New Book to Help Victims of Pornography Find Hope:

A Call for Submissions

She seeks personal stories to be considered for anonymous inclusion to specifically help the victims and to give them hope to all who have been affected by this international scourge. If you know anyone who has been negatively affected by pornography, please contact the author today and forward this article to those that might be able to help. 

Perhaps you read a December 13, 2007 Deseret Morning News article reporting the findings of a recent Brigham Young University pornography study of six American universities. 

Not surprisingly, over two-thirds of college men participating in this study believe that pornography’s an acceptable expression, while a whopping 86% of them viewed it in the previous 12 months. 

Shockingly, the responses of 813 students from across these six universities showed that nearly half of female students in the study regard pornography as an acceptable way to express one’s sexuality. Thirty-seven percent of the dads agreed.   An even more stunning statistic showed that over 20% of their mothers also agreed it’s acceptable!

In addition, according to attorneys with whom I’ve spoken who have prosecuted sexual offenders for many years, virtually all cases involved pornography.

Why This Book Is Needed Now

From the results of this study, there is no question that a significant number of people have no idea how dangerous, damaging and destructive pornography really is or they would not hold these naïve views. 

This must change if we hope to protect our daughters, wives, mothers and their children from the cultural devastation this trend will bring about over the next generation. It’s already begun to destroy our culture. 

This book will also serve to enlighten those who believe that pornography has little or no impact on marriage, women and children. Many businesses, organizations and news media outlets have no concept of exactly how pornography manifests itself in marriages and families and how it ruins lives. 

This also must change. Without the support of business and the media to persuade our legislatures and law enforcement officers to enforce decency laws and to strengthen them, nothing will change. It will continue to get worse. 

Several excellent therapeutic and scientific books have been written to help those who struggle with sexual addiction.  However, consider the following:

• ·         No book shares a collection of agonizing and amazing stories of women and children who have survived living with this addiction and who have survived and succeeded, against all odds. 

   
• ·         No book offers help for the victims through true stories of survival and messages of hope.  

   
• ·         No book has effectively educated naïve young women and men, upon whom pornographers routinely prey, linking sex trafficking, slavery, prostitution, and prison sentences with pornography.  

   
• ·         No book accurately describes the tell-tale signs of a sex addict so that innocent young women can steer clear of dating or marrying one. 

   
• ·         No book adequately explains exactly how pornography destroys women and children, their marriages and family relationships. 

Why This Book Hasn’t Been Written Yet

One of the reasons such a book has not been written before is because women are afraid to tell their stories. They’re afraid of law suits from ex-husbands. They’re afraid of hurting their children and loved ones. And yes, those who have become addicted and who have destroyed their families must be given a chance to change without public embarrassment. 

For this reason, this book will tell these stories anonymously to protect all involved. 

Now’s the Time – Before It’s Too Late

• It’s time to tell the truth and to share these real stories of defeat and triumph. 
  
• It’s time for a voice of warning, as well as hope, to protect our daughters, future wives and mothers and their children.  
• It’s time for a book that many have encouraged me to write, as well as leaders from organizations fighting pornography -  Legacy Law Foundation and The Lighted Candle Society, and other member organizations of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography, as well as officers within the Utah Task Force Against Internet Pornography.
  
• It’s time for a book whose proceeds I will donate to organizations effectively fighting pornography.

This book is urgently needed now. As I write, hundreds of thousands of women and children worldwide are suffering from sexual abuse, human trafficking and sexual addiction.  They are being robbed of self-esteem and normal, loving relationships.

But I cannot complete this project without your help.  If you know of anyone who would be willing willing to contribute their stories, please forward this blog to them.

The pain and tragedy of pornography’s effects on marriage, children and family is devastating.  It’s typically a dark and seedy topic. However, this book will uplift and give hope to those who are caught in the grip of this strangulating death of the human soul. It will give them strength to break loose and to breathe again. 

It will also provide an emotional release for those who contribute anonymously as they are able to help others by finally sharing their stories of how they escaped from their living nightmares. 

If you have been, or if you know of anyone who has been, affected by pornography in any way that might be interested in contributing their story anonymously, I urge you to reply to this call for submissions and to pass this message on to others.

This is perhaps one of the most important and urgent requests I’ve ever made so far in all my public policy years. It will only take a moment to respond, but it will have a huge impact. 

The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2008. Email Cherilyn@CherilynBEagar.com or call 801-272-8110.

Will the GOP and McCain Endorse Religious Bigotry?

So there’s talk about Mike Huckabee being appointed either Chairman of the Republican Party or McCain’s VP – both bad ideas. 

Huckabee’s Religion Problem

First, Mr. Huckabee has drawn the lines around those he would include in his party, and I’m not one of them. 

You see, I’m a Mormon Christian, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You know, that “cult” that believes Jesus and Satan are brothers.   How weird is that, you say?   Exactly what Huckabee wanted you to think. 

But because Huckabee says, so, then it must be true. After all, he’s the self-anointed leader of the Evangelical Christian wing of the party. (Some claim that's about 30%.) 

Well, you were deceived. Intentionally. If you want to know the truth about what we believe, go to www.FAIRLDS.org. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Yet Mormon Christians (LDS) often vote with, work beside and unite with these Evangelical Christians on moral issues. On more than one occasion, without the Mormon Christian vote, some moral/social initiatives (especially in California) would have failed.   

(Please accept my apologies for a few Mormon embarrassments, the most celebrated of them all, Harry Reid. He’s been going through a long-term identity crisis.  In a Church of over 13 million, there are bound to be a few of these confused souls.) 

But when it comes time for Evangelical Christians to show a hand of support in the other direction – toward Mitt Romney, for example – watch out. That’s a hot potato.

Unfortunately, Huckabee showed himself to be more of a religious bigot* (see definition below) than a leader of anything but his own election. He was willing to lie and defame my Mormon Christian religion for political gain. He even sputtered and stammered  in one debate that he could not vote for a Mormon. He knowingly appealed to that ignorant segment of Evangelicals easily deceived by juicy, vicious and ugly defamatory DVDs and books on cults their pastors show them.   I don’t doubt that Huckabee was one of those pastors.   I hold out hope that he knew not what he did.

To a Mormon Christian, appointing Huckabee to a position of power in the GOP is tantamount to appointing a member of the KKK. What happened in this election was déjà vu for us -  a throw-back to Mormon Christian history where these same types of bigots raped our women and pillaged our Mormon Christian settlements and actually got extermination orders to drive us out.  My great-grandfather died from the elements crossing the plains to get to the Salt Lake Valley so his family could have religious liberty. This is a very sensitive issue. Just as the Jews have not forgotten their Holocaust, neither have we forgotten our own, albeit on a much smaller scale. It happened once. It could happen again.

So you can see why we Mormons might be just a bit concerned – no, frightened -  by what Huckabee did to enflame Mormon bigotry. In fact, my nephew in Atlanta told of a recent lunch meeting where one man expressed his outright hatred toward Mormons as a result of Huckabee’s anti-Mormon evangelism. 

What Must Happen to Regain LDS Confidence

Will the RNC or McCain campaign endorse this kind of bigotry by appointing Huckabee? And if they do, how will the RNC prove to the LDS wing of the party that we will be included going forward?  Will Mormons continue to be marginalized U.S. citizens, uninvited to the Evangelical clique that apparently controls the GOP?

We didn’t start this religious war. Mr. Huckabee did.  Now we want it ended. Before I or any other Mormon Christian can comfortably support Mr. Huckabee in any position of leadership, including VP or RNC Chairman, he would need to do the following:

1. 1.      Personally meet with the leadership of the LDS church to get his facts straight and learn first-hand what we really believe;

    
2. 2.      Make a public apology to Mormon Christians, asking for forgiveness for what he did;

    
3. 3.      Urge his Southern Baptist Convention and other Evangelical voting bodies to do likewise. Ask them to stop their lies, defamation and distortions that routinely get airtime on their radio and TV shows, as well as in their local church meetings;

    
4. 4.      Show good faith by including Mormon Christians in his circle of advisors;

    
5. 5.      Be a coalition-builder by inviting all conservative religious views to the GOP party;

    
6. 6.      Stop identifying himself as “Christian” and “values” political leader that includes all Christians except those that fall outside his definition of “Christian.”    

Huckabee’s Political Problem

Aside from the religion problem, Huckabee’s not a Reagan conservative. Neither’s McCain.  Huckabee needs to come clean with the GOP on his political stands.  Huckabee must honestly admit that he is a liberal Evangelical Christian who has little affinity with conservative Christians and non-Christians, except for his pro-life and marriage stands. He must also acknowledge that he really has little affinity with the Reagan wing of the party. 

Speaking of Reagan, even Reagan appointed a Mormon Christian Lieutenant Governor - John Harmer -a valiant veteran of fighting pornography as no one else in this country has! (Which leads us back to Huckabee’s religion problem.) 

Even the Heritage Foundation (the mother organization of this Town Hall blog) uses a significant number of Mormon Christians as interns.  I sat in a Heritage board room of about a dozen of them a couple of years ago and conversed with them. I was impressed. Thank you, Heritage!

The GOP: United or Divided?

In 1996, the GOP set up a Big Tent.  However, some of us learned that this big tent excluded the pro-lifers, the family values folks, and the Buchananites. Now it also appears to be excluding the Mormonites. What kind of a “big tent” is this party becoming, anyway?

Our presidential and vice-presidential nominees and party leaders must be leaders for ALL citizens of the United States, not just for those who believe in their particular brand of Christianity. If you go to www.Adherents.com , you will see the wide span of religious beliefs our former US presidents have held. To divide our country along religious lines at a time when we all need each other more than ever is a dangerous precedent. 

United we stand.  Divided we fall. It’s in Huckabee’s corner.

*BIGOT. One who holds a bias against an individual or group and who perpetuates false information or propaganda with intent to do harm and to deceive.