A Chilton County minister is trumpeting the decision of a video franchise to remove pornographic materials from its shelves following a threatened boycott.
Now praising the Movie Gallery store in Clanton, Jimmy Simpler said he plans to support the business for responding to concerns of Christians. The pastor said he also hopes Baptists in all areas of Alabama will voice their displeasure with the chain’s other stores renting pornographic material.
Simpler, pastor of Verbena Baptist Church in Verbena and head of the Chilton Country Association Christian ethics and issues team, said he was shocked during a visit several weeks ago to the Movie Gallery in Clanton when he learned the store was renting pornographic video tapes.
The store manager told Simpler the decision to rent the video tapes was not made by local stores, but by the main office in Dothan. Simpler said that prompted him to write and executive with Movie Gallery.
“I am personally offended and very disappointed to find that our local Movie Gallery is renting pornographic material,” Simpler said in his letter.
‘Family Store’
“Movie Gallery is deemed in our area to be a family store and the filth that is available in the ‘Adults Only’ section is in absolute contradiction to this image,” Simpler said in his letter. “I assure you that the 55 churches in our association stand with me in asking that you remove this material from our local store.”
Estimating the total membership of the association’s 55 Southern Baptist churches at 16,000, Simpler told Movie Gallery that number equates to half the population of Chilton County.
“I trust that you will understand the significance of the decision you will make,” Simpler said. “From a business aspect, you stand to lose the patronage of 50 percent of the population of the county if you refuse this request. This will equate to much more revenue than could ever be generated from the rental of pornography in Clanton.”
Simpler told the executive that Chilton Association would boycott Movie Gallery if the “Adults Only” section was not removed within 90 days of his receiving the letter.
Much to Simpler’s surprise, Movie Gallery executive Jeff Stubbs not only responded to his letter but was agreeable to honoring the pastor’s request.
“He stated that as long as we continued to support Movie Gallery, he would have the material removed,” Simpler said. “I didn’t expect them to react that way; I thought it would take more arm-twisting.”
Simpler said Stubbs told him the store would take a financial loss by removing the pornographic material, but realized the boycott might hurt even more.
Regardless of whether the chain removed the movies for financial reasons or because it was the right thing to do, Simpler said he is pleased with the decision. He’s also hoping Baptists in Alabama will investigate whether Movie Gallery stores in their areas rent such movies and ask that they be removed.
“I feel if he did it for one (store), he’ll do it for all,” Simpler said, “especially if they threaten a boycott.”
Pointing to the success of the threatened boycott, Simpler said it was more effective than a protest against the store. “That’s why we tried that first.”
In a letter thanking Stubbs, Simpler said he plans to support Movie Gallery “with just as much fervor as I would have opposed it with had you not removed the pornography.”
Simpler told Stubbs he planned to contact the 55 churches in the Chilton Association and ask them to share Movie Gallery’s decision with their congregations.
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