Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
July 1996 – The Military Honor and Decency Act has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives. The bill would prohibit military stores, which exist for the benefit of military personnel and families, from dealing in pornography. Currently the military is one of the largest distributors of pornography in America.
The bill – HR 3300 – will soon be voted on by the U.S. Senate, where it is expected that liberals and friends of pornographers will work hard to defeat it. President Clinton’s attitude toward the Military Honor and Decency Act is unknown, but it is expected that should it reach his desk, he would veto it because of the influence of the ACLU and other defenders of pornography.
Despite what the pornographers and liberals say, the bill would not limit what anyone, in or out of uniform, can purchase or publish. It would simply ensure that pornography sales are left to the private sector.
Congress has extraordinary power to regulate the military under Article I, Section 8. These provisions explicitly confer on Congress the power to raise and support an army and navy; to make rules for the government and regulation of land and naval forces; and to make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution these powers.
The bill is simply a choice between catering to those in the military who want sexually explicit material available at on-base stores versus those military personnel and families who do not.
According to the military exchange programs, our military sells to military personnel annually tens of millions of dollars worth of pornography at prices that are discounted in comparison to their competing, private sector, pornography dealers. The entire military budget is a government outlay. When the Department of Defense runs a system of stores to serve its personnel, and it involves those stores in the pornography business, it cannot be argued that the government is not supporting the porn industry with our taxes.
According to Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, the Navy alone has a rate of reported sexual assault three times that of the larger society. “There are two words for anyone who would say Congress has no interest in prohibiting degrading pornography sales at military stores: Tailhook and Okinawa,” Smith said. “These words were once synonymous with American bravery. Now they are just as likely to be used to connote depraved cruelty.”
Smith said that while the Constitution makes the President the civilian Commander-in-Chief of the military, it gives the Courts zero authority to set military policy. “When the pornography industry or the ACLU cries that the sky is falling on our First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly because Congress no longer wants the military to be a porn dealer, they have moved beyond rational argument,” the Congressman said.
AFA supporters are urged to contact their U.S. Senators and ask them to support the Military Honor and Decency Act. You can write your Senators at U.S. Senate, Washington, DC 20510 or call them at 202-224-3121. 
