Re COSMO. I’ve written 12 novels for teen girls, all published by well-known Christian houses, and when I was writing that sort of novel I would sometimes peruse the book section of a large chain store (not Walmart) near my home to see what teen girls were reading. The book department was next to a well-stocked magazine section, and my eye caught an unfamiliar title: COSMOGIRL. I quickly discovered that it contained some ungodly, salacious suggestions aimed at young teen girls. Knowing that the upper management of this chain are professing Christians, I complained to the manager. He took immediate action in my presence, and I haven’t seen this title since. I’ve also discovered that the leading book-fair promoter in American public schools once had (maybe still has) a series of titles not offered in schools but promoted via major chain bookstores. As a former public school teacher I’ve occasionally taken books from girls in class, when I discovered them being passed around, disrupting the class. One day in a sixth-grade classroom such a book was creating a sensation amongst some giggling girls. I apprehended the book.

The passage on the well-worn page described a nude couple, with specific, intimate details of their act of intercourse. I asked the young miss where she’d gotten the book. She affirmed that she’d bought it at a bookstore, and told me her mother knew, but admitted that her mom (who had not read the book) thought it was okay, since it had the imprint of the books sold in the school book fair. I told this girl of 12 that if she wanted it back she needed to have her mom come to school and get it, since I was leaving it at the office–and I did so.

Now, I don’t promote boycotts, and I seldom join them. But as a parent, former teacher and grandparent, I feel a strong need to protect the minds of immature children. Most do need to know more about the real details of sex than they can learn from their friends, or even in a sex-ed class. But porn–in photos or on the pages of a novel or magazine–is something we parents have a godly responsibility to protect them from.

Eric