Don Wildmon

AFA/AFR founder

August 1998 – Sometimes it takes a lot of hard work and a lot of time to accomplish something. But, usually, it’s those things which are worth accomplishing.

You can rejoice over the two victories your AFA celebrated last month. Each took a lot of hard work and a lot of time.

Take the victory where the Supreme Court ruled that the National Endowment for the Arts did not have to fund pornographic art with our tax dollars. That would have been a no brainer for most people, but not for the left-wing, liberal artists. They felt that the government had to give them tax dollars to fund their pornography! In other words, the government could not refuse to give them a grant simply because they would use that grant to publish pornography or anti-Christian “art.”

Using that logic, the government could be forced to give money to a group to build low-income housing without any control on how that money would be spent. Following the logic of the left-wingers, the contractor could take the money and build straw houses if he so desired. And the government could not refuse him the money simply because he was building straw houses.

Of course, the battle concerning the NEA will of necessity continue. The ruling said nothing about the elementary concept of government funding for the arts. The arts community receives about $10 billion a year from private sources, but they feel that they are so important to the welfare of the country that they should get millions more from taxpayers. Sadly enough, there are those in Congress who feel the same. And they keep giving away hundreds of millions of tax dollars to these elitist individuals.

Over a decade ago, your AFA began this battle against the NEA. We intend to see it through.

Now, on to the other victory. The Supreme Court also ruled that the military could not be forced to sell pornography in their outlets. Penthouse had sued the government after a law was passed making it illegal for military outlets to sell pornography. Penthouse, the ACLU-types and other like-minded groups felt that the military should be legally bound (forced) to sell pornography. Weird, isn’t it, that the liberals believe that a retail outlet run by the government should be forced to sell their pornography.

Following their logic, the military would be forced to sell not only their pornography, but also any other product any individual wants them to sell. Their philosophy was that if you had a product you wanted the military to sell, the military should be forced to buy it from you and sell it. Wow! Consider that concept for a while.

These two victories were significant and important. They took years of hard work to accomplish. But they
were won.

Let us not grow weary in well doing. We can win more battles – perhaps even the war – if we faint not.