help us promote this effort to protect our children. Forward this to your family and friends. Ask your pastor to promote this effort in church newsletters and bulletins. Print and distribute the Enforce Obscenity Laws Petition. (PDF format)

Where the Battle Rages: The Sexualizing of America

In Michael Craven’s article entitled, “Where the Battle Rages: The Sexualizing of America”, he discusses how God’s absolute moral truth as revealed in the Scripture regarding sexual ethics has been rendered irrelevant by our society.   The consequences we face because of this are horrific.

Michael writes the following: 

“Prior to the ‘60s America’s moral consensus, along with our public and social policies, was derived from profoundly Christian principles and values: in essence the Christian worldview.”

“The sexual revolution was the first open rebellion against this consensus. It was, for all intents and purposes, a declaration of war against God’s revealed standard in scripture. The sexual revolution was the “beachhead” from which the final assault on God’s absolute moral truth was launched. The battle to redefine sexual ethics has become the ground out of which springs the cultural rejection of absolute moral truth and ultimately, I believe, Christianity in America.

Unfortunately most Christians failed to recognize what was happening at the time. The events of that era were simply regarded as passing youthful rebellion. We failed to recognize that these values and attitudes pertaining to sex were actually the result of a clearly defined and methodically advanced worldview that ultimately seeks to replace the Christ-centered plan of salvation with a man-centered plan of salvation. (In essence, a naturalistic plan for utopia.)

At the very heart of the prevailing values and attitudes pertaining to sex is a false doctrine of salvation that believes that the “imposition” of sexual morality itself is the cause for much of what is wrong in the world. The naturalistic worldview espouses the idea that religious and social constraints or (“morality”) are artificially constructed concepts that inhibit natural desires. Of course this is true. However the difference lies in the false presupposition that man is inherently good and not inherently sinful. Our passions and desires do require restraint. Humanity is capable of both great goodness and great evil. It is the latter capacity that the natural man ignores. This defies both the biblical truth and the reality of human experience. The natural man or secularist is convinced that these “restraints” act in a repressive manner, producing guilt, which in turn, leads to behavioral pathologies that are ultimately self-destructive, this, despite the fact that the natural order continually reaffirms God’s moral truths. The goal therefore has been to remove these so-called artificial moral boundaries and the first area from which to remove them is sexual conduct.”

All ideas have consequences.  Let’s examine the consequences America faces because of the idea to abandon God’s absolute moral truth for a man-centered “naturalistic utopia”.

Pornography

In 1973 Americans spent approximately $10 million on pornography. By 1999 the pornography industry took in more than $8 billion dollars. This is more than all revenues generated by Rock-n-Roll and Country music, more than spent on Broadway productions, theater, ballet, jazz and classical music combined.”

Sexually Transmitted Disease

America leads the industrialized world in STD’s. Over 68 million Americans are currently infected & more than 15 million new cases are reported each year.  In the 1960’s there were 2 recognized STD’s, today there are over 25, many of which are viral with no cure.Teen PregnancyAmerica leads the entire world in unwanted teenage pregnancies. American teenagers are more likely to become pregnant and have multiple partners than any other teenager on earth.

Violence Against Women

Violence against women has increased 526% since 1960 and has the highest reported rape rates in the world, more than 13 times that of Great Britain and 20 times that of Japan. Ironically, those states with the highest sales of sexually explicit materials also have the highest rates of rape.Sexual Abuse of ChildrenIt is estimated that 1 out 3 girls and 1 out of 7 boys will be sexually molested before their 18th birthday.  In 1973 there were 167,000 reported cases of child abuse in by 1987 that figure had reached 2,025,000!

Abortion

Since 1972 there have been over 41 million abortions performed in America.Sexuality RedefinedWhile 45% of adults polled believe homosexuality is an “acceptable lifestyle”, 85% of High School Seniors (The next generation) believe it is acceptable and 86% believe homosexuality is determined at birth.

To read the full article and to view the sources of the above statistics click here. 

Don’t Cover Up Link Between Child Porn and Molesting

From the Family Research Council.

“The New York Times today reports on a study that documents the link–well-known to prosecutors with experience in the field–between the use of child pornography and actual child sexual abuse. Psychologists at the Federal Bureau of Prisons studied 155 prisoners who had been sentenced for possession or distribution of child pornography and had volunteered for treatment. At sentencing, only 26% were known to have been active child molesters–but in confidential surveys, a shocking 85% admitted to abusing at least one child. Furthermore, at sentencing 75 victims had been identified among these molesters–but in the surveys, they identified a shocking 1,777 victims. This study was accepted for publication by the Journal of Family Violence–but then withdrawn at the request of higher-ups in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. They reportedly were concerned that incarcerated offenders in treatment might not actually be representative of all child pornography users, but such a basic caveat about the study’s sample is no reason not to publish the data. Similar research on the relationship of illegal adult pornography to sex crimes would also be useful. This is further evidence that pornography is no “victimless” crime and should be a high priority for law enforcement. If the Bureau of Prisons has a gag order on this study, the Department of Justice should lift it. “

FORMER ACLU CHIEF EXECUTIVE PLEADS GUILTY AND RECEIVES 8-YEAR SENTENCE FOR OWNING CHILD PORNOGRAPHY

So, from my previous post, you had the head of the ACLU in Louisiana comparing Christians wanting to exercise their religious freedom to the 9-11 terrorist attacks in America and the 7-7 terrorist bombings in London. 

And now you have the head of the ACLU in Virginia, who previously fought against Internet filters on public library computers, caught with incredibly graphic and violent child pornography.

“The same Charles Rust-Tierney who argued against Internet filters on public library computers nearly ten years ago is now facing an 8 year prison sentence for owning some of the most “graphic and violent” child pornography the judge had ever seen. Rust-Tierney also coached a youth league in the area. He served as president of the Virginia ACLU and was on its board until his arrest.”

To read more click here.

Flood of pornography breaching the church

From Jerry Pierce of the Southern Baptist TEXAN.

“The National Council on Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity reports that an estimated 2 million Internet users are addicted to pornography. Christian men are among them.

In an August 2000 survey of its readership by Christianity Today magazine, 36 percent of laymen who responded had visited a sexually explicit Internet site, of which 44 percent visited such sites “a few times” in the past year.

Additionally, the six-year-old research showed that 51 percent of pastors admitted pornography was a possible temptation, 37 percent said porn is a struggle and 33 percent had viewed Internet pornography at least once a year.”

To read the full article click here.