Ken Novak recalled standing outside the adult book store in Downers Grove in mid-July, staring at its knotty pine facade, and praying. He ran his hand through his hair so he wouldn`t look too neat, too out of place, then stepped inside.
Against one of the walls was a long magazine rack loaded with full-color, sexually explicit publications. Novak counted them–7 rows, 33 across, 231 in all. In other parts of the store there were video cassettes, books, peep shows and marital aids of grotesque dimensions. He duly noted all of them.
”Men were meant to be higher than animals,” Novak later explained. ”In a way I`m ashamed, embarrassed and afraid for a punishment. There are consequences.”
Novak and Glenn Lindquist are the founders of Du Page Citizens for Decency–a two-man offensive against pornography in Du Page County. Both are clean-cut young men who say they are acting from a devout belief in Christianity. Novak is a Catholic, Lindquist a Baptist.
Their crusade involves canvassing video outlets, book stores, groceries, gas stations and even motels to determine which places are selling or renting pornography, which they define as ”anything that depicts sex, outside of a long-term commitment, for the purpose of generating profits.”
”That`s just our working guideline,” Novak explained.
In many cases, Lindquist and Novak have relied on the way various retail outlets display their magazines as criteria for what is and isn`t
pornographic. If a store needs to place a publication behind a modesty rack, it shouldn`t be there at all, they claim.
So far, of the 153 stores they have contacted, 74 are distributing adult- oriented material that fits this description, according to Lindquist and Novak. This includes such magazines as Playboy, Penthouse and Hustler, as well as Heavy Metal and National Lampoon, they say.
Their investigation is not confined to stores that sell explicit printed matter, but it also focuses on mainstream video outlets that stock X-rated video tapes and specialty shops that sell adult-oriented novelties.
On Aug. 16, for example, the pair spotted Dr. Ruth`s Game of Good Sex in a Willowbrook greeting card shop.
”There is no doubt that the popularity of Dr. Ruth Westheimer is further evidence of the decline in morals,” said Novak, who considers that board game pornographic.
Within the next few weeks, the Citizens for Decency plans to release a list of stores selling adult-oriented materials that it will circulate to approximately 60 churches in Du Page County. Another list will document the 79 ”pro-decency” establishments that currently do not carry adult-oriented material.
”It seems that what they`re doing is a good thing,” said Rev. John Sale, pastor of the Keeneyville Bible Church. Unincorporated Keeneyville has waged its own battle against pornography in attempting to close the Zebulon adult book store, though so far it has been a futile one.
Sale said he was contacted by the Citizens for Decency prior to a county hearing about a new anti-pornography oridinance, and he agreed to distribute petitions at the Bible Church calling for stores that sell or rent adult-oriented magazines or videos to be zoned only in industrial areas.
”I`ve been here 10 years, and never have I met anyone in this community who desires a book store like the Zebulon here,” Sale said. ”We got discouraged along the way.
”These people are able to spend some time with it,” he said, referring to Lindquist and Novak. ”It encouraged us immensely.”
Lindquist and Novak say that since their drive began, five White Hen Pantry outlets have removed Playboy, Penthouse and other adult magazines from their shelves.
”I really didn`t think Playboy or Penthouse were pornographic,” said Ed Hermanek, owner of a White Hen Pantry in Westmont. ”I agreed to pull them. I didn`t sell that many that it would make a difference. It was either that, or the word was out that there was a chance of being picketed.”
Novak denied that the Citizens for Decency had any plans to picket stores that carry adult-oriented materials, but he said the organization ”reserves that as our right.”
According to Al Davis, vice president of operations for White Hen Inc., company-owned stores have not carried ”questionable” reading materials since 1965, and franchise operations are advised against such sales.
The number of franchise stores selling adult magazines ”is going down week by week,” Davis said. ”Over time, owners are saying, `Let`s not worry about the income.` It`s a good business decision not to handle them.”
Other businesses are less willing to cooperate.
”I think it`s ridiculous for a group of people to think they can decide what people should or shouldn`t be allowed to buy,” said a manager at the Someplace Else gift shop in Downers Grove, who asked not to be identified. Lindquist and Novak targeted the shop because it carried a variety of gift items that they consider distasteful.
”They`re all harmless gag gifts,” the manager said. ”They`re taking our rights away. I guess one day we`ll all be wearing white and flowers in our hair. It`s sad.”
”It`s kind of an economic-boycott approach,” Lindquist explained in his mother`s Downers Grove home, where the two-volume set of the Meese Commission Report on Pornography was stacked on the table.
”If it`s a business decision to sell it,” Lindquist said, ”people of our conviction should create a situation where an owner has to consider not carrying it.”
Novak, 26, is a dental technician who is begining studies at a Connecticut seminary this week. Lindquist, 33, is a field engineer for Eastman Kodak. The two met through local political contacts. Until recently, Novak was chairman of Traditions and Principles Republicans Often Overlook Today
(Taproot), a conservative organization in Du Page that at one point shared members with the ultra-right-wing John Birch Society.
Both Novak and Lindquist say their current activism stems from a religious awakening they experienced in recent years.
”Our views are grounded in our religous beliefs,” Lindquist said. ”We didn`t just come up with this. You have to consider the Christian outlook on sex. . . . You read the Bible. It tells us the right way sex should be used. Hustler and Playboy are deviations.
”A guy who feeds on pornography a couple of hours a day,” he continued, ”will not come out as an outstanding family man who honors marriage.”
Lindquist said that contrary to popular belief, men are victims of pornography.
”No offense to women libbers, but a society is based on the men in the society. If the men fall apart at the seams, the society is going to go,”
Lindquist said.
Lindquist and Novak founded Citizens for Decency after deciding to act against the adult book shop on Ogden Avenue in Downers Grove.
”It was a personal decision to do so,” Novak said. ”Why does one get married? The time was there to spend. . . . It seemed to have become an accepted piece of Americana.”
While there is currently no formal Citizens for Decency membership, Novak and Lindquist say they have a core of about 12 people and a mailing list of more than 100.
”There`s a lot of people who want to see this gone who don`t know what to do,” Lindquist said.
Novak was more philosophical, quoting Edmund Burke, 18th Century British statesman, orator and writer: ”All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Lindquist and Novak founded the Citizens for Decency before the Meese Commission released its controversial findings, but it is from that report that they draw their rhetorical firepower. They quote the commission report, for instance, as saying that pornography is an $8-billion-a-year business;
that some of it may have connections with organized crime; and that it is not, as some have said, a harmless release of sexual tension.
The report, which was released in July, came under fire for focusing on the sexual content of photographs and films while virtually ignoring the dangers of exploiting violence in these mediums. The report also failed to define pornography, leading Novak and Lindquist to stand by their ”working guideline.”
”We`re arbitrarily drawing a line, because you have to draw the line somewhere,” Lindquist said. ”My spirit tells me what it is.”
Lindquist and Novak did not have to travel far from their homes to find lurid sexual material they considered pornographic. In May, the pair, along with a couple of volunteers, began checking magazine and video racks in stores in eight Du Page communities. Phone calls introducing the Citizens for Decency were followed up by visits to the business establishments. Finally, store owners were informed that if they did not remove the adult materials, their store would be placed on a list with other outlets that sold similar items.
On July 26, according to a letter they filed with the state`s attorney`s office, Lindquist and Novak entered Ogden Books to observe the activities and materials inside. Their findings were distributed at a recent county hearing regarding the new zoning ordinance and also served as a complaint against the book store for distributing allegedly obscene materials, according to Novak.
”There were close-ups of everything you could imagine,” Lindquist said. A graphic description of the items in the store was also contained in their report.
The Citizens for Decency`s other targets include video outlets that have adult departments specializing in X-rated video tapes. Out of 47 video outlets contacted by the organization, only five did not rent X-rated material.
At this point, Lindquist and Novak say they will concentrate their efforts against sexually explicit magazines. They do not have the manpower to investigate pornographic books, Lindquist said. And violence in magazines or videos will not be a criteria for their list.
”We`ve got to learn how to crawl before we can run,” Novak said.
