If you will allow me a moment

To get on a soapbox, I have some things I just have to say! I normally try to stick to things of my life and family on here, and I guess now that I think about it, this is indeed about my life and especially my family!

Sixty-six percent of my family (that's 2 out of the 3 of us) are HUGE sports fans. Especially around football season, but that's a whole other blog. Anyway, because of the love of sports we subscribe to ESPN magazine. It's the only one we get and it gets read cover to cover. Except for the recent "Body Issue" which we received last month.

Luckily, I checked the mail and was shocked by the cover (which led me to stray from my normal routine of handing the magazine over to Joshua as soon as I walked in the door.) I sat down at the table, thinking I could rip out the pages I felt inappropriate and then he could read the articles. I soon learned that this was an impossible task. Every other page had nude athletes on it. I quickly flipped through it, and trashed it. Lowell and I explained to Joshua why there would be no reading of the ESPN mag that day and he was totally disgusted and fine with it being in the trash. I was irritated, but honestly didn't think a whole lot about it until the next issue arrived.

It looked innocent enough and the guys weren't home so I sat down to flip through and see if there was anything interesting. And there it was, three pages in - the letters to the editor. There were about seven if I remember correctly and five of them were complaining about the pictures in the "Body Issue." From comments such as "I had to censor the magazine for my husband," to "we have small children in the house and this is not what I want to be laying around" to "the magazine is supposed to be about sports, not nude pictures." The responses from the editor went something like this: "The magazine is not intended for small children," "Censorship is a huge issue in the United States today," and "The body of the athlete is about sports." They followed up with a statement about the "art form" of the body and how the body of the athlete in particular is art in it's "purest form." Now, even though the majority of the people who wrote in were upset about the content of the issue, the whole sidebar was full of pictures from the last issue. (You know how they connect the letter to a picture so that the reader will remember what the letter is referring to? But I KNOW that none of these people wrote in to complain in the hopes that they would show the pictures AGAIN!)

I quickly ripped that page out and didn't see anything else inappropriate for the eyes in my home. But it just hasn't gone away. I am still mad about it.

I've been to museums all over the world and have seen lots of famous artwork. I've seen lots of nude artwork. And it's most cases, it's beautiful, though sometimes a tad odd. But I tell ya' what. I have NEVER been in a museum and seen a portrait of four nude female golfers stretched out on a golf cart. And there's a reason for that. It's NOT art, it IS pornography!

I am thankful that pornography has never been an issue in my home. But I have friends who understand all too well that it is an addiction that can absolutely destroy marriages and families. And I am so saddened that even in a time when we can put internet filters on our computers, and parental locks on our televisions, that we still can't safely open our mailboxes without worrying about what we are bringing into our homes.

Getting off the soapbox for now, but don't worry, I'm keeping it close in case I need to jump back up!