When I first encountered David French, roughly two decades ago, he was a First Amendment expert known for his defense of religious liberty — for all kinds of people, including evangelicals in blue zip codes.
That was “conservative,” back then. Today, French has moved to the op-ed pages of The New York Times. I guess, in the ongoing Donald Trump era (#ALAS), that makes him what some would call a “New York Times conservative.” That isn’t a compliment.
I don’t always agree with French, but he remains a voice that old-school First Amendment liberals — folks who are often called “conservative” these days — will need to follow as conflicts continue to escalate on issues of free speech, religious liberty and freedom of association.
This brings me to a byte of French material that I inserted into this week’s “Crossroads” podcast (CLICK HERE to tune that in). These are the first two sentences of French’s must-read 2020 book “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.” Here we go:
“It’s time for Americans to wake up to a fundamental reality: the continued unity of the United States cannot be guaranteed. At this moment in history, there is not a single important cultural, religious, political, or social force that is pulling Americans together more than it is pulling us apart.”
A few lines later he adds this material, to which I alluded in the podcast (and in my recent Religion & Liberty essay on the state of American journalism):
“We lack a common popular culture. Depending on where we live and what we believe, we watch different kinds of television, we listen to different kinds of music, and we often watch different sports.
“We increasingly live separate from each other. … The geography that a person calls home, whether it is rural, exurban, suburban, or urban, is increasingly predictive of voting habits.”
The Internet, however, is everywhere. So is digital pornography.
Some people are more concerned about that than others and, yes, the level of concern seems to have something to do with religion and culture (and, thus, zip codes). This brings us to the Axios headline that inspired this podcast: “Pornhub blocks access in Utah in protest of new age verification law.”
The religion angle? Well, we are talking about politics in Utah. Here is some of that Axios news-you-can-use information:
Driving the news: Pornhub.com now opens on devices in Utah with a message that states the company has "made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in Utah."
* The move comes in response to Utah's age verification law, passed in March, the company wrote. That law takes effect Wednesday.
* Pornhub's owner, MindGeek, put the same message on its other sites like Brazzers, YouPorn and Redtube. Pornhub confirmed to Axios that the messages went up on Monday in response to the age verification law.
Catch up quick: Utah's new laws require websites with adult content to obtain age verification each time someone tries to access the site.
* Companies that don't comply will be liable if they're sued because a minor accessed their content.
* They also require social media companies to verify all Utah users' ages, starting March 1, 2024, and block accounts of users who don't supply age verification.
What we have here is an example of the kind of cultural, economic conflicts that play a big role in French’s book — which is about “civil war” scenarios that — as opposed to bullets — have more to do with laws, corporations, courts, churches and activists.
Politicians working with conservative parents vs. Pornhub may seem like a rather obvious conflict.
But what would happen if cultural conservatives did something that angered, well, Disney, ESPN, Apple, Amazon and other more mainstream principalities and powers in American (global, really) culture?
In the podcast, I reminded listeners of the 2017 clash between the state of North Carolina and the gods of big-time college basketball (think March Madness). This was a fight over a “bathroom bill” that today’s left would call “anti-trans,” while others (perhaps even old liberals) would say the debate was about the privacy rights of women. Yes, I know: Define “woman.”
How did that North Carolina clash turn out?
To understand what is happening in Utah, it helps to back up to this interesting New York Times feature about a similar clash — with a different plot twist — in Louisiana. Here is the double-decker headline on that:
States’ Push to Protect Kids Online Could Remake the Internet
New age restrictions for minors on sites like TikTok and Pornhub could also hinder adults’ access to online services.
Louisiana is, of course, an interesting state. For starters, so-called “culture wars” fights in Louisiana usually include a coalition of Republicans and culturally conservative (or “populist”) Democrats, including Catholics and, rarely mentioned by the national press, African-American Protestants and Pentecostal believers.
At the same time, folks in New Orleans know a thing or two about strip clubs and battles over public indecency.
Thus, this is a perfect example of the complex nature of these parents vs. Big Tech wars. It’s one thing to demand that customers entering an “analog” strip club to produce an ID showing their age. Yes, IDs can be faked, but everyone understands the point of this kind of law.
But what about requiring patrons to show ID when entering a “digital” strip club, or websites that are much, much worse? Thus, the Times notes:
Louisiana is at the forefront of a sweeping national push to insulate young people from potentially harmful content by requiring certain online services to bar or limit minors on their platforms. As a result, people in many other states may soon find that they, too, need to use credentials like digitized drivers’ licenses to access a host of services, including popular social media apps.
The proposed restrictions, introduced by at least two dozen states over the last year, could alter not only the online experiences of children and adolescents. They could also remake the internet for millions of adults, ushering in a tectonic cultural shift to a stricter, age-gated online world.
Here is the thesis, from the point of view of the Times:
The spate of new bills may come as a relief to parents who worry that their children are being bombarded by sexualized images or targeted by strangers online. But civil liberties groups say that certain bills could make it difficult for Americans, including minors, to view online information they have a constitutional right to see, violating free speech principles.
An example of the valid, yet sexualized, material that minors need to see? Anyone want to predict the legal fault lines in that debate?
But let me end with this final podcast takeaway. This trend is clearly and example of cultural conservatives trying to help parents who believe they have been placed in an impossible situation. The state can help, for sure, but it cannot prevent entrepreneurs from creating “back doors” into digital strip clubs (and worse).
My question, as a journalist and as a churchman: At what point will religious groups — think congregations, denominations, seminaries — realize that they need to address these issues in sermons, education, retreats, etc.?
Yes, it’s good to lobby legislators on “screen culture” issues. But, at some point, pastors are going to have to be brave and dive on this cultural hand grenade.
Enjoy the podcast and, please, share it with others.
FIRST IMAGE: Uncredited graphic with FOSSBYTES.com feature: “More iOS Users Watched Pornhub Than Android In 2019: Report.”