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Family television turned off to protest
Minister questions media content
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TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — Rev. Donald Wiid-
|non dicked off the family television a decade
go as a personal protest against what he saw
s unbridled sex and violence invading his
lississippi home.
The next week, the Methodist minister
Asked his congregation to do the same.
I “I was angry because tfrese things were in-
Iruding in my private world," says Wildmon,
Ivho heads national organizations that daily
lhallenge televison networks and magazine gi-
Inis in a search-and-destroy crusade aimed at
Ivhat he calls “the moral cancer that is invad-
Jngour land.”
ei The approach is simple — identify pro
grams, movies and magazines that promote
;ex, profanits and violence, then go for the
x'onomk throal of those linaiu mg them.
His National Federation for Decency, based
A in this quiet little city in the heart of the Bible
Belt, has waged successful economit cam
paigns in recent years that have led to several
major convenience and drugstore chains —in-
"hiding 7-Eleven, Stop-n-Go, Rev-Co and
uudtngs jis Eckera — pulling Playboy, Penthouse and
rther adult magazines from their shelves.
Wildmon also heads the 16,000-member
uniagdi
iquake an:
m week, e
Christian Leaders for Responsible T elevision
/^-■coalition which, fie says, has forced big-time
-
advertisers to re-examine the programming
they sponsor.
The impact on content was limited.
Wildmon concedes, adding, “To this point
Clear-T V has not flexed its muscles. We are
made up of a diverse group of leaders and
they are trying ev ery avenue to appeal to the
good conscience of the networks and advertis
ers.
"However, we are equally determined, if all
else fails, to go the other route — we will begin
boycotting.”
Wildmon’s efforts have received a predic
tably mixed reaction, praised by those who
share his views on the dangers of pornogra
phy and deplored by those who consider his
crusade an attack on the right office speech.
Barry Lynn, legislative counsel for the
American Civ il Liberties Union, says, "1 have
never called him a censor but 1 have said that
his organization is engaged in an unwise tac
tic, which has as the ultimate ef fect, if success
ful, of narrowing the availability of material
about sex in a f ree society.”
Lynn said that while Wildmon’s use of boy
cotts and other economic tactics appear to be
constitutionally permissible, they are unwise.
Wildmon says he can’t understand how the
ACLU can defend the rights of some groups
to speak out while criticizing his organization
For doing the same thing.
The 48-year-old minister says the recent re
jection by Maine voters of a measure to outlaw
pornography was an example of only one side
of the issue being presented to the public.
“I believe that if the voters in Maine were
exposed to some hard-core pornography they
would understand what we are attempting to
do,” he says.
Wildmon applauds the controversial report
of the National Commission on Pornography,
which, among other things, linked pornogra
phy to sex crimes, a conclusion that some ex
perts dispute.
“Most of the national secular media are rip
ping the report apart, which we expected,” he
says. “But 1 think grass-roots people will really
benefit from and support this.”
Wildmon’s TV-watchers keep charts on
programs, rating them on the amount of pro
fanity, sexual content, violence, and anti-
Christian stereotyping. But, Wildmon says,
the ratings take into account cases where such
a negative factor is essential in a program
that’s generally positive.
Wildmon himself rarely watches TV, he
says. While there are some programs he en
joys, he says that most of the time he finds TV
morally of fensive and mentally insulting.
Ittsburgh priest devoted to labor movement
Idavi
orth of
Diiildii
CASTLE SHANNON, Pa. (AP) —
B 50 years as a champion of or-
Bed labor, civil rights, the Irish
epu ilican Army and other causes,
f-yt ir-old Monsignor Charles O.
Stdi" still spoiling for a fight.
Be, at home on the pulpit or the
Bt line, is known as “Pittsburgh's
aboi Priest” for his support of the
bci movement and devotion to the
lue- ollar workers of his parishes in
llsirial western Pennsylvania.
“I had the feeling that the labor
lOffinent was more than just that,”
ica says, “that it had a reform el-
mein to it, that trade unionism
Bl lead to a reform of society and
general justice, and that it would
tiny freedom to the working class.”
6 other fronts. Rice has led sit-
opposition to U.S. involvement
in Central America. He decried the
bombing of Libya and voiced sup
port for the Irish Republican Army.
“The IRA has not indulged in the
indiscriminate killing of civilians,”
he says. “They are in a frightfully
unjust situation.”
Although he retired June 15 as
pastor of St. Anne’s Roman Catholic
Church in this Pittsburgh suburb,
Rice says he’s only giving up the ad
ministrative tasks of running the
7,000-member parish. He still re
mains active in plenty of causes.
“Franklin D. Roosevelt led a revo
lution for compassion,” he says.
"Now it’s gone the other way, led by
President Reagan and his advisers.
He’s undoing the New Deal.”
Rice doesn’t confine himself to
picket-line preaching. He hosted a
local radio show for 40 years and still
writes a column for a weekly Roman
Catholic newspaper in the Pitts
burgh area.
He took on the powerful, even in
the church. When Cardinal Francis
Spellman ordered seminarians to
cross a Teamsters picket line during
a New York grave-diggers strike in
1948, Rice wrote: “A scab is a scab,
whether in denim blue or cardinal
red.”
In the Steelworkers’ 1965 presi
dential election, Rice supported dis
sident Edward Sadlowski, a Chicago
district director, who was defeated
by I.W. Abel, a well-known Steel
workers union pioneer.
Abel remembers Rice well.
“He wanted to congratulate me
after the election in the dining room
of the Pittsburgh Hilton,” Abel re
calls. “What I said wasn’t printable.
“When I think of him, I’m re
minded of the man who said, T ad
mire your courage, but I question
like hell your judgement.’ ”
The labor movement was not
Rice’s only passion.
In 1937, he opened the St. Joseph
House of Hospitality in Pittsburgh’s
Hill District neighborhood, which
provided food and shelter for home
less men. It still operates today.
When civil rights and the Vietnam
War became issues in the 1960s and
1970s, Rice planned protests and
marched in Washington, D.C., and
New York City alongside the likes of
Martin Luther King Jr., Norman
Mailer and Dr. Benjamin Spock.
Section B
Eating disorders
aren’t confined
to Anglo women
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — One-
third of patients being treated at a
New Mexico hospital for eating dis
orders are Hispanic, contradicting
the belief that anorexia nervosa and
bulimia are limited to young, Anglo
women.
“This stereotyping should be put
aside,” said Dr. Vincent Tuason, di
rector of behavioral medicine at Ka-
seman Presbyterian Hospital.
Anorectics can lose a quarter or
more of their body weight by self
starvation and relentless exercise,
while bulimics follow eating binges
with severe dieting, self-induced
vomiting and purging with laxatives.
“It’s a problem that I feel is get
ting more and more widespread,”
said Norma Jean Wilkes of the New
Mexico Center for the Treatment of
Eating Disorders.
She said people usually try to con
ceal the eating disorders and many
professionals might not notice the
subtle symptoms in minority patients
as often as they do in Anglo patients.
Tuason said that since Kaseman
began its anorexia-bulimia treat
ment program, a third of its 63 pa
tients to date have been Hispanic.
“We were surprised,” Tuason
said.
He said advisers from other eat
ing disorder programs and the bulk
of scientific literature have sug
gested that Hispanics rarely have the
disorders.
Tuason said the Hispanic patients
treated at Kasemen tend to have had
the disorder longer than Anglos be
fore seeking help.
He said that unlike their Anglo
counterparts, Hispanic patients
usually are seeking treatment for the
first time.
He said two-thirds of the Hispan
ics treated at Kasemen are members
of the upper-middle class, much like
the anorexia-bulimia stereotype.
Wilkes said eating disorders are
more prevalent among the affluent,
but that the incidence among lower
economic groups might be underes
timated because those victims often
cannot afford expensive treatment.
A survey a year ago by the Univer
sity of New Mexico School of Medi
cine supported the view that eating
disorders span all social, cultural and
economic groups.
Dr. Jill Miller, a clinical faculty
member at UNM and medical direc
tor for the New Mexico Center for
Treatment of Eating Disorders, said
406 high school students were ques
tioned on a variety of subjects, in
cluding weight control. The group
was about equally’ divided among
boys and girls. Sixty-three percent
were Hispanic, 20 percent were An
glo, 7 percent were black and the
rest were from other minority
groups.
A third of the students, and three
times as many girls as boys, said they
considered themselves overweight.
About 14 percent of the freshman
girls said they dieted. This percent
age jumped to 24 percent for sopho
more and junior girls and to 36 per
cent for senior girls.
Two percent of the students ad
mitted to purging, but 31 percent
said they binged and 26 percent said
they felt bad after eating too much.
Dr. Miller said minority status ap
peared to have no effect on the an
swers.
“We deduced it is not a cultural
phenomenon,” she said. “It affects
all young women.”
E!
0T0WN
J0EL H
ibidoe
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