Daniel Herbster
reporting
The Lighted Candle Society is on the
cutting edge of the fight against pornography.
They marshal the latest scientific research on the dangerous effects of
pornography (on the individual and on society) to fight the porn industry in
the courts. I was able to interview my
fellow blogger and facebook friend Justin Hart, who is the Vice President of
Communications for the Lighted Candle Society, and the following is the text of
that interview.
DH: I’ve been
familiar with Justin’s work online for several months, and after communicating
with him online from time to time it was a real treat to meet him in person at
a bloggers meeting in Washington, DC recently.
He’s also one of my “facebook friends.”
I’m so grateful Justin was willing to answer my questions and let our
readers know about the great work the Lighted Candle Society is doing.
Justin, what is the Lighted Candle Society and
how did it get started?
JH: The Lighted
Candle Society was founded in 2001 by Ed Meese (former Attorney General under
Ronald Reagan) and John Harmer (former Lt. Governor of California under Reagan
in the 60s). Both John and Ed are
veterans of the culture wars, having fought for decency issues over the last
four decades.
John Harmer is the driving force behind the Lighted Candle
Society. He started the non-profit
organization to fight pornography is a very unique and unprecedented way.
DH: How long have
you been with LCS and what kind of things do you do for them?
JH: I've been
with the Lighted Candle Society for almost a year now. They really felt the need to ramp things into
high gear. I came on as Vice President
of Communications to make that happen. I
help develop the multiple websites which we maintain, organize our online
fundraising efforts, and create our action alerts to our members.
DH: How can our
readers take a stand against pornography and sexually oriented businesses in
their communities?
JH: One of the
best things you can do is contact groups like ourselves to let us know of
issues that you feel need to be addressed.
For example, three weeks ago we got an email from a lady in Boston whose
daughter happened to pick up a Jenna Jameson book in a Barnes and Noble that
was sitting on the bottom shelf. We are
working with her to ready some public efforts and even some legal ramifications
(which is our forte at the Lighted Candle Society)
DH: What kinds of
laws or legislation does the Lighted Candle Society support?
JH: There are a
host of new proposals, bills, and other legislation proposed throughout the
country. There are many excellent groups
that cover these efforts. Our focus
however is a bit different. The main
goal of the Lighted Candle Society is to help bring civil litigation against
producers and distributors of pornography.
To date, district attorneys have been wholly unsuccessful in
turning the tide of the porn industry.
Sure, they help shut down a few brothels and SOBs (sexually-oriented
businesses) but the real impact will come when we can take the fight to the
source of pornography! We are determined
to do this. If you like, one analogy:
this is like a tobacco lawsuit against the porn industrial complex. Nobody else in the country is doing this type
of thing. And we think it will have an
enormous impact.
DH: What are some
of the biggest misconceptions about pornography and about groups like yours who
try to oppose it?
JH: One of the
other unique goals of the Lighted Candle Society is to drive the
"science" behind pornography.
For years the courts have said: "You can't bring morality to the
stand" meaning we can' t bring community standards into play. Well, now we have science to prove the damage
that pornography causes to individuals and cultures. The Lighted Candle Society is funding cutting
edge scientific research using modern brain scanning fMRI techniques to
evaluate the effect that pornography has on the brain. Our initial findings and those that others
scientists are also uncovering show that pornography can have a dramatic and
even damaging effect on the addict.
To your question, one of the biggest misconceptions about
pornography is that it is harmless and that there are not victims. Now we know that the addict is harmed.
Beyond the addict though, and we've known this for years,
the victims are the spouses and families of these addicts. To highlight these effects we actually gather
stories about these victims on a website called HerStoryLives.com. A place where women share the tragedies (and
successes) in their families with regard to pornography addiction.
DH: How can our
readers support what you do, and find out more information about your
organization?
JH: You can find
out more information at our website: LightedCandle.org. We also have a blog: FamilyFragments.com and I mentioned
our interactive website for women called: HerStoryLives.com.
As you can imagine, funding legal efforts and scientific
research is about the most expensive venture you can imagine. But the results will be dramatic and
unprecedented. We desperately need
people to help get out the word and even donate, $10, $20, $100.
We are also interested in promoting local chapters of the
Lighted Candle Society
DH: What other
projects have you been working on lately?
JH: One of the
more insidious things we look at are the innumerable crimes around
pornography. We've put together an
interactive map at our blog (FamilyFragments.com)
that shows the breadth of sex-related crimes around the country that deal with
pornography. It's pretty ugly.
On a positive note we also have a “Parent’s Guide to
Facebook” to help adults understand why their children want to be on Facebook
and what to look out for.
DH: Now I happen
to know that you are a bit of a technology junkie. What are your thoughts on conservatism and
the new media (particularly the internet)?
How important is it for conservatives and conservative causes to utilize
technology, and how well do you think we’ve been doing so far, compared to our
liberal counterparts?
JH: I've been a
blogger now for almost five years. I'm
also a technologist by trade. I can't
tell you how excited I am that conservatives are finally realizing how
important this channel is. Obviously,
we're behind the ball on this one... the left is far more savvy on these
efforts. But our catch-up game isn't too
bad.
DH: What are some
of the greatest successes of the Lighted Candle Society and what are some of
your greatest challenges?
JH: We recently
had an online boom of interest around one incident which we tackled. Oprah aired a show last September that
promoted real promiscuous behavior. It
was pretty ugly. We sent around an
online petition to our email base of 1000 people at that time. Almost overnight 40,000 signed the
petition. Now, we have this huge base of
support that we can call on when we need a call to action. Obviously, we struck a chord. People really care about this issue.
Also, look out in the next few months as we file our first
major lawsuits against the porn industry.
It’s going to be quite the fight.
The greatest challenge is always keeping all the plates in
the air. We have a lot of stokes in the
fire and we need the manpower and means to make things happen.
DH: Thanks for
your time Justin. Keep up the great
work. See you in the blogosphere.