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 Hotels' in-room movie selections should not include porn, according to two religious scholars.
July 12th, 2012
11:03 AM ET
Strange religious bedfellows unite for letter against hotel pornBy Dan Merica, CNN (CNN) – A letter penned by two notable scholars - a Christian and a Muslim - and sent to a number of different hotel industry executives has asked those hotels to remove pornography from their company’s in-room movie selections. Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University and the past chairman of the conservative National Organization for Marriage, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, a Muslim school, wrote the letter to urge hotels “to do what is right as a matter of conscience.” “We are, respectively, a Christian and a Muslim, but we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good,” reads the letter. The letter marks the joining of two unique men with two distinctly different faiths. Yusuf says they were able to put aside their disagreement on other issues because of their commitment to this cause. “We need to see that those things that are threatening our society today are much graver than anything that may divide us,” he told CNN. CNN's Belief Blog: the faith angles behind the big stories Reaction to the letter from some adult film stars - and even from some advocates for removing porn from hotels - was negative. Craig Gross, a pastor and the founder of XXXchurch.com, says the letter is an empty gesture with no power behind it. “It has got to be one of the dumbest letters I have ever read,” Gross said. “It is like asking the Internet to stop selling porn. It sounds good and all, but it isn’t going to happen.” But the letter’s authors argue that the Internet and hotels are different, with hotel owners directly profiting off the temptation of porn. “We urge you to do away with pornography in your hotels because it is morally wrong to seek to profit from the suffering, degradation, or corruption of others,” states the letter. “You are placing temptation in their path - temptation for the sake of profit. That is unjust. Moreover, the fact that something is chosen freely does not make it right.” Yusuf continued to use this argument in an interview with CNN. “Just because we are able to do something doesn’t mean it is what we should be doing. And just because you can sell these things doesn’t mean it is something you should be selling,” he said. In Gross’ opinion, this logic is a slippery slope. When planes offer access to WiFi, is that placing temptation in the path of those who may view porn on the Web? When hotels offer room service, he asks, are they tempting dieters? Gross has a long history of helping those with porn addictions, and his website is dedicated to getting people help. According to him, removing porn from hotels is a futile endeavor because of the "unfettered availability of porn on the Web. “ According to a 2005 report on the state of the adult entertainment by Adult Video News, a trade journal on the adult-film industry, 55% of hotel movie rentals are porn movie rentals. The average revenue from movie rentals, according to LodgeNet, a company that provides in-room entertainment services, was $16.51 per room per month in 2008. In the third quarter of 2009, LodgeNet brought in $64.8 million. This, however, included more family-friendly options as well. A 2011 report by Robert Mandelbaum at Colliers PKF Hospitality Research found that from 2000 to 2009, movie rental revenue for hotels in general decreased 39%. Even with the reported slip, Gross and other critics acknowledged there is a demand for adult entertainment. “This is supply and demand,” Gross said. “We spin our wheels doing all the wrong things. The issue is not that it is available; the issue is that people buy it.” Prior to this letter, however, some hotels had already pledged to remove pornography from their programming or had removed it. In 2011, Marriott International - a company founded by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that continues deep Mormon ties - pledged to phase out adult content from all hotel rooms. The move came after groups like Focus on the Family met with Marriott officials to urge them to remove adult movies. The church of porn and football “Adult content will be off the menu for virtually all of our newly built hotels,” read the Marriott statement. “Over the next few years, this will be the policy across our system.” Marriott is not the first hotel group to do this, though. Omni Hotels, a Dallas-based luxury hotel chain, removed all adult films from its in-room systems in 1999. According to other reports, adult-free programming is helping the Omni differentiate itself in the hotel market. Websites like cleanhotels.com look to help porn-free hotels by compiling a list of hotels that do not offer adult entertainment and leading people to them. Cleanhotels.com says it does so because its supporters want to know they are “supporting a facility that cares enough about the wellbeing of its customers not to make harmful pornographic movies available.” The American Hotel & Lodging Association, however, defends the right of hotels to choose what services to offer in their rooms. Follow the CNN Belief Blog on Twitter “In-room offerings such as this are made available based on market demand, are not offered in all hotels, and are subject to the same legal review all hotel operations are subject to,” read a statement from Kathryn Potter, senior vice president of marketing and communications for the association. Ron Jeremy, an adult-film star who has been in over 2,000 porn films, according to the Internet Adult Film Database, sees efforts to remove porn from hotels as attacks on freedom of speech. “What they have to understand is that freedom of speech works for all of us, not just for them,” Jeremy said about those who want to get porn out of hotel rooms. “This is a country that is secular; you have freedom from religion and freedom of religion. Give me a break.” While Jeremy said he is all for making sure kids in hotel rooms can’t get to porn - “I think that is marvelous” - he said he doesn’t see why adults shouldn’t watch “consenting adults have consenting sex.” "If a guy has a hard day at work or is at a convention and wants to sit down in his hotel room and puts on an adult film and plays spank the monkey, why can’t he do that?" soundoff (1,415 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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This is why the founders, who were religious, did not want their religions any were near their government.
Prayer changes things.
LOL. Morning retard... Still crazy I see...
Don't you write this comment on almost every article? Unless I'm thinking of someone else, which I don't believe I am. And I also believe that it's been pointed out over and over that prayer does NOT change things. There is not one single instance where anyone can prove that prayer had any effect. But of course, if you want to SEE prayer as being effective, you will. But I love how people who so thoroughly believe in prayer say nothing about the times their prayers were ignored–of course, then there's my favorite argument of all: sometimes God doesn't answer our prayers because he knows that what we're asking for isn't what's best. GREAT argument. Geez. Prayer does nothing.
That other voice in your head, is still your voice. Get real.
Prayer does not; you are such a LIAR. You have NO proof it changes anything! A great example of prayer proven not to work is the Christians in jail because prayer didn't work and their children died. For example: Susan Grady, who relied on prayer to heal her son. Nine-year-old Aaron Grady died and Susan Grady was arrested.
An article in the Journal of Pediatrics examined the deaths of 172 children from families who relied upon faith healing from 1975 to 1995. They concluded that four out of five ill children, who died under the care of faith healers or being left to prayer only, would most likely have survived if they had received medical care.
The statistical studies from the nineteenth century and the three CCU studies on prayer are quite consistent with the fact that humanity is wasting a huge amount of time on a procedure that simply doesn’t work. Nonetheless, faith in prayer is so pervasive and deeply rooted, you can be sure believers will continue to devise future studies in a desperate effort to confirm their beliefs:!
LET's Religiosity Law #11 – “From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere.”
Binging "free po-rn", 146,000,000 results. And some want to ban a few hotel movie channels??
Are you proud of the perversion statistics?
Mike
What perversion?
mikey-mike...what makes you think it is a perversion?
Whatever happened to con-dom dispensers in public mens rooms?
If some of the most horrendous diseases ever known to man won't stop humans from doodling each other,two preachers with an agenda do not stand a chance.
I know "doodling" is probably a typo, but I can't resist this lol .... so I can't use her bre'asts and nip'ples like etch-a-sketch knobs? lol 🙂
Mirosol.......That sounds like fun, but begs a question.What,pray tell, would be the stylus that creates the picture?
They should get rid of the fantasy novel known as the bible from the bedside nightstands. Nothing corrupts the mind more than propoganda.
I'm with you! Let's start a class action law suite!
THINK OUTSIDE THE BOOK!!!
If the bible is ok to place by the night stand, I'd like the holy book of Pastafarian.
So now the "holier-than-thou" are going to try to tell people what they can do while on holiday? I've said it before, and I'll say it again: RELIGION is the biggest evil on this planet. Put in place to control the sheep who follow it. And it's worked like a CHARM.
Religious people are far more likely to use p0rn than atheists. It's the forbidden nature of it, along with having fun and being honest and not believing in fairy tales.
Are you defending the sinners right to stay perverted?
Hope – Why would you complain about religion? Are you not willing to give up your perversion?
Mike
What perversion....what sin?
mike: of course people have right to remain "perverted", as you say. you have a right to be a pompous d bag, too. and, we can see that you are enoying that to it's max
Mike, no I don't have any desire to give up my perversion, as you put it. I believe people should have the right to be "perverted" if they choose. But that was hardly my point. The religious have no right to tell others, religious or not, what they can do in private. If they don't want to watch p orn, they don't have to. It's called a remote control, and you have the ability to change the channel.
I think they are just mad because those two purveyors of mythology.. oops I mean religious "scholars" can't get laid in a who'reho'use with a no-limit credit card. They figure if they can't get "any", then no one else should either.
You know what's "threatening our society today"? Religion. Get off it.
You really want to get their panties in a bunch? Toss the bible in the drawer next to the bed.
Weren't these men allowed to make their own decisions about their faith and how to pursue it? Isn't that a decision that should be left to the intellect and philosophy of the individual? Did they ask for my opinion on how valuable or absurd their chosen faiths may be? No. They did not. Nor did I ask for their opinion on what I watch or to what I listen. I did not ask for their opinion on my chosen faith or what I wore this morning.
Morals start at home. So go home, Religious Scholars, and start educating your parishioners on the how and why of making good decisions for themselves rather than attempting to impose your beliefs on strangers who may or may not be capable of making these decisions on their own. If you fail at home, you're going to fail abroad.
You can beat me into saying anything you like, but you can't make me feel it in my soul.
Once again the American Taliban rears it's ugly head. The Tea Party talks about freedom but tries to take it away whenever it can.
I think the Tea Party is funny. They keep choosing women to lead the attack... how UN-fundamental can you be? It's like printing, "NOS SUNT HYPOCRITAE ET SUPERBI!" on the coat of arms.
I think this is ridiculous too, but it has nothing to do with the tea party.
The Tea Party is a largely FISCAL movement. Granted their are some religious wackadoos associated with it, but it is not a religious movement.
Conservative fiscal beliefs do not necessarily imply conservative social beliefs.
mark – Are you defending your right to stay perverted?
There afraid some one will see them on film
ah, that would explain it.
This is what the Tea Party stands for look at everything that Comes out of their leader Bachmann's mouth nothing but made up stupidity....maybe their secret Scientoligist's????
I want "religion" to stay out of my business even more than government. The TEA-liban is coming.
Ditto! If they spent more time thinking about JunkBonds instead of their Junk we would all be better off!
The word isn't JUNK, it's SIN.
mike: you do not speak for god.
"Religious scholar" is a contradiction in terms.
Exactly!
HAHA! So true! and this is their moment in the light, this is what they have to add to society! Pathetic!
Religious nutjobs, mind your own business.
Agreed, I'm sick and tired of these nut jobs trying to push their morals on everyone else. Let's see how long your religion would last if everyone stopped giving at the plate. Faith is a personal thing, stop trying to convert people to your crazy just to justify your club. Taking away all temptation isn't what your scriptures talk about anyway, the true meaning is seeing the temptation and having the faith and moral character to resist it .
You do realize the alternatives? That being sinners that don't overcome their sinful nature dwell in hell for all time.
It would be really funny if thers is a god. But it isn't the version of a god that Mike has chosen to worship.
I'd love to see the expression on Mike's face when he dies and meets Amma, or Bumba face to face.
Mike, as long as you aren't in Hell then I am ok with that.
I come from neither of these religions. What gives them to right to use their interpretation of an ancient book written by goat herders to tell me how to live my life? Do they think they live in a theocracy?
Theey are free of course to make their suggestions and we are free to tell them to get stuffed.
No, they think we live in a theocracy. Sarah Palin actually believes the founding fathers conceived the U.S. as a Christian Nation
Sarah Palin thought the founding fathers wrote the Pledge of Allegiance – with the words "under god" already in it..
[From a questionairre by the Eagle Forum when she was running for governor.]
Sarah is a sinner like all of you.
mikey-mike......interesting you said "sarah is a sinner like all of YOU"
And, I suppose you distinguish yourself from the rabble of sinners?
Pompous F nut.
What are these guys doing watching those movies in the first place?
When religion gives up their tax exempt status then we will give up what they want.. Until then, shut the hell up !
No we won't. They should pay taxes AND keep their nose out of my business.
Doug, you have every right to burn in the fires of hell. Remember, if you don't work at giving up your sinful nature on earth, you get to live with it for all time.
If a man wants to watch a man, a woman, another woman, a midget and a donkey with whipped cream and some shackles, that's his business. The religious need to rub one out and relax and shut up.
That's absurd and I disagree! The donkey cannot give informed consent, so it would be wrong to allow that. However whipped cream and shackles sounds interesting.
This whole animal thing would not be top of mind except for Rick Santorum. Dogs, horses, sheep, etc. Seriously? That man must have some strange wet dreams.
Perversion is sin.