Religion & Law

Rick recently posted about obscenity and pornography including links that were helpful on the damage done by such speech. (One of the authors, however, seems not to know that obscenity is not protected (leaving Stanley aside) under the First Amendment and the other either does not know of the Miller case or gives it an unwarranted narrow reading). I think the rise of the internet makes enforcement of obscenity laws much more difficult. Nonetheless, I think the outlawing of obscenity at worst has expressive value, and I find it regrettable that the MacKinnon ordinance was not given a triaI effort in some areas. I am interested in the extent to which the Church's position on speech issues compares with current law. I would be grateful if someone could point me on or off site to the Church's views on obscenity, defamation, and privacy in particular. I know that the Church opposes pornography. I think the Church should be opposed to a culture that sanctions the invasions of privacy protected under American law (as opposed to Germany and France) though I do not know of statements to this effect. I would be greatful for information about Church lobbying in these areas as well. I have no clue what the Church might have said about defamation (my views are more U.S. oriented here than European).