ODESSA, Texas — Rachel Jung was attracted by Columbia House’s offer of five movies for 49 cents. She became a member of Columbia House’s DVD Club two years ago. What the Odessa mother didn’t anticipate was the company’s foray into pornographic videos.

Last October, on her son’s second birthday and midway through her membership, she received a Columbia House mailing announcing that the company was proud to be offering Playboy videos.

“I had opened the mail and got involved in something else,” Jung said. “Later, my 2-year-old son brought me a piece of the mailing announcing the Playboy selection. I was furious. I couldn’t believe how easy it was for my son to get a hold of something that I didn’t even know was in the mail.”

That’s when Jung took action.

“My primary concern was for my husband and my little brothers who spend a lot of time with us,” Jung said.

She contacted Columbia House three times by telephone asking them to cease sending her the sexually explicit mail. When that failed, she contacted Focus on the Family and was connected with the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families. The coalition helped Jung draft a letter to Columbia House and its parent company, Blackstone Capital Partners, explaining that Columbia House’s decision had altered her agreement with them and requesting that she be freed from her obligation to purchase any additional movies. In the end, she was allowed to end her contract.

Last June, Columbia House quietly entered into a three-year agreement with Playboy Entertainment to offer approximately 150 items in its product line through the Columbia House DVD Club. The service, called Hush, was launched in late January and sells pornography through direct mail and a website.

“We are delighted to work with such a renowned industry leader and are extremely confident that this relationship will be very successful for all parties involved,” Jeff Jenest, executive vice president for Playboy Entertainment, said when the arrangement was announced.

“One of our top priorities is to provide the widest selection of product to our members,” said Scott Flanders, chairman and chief executive of Columbia House. “This agreement enables Columbia House to offer new, diversified titles produced and presented by a world-recognized brand, and provides Playboy with access to our millions of members.”

Columbia House has about 8.5 million members in the United States and Canada. The company is owned by merchant banker Blackstone Capital Partners, with former operating partners Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music still owning minority stakes.

Reaction to the agreement was swift.

“This sends a bad message of what corporate America will do for a buck,” said Jim Metrock, president of Obligation Inc., a Birmingham, Ala.-based child advocacy nonprofit. “Twelve CDs for a penny is a rite of passage for a lot of kids. This is aimed at young people.”

Metrock compared the Columbia House agreement to what Disney does with its Miramax subsidiary.

“Miramax puts out really violent and sexual movies with one division, yet Disney says, ‘Don’t judge us by that,’” Metrock said. “People need to look at the whole company.”           

He added that the mainstreaming of pornography is evident in everything from movies to fashion to music.

“It’s creeping and being normalized,” Metrock said. “People are becoming numb to it.”

Metrock wasn’t alone in his condemnation.

“Here’s another white-collar company willing to soil itself by trafficking in pornography,” said Jan LaRue, Concerned Women for America’s chief counsel. “The execs at Columbia House need to understand that if they knowingly distribute obscene porn through their Hush subsidiary, the company and the execs responsible are subject to federal prosecution and asset forfeiture.”

Jim Litwak, senior vice president of marketing at Columbia House, was quick to point out that the two divisions would be separate.

“This will be a separate subsidiary,” Litwak told the New York Post. “It will be completely separate from Columbia House and will not be marketed to current members.”

Based on her experience with the company, Jung is skeptical.

“I don’t believe that. Their announcements came with my Columbia House mailing,” she said. “They’re marketing pornography to a particular age group. Why wouldn’t the right hand know what the left is doing?”

Neither Columbia House nor Playboy Entertainment returned the Register’s telephone calls prior to deadline.

Threat to Families

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that pornography “offends against chastity because it perverts the conjugal act, the intimate giving of spouses to each other. It does grave injury to the dignity of its participants (actors, vendors, the public), since each one becomes an object of base pleasure and illicit profit for others. It immerses all who are involved in the illusion of a fantasy world. It is a grave offense. Civil authorities should prevent the production and distribution of pornographic materials” (No. 2354).

It is estimated that Americans spend about $10 billion per year on pornographic entertainment, a figure that has captured the attention of several of the biggest brand names. In recent years, companies such as General Motors, AT&T, Marriott and Time Warner have entered the arena in an attempt to grasp a piece of the pornographic pie.

According to Dennis McAlpine, a partner in McAlpine Associates who tracks the entertainment industry, cable companies such as EchoStar and DirectTV pull in between $200 million and $500 million each year from pornography. Pay-per-view pornography at hotel chains — such as Hilton, Hyatt and Holiday Inn — accounts for nearly 70% of their in-room profits.

“As mainstream companies begin to cross that bridge, they do it with a little trepidation, expecting some backlash. When that backlash isn’t there, other companies follow suit,” said Dan Panetti, vice president of legal and public policy with the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families.

“Their only concern is how many members will we lose versus how much money will we gain,” Panetti said. “They aren’t concerned with how pornography will damage lives, relationships and families. They sweep those concerns under the carpet. Tons of people with tons of companies are making tons of money, but the public as a whole pays the price.”

“Columbia House may think they’ve gained new customers, but they’ve lost another group entirely,” Jung said. “I’m not purchasing anything else from them.”

What pornography is doing to families is a primary concern for folks like Steve Wood, president of the Port Charlotte, Fla.-based Family Life Center International. His Catholic apostolate offers resources for men trying to break free from the addiction. They include a free Pure Mind Scripture program and his popular Breaking Free booklet and audio CD.

“The venom of Internet pornography is slowly killing the spiritual life of millions of Christian fathers,” Wood said. “At every Catholic men’s conference I have spoken at over the past four years, I have encountered men addicted to Internet pornography. Men from every region of North America, who attend Mass every Sunday, are silently addicted to pornography. Their souls, their marriages and their families are at stake.”

In an effort to help Catholic men break the bonds of pornography addiction, the Family Life Center has made its Breaking Free booklet available to priests at no charge.

Said Wood: “We believe that the power of the confessional, along with the practical counsel offered in the Breaking Free booklets, have the potential of helping thousands of Catholic men.”

Tim Drake writes

from Saint Cloud, Minnesota.