My friend Mary Ann Kuharski, who runs a prolife apostolate, was in the news recently when she pulled some business away from a hotel because it offered guests access to pay-per-view adult entertainment. I don't know the details of the conversation between the hotel manager and Mary Ann, but the article reported the hotel was disappointed about losing Mary Ann's annual banquet and said that it would review its agreement with the cable company that carries porn channels.
This is a courageous move by Mary Ann; it is a terrific example of a person living the GEO Principle.
Meeting planners are a powerful group of professionals in this country. There are thousands of banquets, conferences, conventions and meetings planned at hotels all over the country every year. What an impact they could have on the culture if they all agreed to limit their business to hotels that refused to carry pornographic television channels!
Pornography is one of the devil's most effective traps. It can ruin your mind, your heart, your soul. Guys who get caught up in a porno habit risk damaging their relationship with their wife, children, and even work colleagues. I know there are a lot of people who want to dismiss pornography as no big deal, but, in fact, it hurts a lot of people.
If you are a meeting planner, consider how you might make the world a better place. Here's how you might start. When vetting a hotel for a meeting, send the manager a questionnaire that inquires about the hotel's capabilities and amenities. One of the questions should be "do you offer hotel guests pornographic entertainment options on television?" It's a non-judgmental question. Let them answer yes or no. Give them a place to add comments after any question.
Or you might take this approach: Provide each prospective hotel a memo outlining your expectations and requirements for hosting the meeting. One requirement might be: "Rooms must offer a safe environment, free of solicitations for pornographic entertainment on television."
A lot of meeting planners will say that all hotels offer porn channels, or they will say that all the good hotels offer all kinds of entertainment. Well, there are some hotels that don't offer pornography. Many of them are featured here.
As a meeting planner, perhaps you will feel obligated in some cases to use a hotel that offers pornographic television, but you will still make an impact by raising the issue during the selection process. If hotel managers never run into meeting planners who ask such questions, they will never consider access to pornography to be a serious issue. But if meeting planners repeatedly express their interest in porn-free hotel rooms, over time more hotel managers will respond.
What a great example of the GEO Principle at work! Thanks for sharing, Tom.
Posted by: Christina | May 04, 2009 at 06:53 PM