BY RANDALL MURPHREE | AFA Journal Editor

Christian activists come in all sorts of packages. Below, the stories of two developers in Kentucky, a priest and a home-schooling mom in New Jersey, a contractor in Mississippi, and a beautician in Illinois illustrate how to be salt and light in our culture. These activists took on Movie Gallery, the nation’s leading renter of porn videos. And they won.

This diverse group – from six different denominations – took time to share their victories with AFA Journal. Not only do they illustrate a wide range of professions and church backgrounds, they also illustrate how members of the Body of Christ can find common ground in responsibility as believers, obedience to the Lord, consistency of our faith and passion for Christ.

Responsible in Kentucky
"If there are any areas where I can make a difference, then I will," said Brent Freeman. Brent and business partner Keith Woodlee have known each other since high school. Three years ago, they founded Woodlee-Freeman Properties in Corbin, Kentucky. They make a difference by how they consider the properties they develop. They are committed to exercising Christian responsibility in business decisions. Brian attends Corbin First United Methodist Church, and Keith’s family goes to Swiss Colony Baptist (SBC) in nearby London.

"We try to be led by the Spirit of God in everything we do," Brent said. "We dedicate the property to the Lord and anoint it with oil." They are pretty picky about the clients they lease to. One recent development is Brentwood, a 12,000 square-foot, prime-location commercial property just off I-75. It generated a lot of inquires from potential renters. One caller proposed a Brentwood-Movie Gallery deal.

"Brent asked me if I’d ever heard of Movie Gallery," Keith said. "I told him no, but we should find out about them."

"I got on the Internet to see what I could learn," Brent said. "Under ‘Movie Gallery’ I noticed Don Wildmon’s name. I’m very familiar with what you all do, so I went right to your site." After reading about Movie Gallery, Brent and Keith decided immediately not to lease to the company.

Brent knows that for some, it seems OK to rent to Movie Gallery if the local store doesn’t carry hardcore porn. But for him, it’s black and white, no gray area; he doesn’t want Movie Gallery earning any profits in his properties.

"Pornography is such a silent killer," he said. "It affects men. It affects me. I had to stay away from it. And to think that an outfit would want to come in and [peddle porngraphy in our community] – it just appalls me."

Brent and his wife have three children, ages 15, 13 and 11. Keith and his wife are parents to 14- and 10-year-olds. Five good reasons to want a clean community.

Obedient in New Jersey
"Obey the Lord is all I did," said Julia Pillis of Malaga, New Jersey. Julia home-schools her two children, ages 9 and 13, in the small town in southern New Jersey. When she saw a sign announcing a new Movie Gallery store, she said, "I felt the Lord said to me, ‘This is for you. You’re supposed to do something about this.’ I just stepped out on faith."

Having earlier visited a Movie Gallery store that rented hardcore porn, she was determined that they would not do so in her little hometown. She began to pray, then contacted AFA for more information on Movie Gallery. Julia and her family attend Calvary Hill Assembly of God in nearby Glassboro. She found her greatest support from Father Jerome Romanowski of St. Mary’s Church in Malaga.

"Our whole culture is corrupt," said the Roman Catholic priest. "But we will not accept this [pornography] as our standard." Julia said all it took was to educate the community regarding the risks that come with having a Movie Gallery in town.

Julia often felt it was a David-and-Goliath style battle going on. She did most of the footwork herself, distributing hundreds of copies of "Somewhere in America," AFA’s brochure detailing Movie Galley’s pornography business. She put the brochures in churches in town and made sure to put them in the hands of elected officials.

"The greatest thing was that everybody had the brochures – the zoning committee, the town council," she said. "Everybody in town was talking about it." When local developers appeared at a zoning board meeting and insisted Movie Gallery did not rent porn, she distributed the brochures and it took the wind out of their sails.

"The owner of the property did not realize that Movie Gallery was this type of video store," she said. Consequently, the owner decided not to rent to Movie Gallery. Julia hopes her story will move others to take a stand.

"It will show them it doesn’t take a big army," she said. "It enlightened me to what one person can do. Gideon didn’t have a big army. It just takes obedience to the Lord."

Consistent in Mississippi
"Until the pornography is gone, I’m not coming back," Brian Wilkes told the Movie Gallery store manager in Batesville, Mississippi. "And I’m going to influence as many people as I can to do the same thing."

The Wilkes family attends Hosanna Family Worship Center. Brian and about six Christian brothers began by addressing the porn issue with a locally-owned, non-chain store. "We would go in and tell them, ‘Look, I’m not going to shop here until this porn is gone. And when it’s gone, I’ll come back and shop here.’"

Brian said they simply repeated the process every week or two until the store owner quit renting porn videos. Later, Brian, his wife and their two young sons went to Movie Gallery to rent a video. He was shocked when the clerk made no effort to conceal sexual material at the front cash register. Fortunately, his sons could not see onto the counter.

"My daughter wasn’t with us," he said. "She’s older, and she would have seen it." Neither the clerk nor the manager seemed to care about Brian’s concern. So he and his friends began the same process that had been successful at the other store.

They also contacted the police chief who informed Movie Gallery if the store rented videos that might be illegal according to state obscenity laws, he would not hesitate to prosecute. Two weeks later, the chief asked Brian to check out Movie Gallery again.

"I went in their back room, and there was nothing but empty shelves," Brian said. "I went out and told the manager right then that we would be announcing in church Sunday that we could shop there again."

A year ago, Batesville had five places selling porn magazines and two places offering porn videos. Now only one store sells magazines and none rents videos. But Brian and friends are still quietly and consistently at work.

"We’re doing the same thing with them that we did with the others," he said. He expects victory – it’s becoming a habit.

Passionate in Illinois
"I have passion,"declared Beverly McDowell. "I love the Lord with all my heart and soul." Bev is owner and operator of Bev’s Country Cuts in Olney, Illinois. She’s the mother of two, grandmother of five and great-grandmother of one.

Bev is also a community activist extraordinaire, having been involved in everything from marriage amendment rallies to volunteering in political campaigns to writing letters to the editor to posting the National Motto in public buildings.

"With me, the Lord has such raw material to work with," she said. "All I have is a GED education. He’s the one who does it."

One successful campaign led by Bev and Olney’s Reclaiming Christian Values (RCV) group, which she helped organize in 2001, was getting the local Movie Gallery to close down its back room of hardcore porn.

Bev learned about Movie Gallery’s porn business from AFA Journal, so she followed the suggested steps. First, she checked video chains in Olney – Movie Gallery and Blockbuster. Movie Gallery rented porn, Blockbuster didn’t.

Next, she asked the Movie Gallery landlord to get the back room shut down. When that failed, she went to the ministerial association and the group indicated they agreed with her in principle, but concrete action was too slow. Fortunately, her own pastor, Pastor Chris Jennette at Calvary Independent Baptist Church, was fully behind her. She called him a "real warrior." Finally, after a year, she told the ministerial association, "We’ve waited long enough. We’re going ahead and do what we feel is right to do."

"Then," said Bev, "we got all the material from AFA – that whole series on pornography, on what it does to families." Another member of RCV used that information to run a weekly series of letters to the editor in the Olney Daily Mail.

Whatever the issue, Bev depends on those letters, mailing them regularly to 64 newspapers. Papers in the Chicago area 250 miles away have run her letters. She said that, as the series of letters on pornography ran its course in the Olney paper, it impacted Movie Gallery’s business to the point that the back room eventually shut down.

"A lot of the credit goes to you guys at AFA," said Bev, "and to the information we get from you."

SIDEBAR
How to take action against Movie Gallery
Movie Gallery operates almost 4,700 video rental stores nationwide (as Movie Gallery or Hollywood Video), many of them having back rooms offering hardcore porn.

Action steps:
• Determine if your local Movie Gallery has a back room for renting porn videos. If so, ask the store manager to shut down the room and begin to call public attention to the issue.

• If that brings no response, schedule a meeting with local authorities (mayor, police, city attorney). Ask them to enforce state and local obscenity laws.

• Contact U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at 202-353-1555. Ask his office to begin an investigation against Movie Gallery for the distribution of illegal obscene materials.

• For more details on how to oppose pornography in your town, contact AFA Director of Special Projects Randy Sharp at 662-844-5036, Ext. 240, or visit www.StopMovieGalleryPorn.com.