Not quite "Family Video"
Walk into the Family Video store in Beech Grove, and you can't miss the ad for "The Passion of the Christ" -- the Mel Gibson movie can be ordered for $17.99, the sign says, and customers are urged to reserve copies quickly.
So how about some porn with that passion? No way, says a friendly clerk behind the counter. Sorry. No X-rated stuff at her store.
Then, visit any of the other 12 or so Family Videos in Indianapolis, and you'll see, lo and behold, that each offers a big selection of X-rated movies in a room behind swinging doors at the store's rear.
So what gives? Why is a private, family-owned chain in Springfield, Ill., that calls itself Family Video peddling "Servicing Sara," "Hot Girls" and "Perfect Pink" in some stores and a Jesus movie in others?
Welcome to America -- and a perfectly legal, in fact successful, business model. Family Video invites children into its stores with a huge array of video games, but it rents dirty movies aplenty, local laws permitting. All under the family banner.
Perhaps it had to come to this, so we'd have something to talk about on Sunday besides politics.
But first, let's look at Indiana Code 35-49-3-3, which allows this weirdness to happen. It is illegal to "sell, display or disseminate matter harmful to minors within 500 feet of the nearest property line of a church or school." Hence, the Beech Grove Family Video is X-less -- it's across from Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church and School.
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Greetings,
We also have a Family Video Store here. I refuse to use their video's and tell EVERYONE I know to stop shopping there. Because of their collection of X-videos it is often called: "How to make a Family Video".
peace
Hmmmm . . . I wonder if the Indiana code still applies if the church or school is built after the video store. Well, probably not, but if it did, the garbage could be taken care of by building churches or schools in the neighborhood.
Well isn't it covered by free speech?? (I thought you meant corn at first...not porn)
Of course such things are often permitted by free speech (as filtered through local zoning law). The question is whether the chain should be supported by its customers' money. Besides, the hypocrisy of positioning a chain as "Family Video" while selling porn in the back room would seem to be disgusting to anyone. It's like a video store marketing itself to Quakers as "Nonviolence Video", while keeping a bunch of war movies and kung fu flicks in the back!
Weird. Back in Jax many years ago, there was a drive-in theater not 1/2 a mile from my church that showed X-rated movies (heavily edited, it is Florida). For some reason the zoning laws permitted that. The theater shows regular movies now.
There is no First Amendment protection for hardcore porn, and there never has been. It's a common misconception. The State of Indiana is free to restrict it as it sees fit. Doesn't seem to be restricting it very much in this case, though.
As long as Christian families rent family films like Bambi from such smut peddlars, they will continue to ply their two-faced scam.
Sounds like a great place for a Media in Morality style informational picket IMHO--or at least a leafleting.