Ed Vitagliano

AFA Journal news editor

January 2005 – For Jack and Margaret Sonnemann, moving to Australia from the U.S. in the early 1980s produced a normal amount of culture shock. It was the prevalence of pornography in public that surprised the couple most. 

"We'd walk down the street, and see the covers of Playboy and Penthouse and other magazines in wire racks in front of shops--blown up to poster size, two feet by three feet!" Jack told AFA Journal. 

"Margaret would tug on my shoulder and say, ‘Jack, look at that! No, no, don't look at that!'" he said. "Margaret was incensed at all the porn, and she said she was not going to raise Christina, our one-year-old daughter, looking at that and accepting that as an appropriate way to portray women." 

That was in Melbourne, the city of 3.5 million people where the Sonnemanns first lived. Margaret talked to other women in their neighborhood about the porn, but they merely shrugged and said it had always been that way. "They'd always say, ‘What can you do?' That sort of thing," he said. 

Margaret was more resolute than her neighbors. Jack said his wife would answer the women and say, "Wait a minute. Don't tell me I can't change anything. I'm not going to raise my daughter looking at that.' And so she actually began this whole thing." 

That "whole thing" was the founding of the Australian Federation for the Family (AFF), a sister organization of American Family Association. Jack said starting AFF was the reason God moved the Sonnemanns to Australia in the first place, although it wasn't clear at the time. 

A feeling that wouldn't go away 
When the Sonnemanns moved to Australia in 1982, they thought it was for business reasons. Jack owned a successful commercial construction company and built small buildings like quick-stop stores and fast food restaurants all over the southern U. S. When he and Margaret started to get a "feeling" that Australia was in their future, Jack said he was puzzled. 

"I didn't want to move to Australia. I had never been there, I was born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee. Why in the world would I want to move to Australia?" 

As the nagging thought persisted, however, the Sonnemanns began to think it was actually the Lord who was nudging them in that direction. "For three years we couldn't shake the feeling that we were supposed to be in Australia," Jack said. "It would be exactly like passing at night on the highway and seeing an elderly lady trying to change a flat tire. God didn't audibly say, ‘Stop and help her,' but you knew that was the right thing to do." 

So Jack and Margaret prayed about it and committed the move to God, and then applied for a permanent resident visa for the Land Down Under. The application was not well-received. "The Australian consulate in New York said, ‘Get lost! We don't want you in Australia, taking a job away from Australians,'" he said. 

The Sonnemanns applied three times, and were unceremoniously refused each time. Finally, out of the blue, and even after refusing their third application, the Australian consulate called back and asked Jack and Margaret to come to New York for an interview. The visa was approved. 

The transition period was smooth, as the Sonnemanns were able to sell everything and move. Once in Australia, Jack opened a project management company, making good money overseeing the construction of new malls and other commercial sites. By all accounts, the move to their new home had been a smart business move. 

The prevalence of pornography in Australia, however, made it clear to the Sonnemanns that God had other business in mind. 

Peddling porn to kids 
"Porn was sold in corner stores and gas stations, and the magazines were at eye-level for children to see," Jack said. Even more disturbing--and probably shocking to most Americans--was that porn was accessible to children. "The government placed such magazines in an unrestricted category. There was no restriction on sale, display or distribution. Children were allowed to buy these magazines." 

Determined to do something, Jack said he and his wife knew activist efforts could be successful. "We had been getting the AFA Journal for years. It made me feel good following the actions of AFA in the Journal, and seeing the success that came from it," he said. At a conference in Cincinnati, Jack said AFA Founder and President Don Wildmon encouraged the Sonnemanns to fight the good fight. 

Success came slowly, however. AFF lobbied legislators in every state capital, showing them examples of pornographic magazines. Male legislators repeatedly said, "What's wrong with that?" 

After being frustrated by such complacency, the Sonnemanns tried a different strategy. "Finally my wife said, ‘Forget them, Jack, there's not a real man amongst them. Start dealing with the women.' So we started lobbying the women legislators, and we started getting some action," he said. In 1990, all seven states in Australia passed restrictions on the display and sale of pornography where children are expected to be present. 

Since that time, Jack and Margaret have devoted themselves full time to making a difference in the Land Down Under. AFF was successful in removing smut from Australia's largest national retailers, initiated national radio and TV debates concerning porn, worked to have the legal age raised for young people to appear in pornography, and has frequently been present before Australian state and national parliaments on issues related to porn. In fact, Jack is proud to say that AFF has been "a thorn in the side of the porn industry for over 15 years." 

The truth is no defense in court 
It hasn't been easy, however, and in some ways a ministry like AFF is at a disadvantage when compared with a sister organization like AFA. For one thing, Jack said, in Australia the laws regarding freedom of speech are different. "A person can be sued for defamation even if a statement is true," he said. 

Jack discovered that fact the hard way, after he wrote to the attorney general in the state of Tasmania to complain that Playboy and Penthouse were being sold to children. The attorney general wrote back and said the parents in Tasmania don't mind their children having access to porn. 

Jack promptly did what AFA Journal would do--or any other magazine in the U.S., for that matter. He quoted the attorney general's response verbatim in the AFF newsletter. Jack was promptly sued, he said, because in Australia "truth is not a defense in defamation [cases]." 

He said, "That's why none of this stuff [like AFA does] has been going on here. I think everyone's afraid of being sued in Australia, because nobody has ever done this kind of thing." 

Americans should count their blessings, he added. "In America you can stand on the truth and shout it from the housetops. You stand on the truth in Australia and you can go to jail." 

For the sake of the children of their new country, that is a risk the Sonnemanns are willing to take.