Daniel Herbster
reporting
Congressman Paul
Broun, who represents Georgia’s tenth district, is one of the newest members of
Congress—having won a special election last year after the previous Congressman
for the 10th district, Charlie Norwood, passed away. I
was privileged to interview Rep. Broun about his proposed bill the “Military
Honor and Decency Act” which would fully prohibit the sale of obscene and
pornographic material on military bases. The following is my interview
with Rep. Broun.
DH:
Congressman, thanks so much for doing this interview for us. First of
all, I’d like to ask you the question I always love to ask politicians.
Why did you decide to get into politics and specifically why did you run for
your current office?
PB: When I ran for
office, I was not seeking a title or political position. I ran because I firmly believe that our
nation has lost sight of its core principles, and I want to make fundamental
changes to how our government operates.
In Psalm 11, God
asks a question, “If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous
do?” And God tells us the answer to that
question is to return to His precepts and commandments, because a righteous
Lord loves righteousness and He will uphold our efforts on His behalf.
We have lost our
righteous zeal, and lost our once cherished principles of personal freedom,
individual accountability and responsibility, and limited government. I ran for office to restore those principles,
and I believe that He calls each one of His children to uphold those
principles. That is what I am trying to
do in Congress, at home, and everywhere I go.
DH:
You’ve recently proposed the Military Honor and Decency Act (H.R.5821) which
deals with the sale of pornographic or obscene material on military
bases. What would this bill do?
PB: Essentially, it
will close the loophole in current law that allows pornography to be sold on
military installations across the United States and around the world. The Defense Authorization Act of 1997
included a provision to prohibit the distribution and sale of all sexually
explicit material on property under the jurisdiction of the Department of
Defense (DoD). Sadly, DoD has failed to
strictly enforce this law, and has allowed blatant, obviously pornographic
material such as Playboy and Penthouse to continue to be sold on
military bases. My bill will end this
practice and force the DoD to submit to the law.
Let me be clear – if
military personnel want to buy pornography, that is their prerogative. However, the U.S. Military should not be
involved and facilitating the transaction.
The U.S. Military should not be using its resources to deliver it right
to the doors of these military personnel. My bill does not make pornography illegal, but
it would remove the U.S. military and the U.S. taxpayer from the transaction.
DH: How
did you become aware of the need for this legislation, and what are some of the
facts that convinced you this legislation was necessary?