One Person Can Make A Difference & Why We All Must! (Op-Ed By Nicole Ne’Sher)

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Note from The Tennessee Conservative: Editorial statements in this column are the sole opinion of the author; they do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the staff of this publication.

Submitted by Nicole Ne’Sher, RN –

I grew up in New Jersey, a very “blue state.” I moved to the “Bible belt.” I enjoy going to the local bookstore to read. After being away  for several years, I moved back and to my shock saw porn magazines in the bookstore. Children could see the covers of the magazines and older children could easily access them.  

I went to management who blamed corporate. I asked if anyone had  complained about this, she said, no! I was shocked, this was not allowed in a liberal state like New Jersey! I assumed there was a law  protecting children from porn exposure in the Bible-belt. I called the  police who gave me a hard time. He didn’t even know the laws  protecting children. He said there is porn on the internet! I asked him a question he could or would not answer. I said, if there were 2 rooms filled with children; one had 3 deadly snakes, the other room, one; would you ignore the one? 

I called the mayor’s office; they did not know the law either! Finally, I called my legislators office, his assistant told me this was against the law and sent me the piece of legislation. I called the Attorney General’s office and asked why the law was not being enforced, he said, because no one complained!

After getting a copy of the legislation, I went to my pastor, he said, if he saw the porn, he would assume it was legal and therefore would do nothing. Slavery was legal, yet it was the pastors who led the fight against this evil.

He said, “I am only responsible for my children.”

I said, what about the scriptures that say we are to love our neighbor  as ourselves? Or, aren’t we to be our brother’s keeper? He could not  answer. I then told him, if one child is in danger, all children are because children who are exposed to porn will share it with other children and or act on what they see! I spoke to another pastor who said, “we are in the last days.” So, does that mean if we see a person being put in harms way, we do nothing?

I asked other pastors who  felt, “it was not their ministry” or they were too busy. I understand  pastors are busy people, so am I. I wonder, if they saw a drug dealer selling fentanyl outside an elementary school. Would they turn away, saying, it’s not my child, or it’s not my ministry or I’m too  busy? Or would they do something like making a phone call to  protect these vulnerable children?  

I said to God, you call us to be faithful, not successful. I will try to get rid of the porn. I took pictures of the front of the magazines, asked for the names of the store management. Told them again that it was against the law and that I was going to complain to the Attorney General’s office. A few weeks later I returned, the magazines were gone. I thought they sold out so I returned the following week, no porn magazines. I did this for 6 weeks and was astonished. They were no longer selling them.

The following weeks I returned to read some books. I noticed some teens, looking for C.S. Lewis books. I thought about them. What if these teens had been exposed to those magazines with scantily clad women in their faces; would they be tempted to “browse.”

I saw a father with his 9-year-old son. They were having fun, what if  this boy had picked up one of these magazines? What if his dad had? Porn use is the leading cause of divorce among Christians, it destroys families. It is highly addictive to children. It is what fuels child rape materials on the internet; it fuels child sexual abuse and  sexual trafficking of children.

I left the bookstore with a sense of satisfaction. There is still a lot of pornography available in society but at least in this one bookstore, children and families would not be exposed.

If we call ourselves followers of Christ, then everyone of us has a responsibility to speak out whenever and wherever we see evil and people are put in harm’s way. 

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, one of the very few pastors who spoke out against Hitler said: “Silence in the face of evil, is itself evil, not to speak, is to speak, not to act, is to act and God will not hold us guiltless’”

2 important resources: Good Pictures Bad Pictures: Porn Proofing Today’s Kids.

https://www.defendyoungminds.com. Resources for parents to protect their children from dangers on the internet. 

https://www.covenanteyes.com. A ministry to help both men and  women overcome porn addiction.