Your Opinion Please...(long post)
Submitted by Pastor Tim on February 03 1999 at 01:00:39
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Hello everyone. And greetings to all the new posters and participants. As I mentioned in my post several weeks ago, I have been working on a new project and I would like everyones opinion, seeing as the CBF was much in my thoughts as I put together my new site. Oliver and I have had many discussions on pictures and the boy as an image. What is pornography to one is art to another and vice versa. In the course of our dialogues Oliver pointed out that perhaps I had lost my innocence by dealing with boylovers and advocates. He said this because whereas I once saw nothing harmful about boys being in my presence in mild forms of undress(shirtless for example), after being on the Web for several months I began to be fearful of what people in my church would say or how people would imply certain innuendos to me("have you noticed there are always kids spending the night with Pastor Tim? Once I saw them and they were running around half naked!") This subtle fear concern was unacceptable to me. I knew there was nothing wrong with the kids spending the night or being shirtless for that matter. But again, being a man in youth ministry makes you a suspect, and being a single man is even worse!! What I had never really thought about before was beginning to really bug me... (Now we finally come to the crux of my post!!) In Novemeber one of my kids posted a picture of himself as a joke at a teen bodybuilding site. The response was overwhelming. People wanting to buy his pics. People wanting to know if we had videos available. Suspicious me figured it to be a subculture of boylovers(no offense intended), I mean who else would want pictures of a boy flexing his muscles? After a couple of days of fishing around and emailing various bodybuilding enthusiasts, I found that although the teen bodybuilding presence on the net is small, is it however legitimate and consists of many types of people. Are you still with me? Forgive me for going so long... So, at this point I came to a crossroads. If this junior bodybuilding stuff is legit, and my kids could make some money from it, should I pursue it? We had always had the kids sell candy to support our youth chapel but due to child labor laws we had just recently shut down the program. Was this a God thing? Was He providing another means of income for the kids? Another way to keep them busy, off the streets and hopefully out of gangs? I decided to give it a go and see what happens. The result, a site called "Fun To Flex". Basically it is a site with galleries of some of the boys from our church flexing, exercising and goofing off. All of their parents agreed to let them participate and signed consent forms. For every video sold, the kids receive all the income after shipping and video costs. Since we officially opened in January, we have been contacted by two modeling agencies(one a ripoff and the other legit) and as of today the boy I mentioned earlier just signed to be represented by them. This could be the start of new possiblities for him. I hope and pray that the other kids can have the same chance. Here comes the part where you participate. First of all, I do not want to stumble anyone. If you struggle with images of boys(especially shirtless, flexing ones) please do not visit the site. Secondly, it is a pay site and I am not trying to solicit memberships or anything of the sort. I would just like your honest opinion of what you think of the site. I am sure many of the advocates that may frequent this board will say, "Ah, we knew it all along. He is a closet pedophile". So be it. Let them think what they will. But I am interested in Christian peoples opinions. Do you see the joy and the fun in the pics like I do, or am I just biased because I know the kids? Can you answer the question I have been hearing from my Christian peers-"Who on earth would pay to see these type of pictures?" As I close let me tell you that I knew I would be treading on thin ice with this site. I spent an afternoon with a mom at the police station because she was convin ced the site was illegal(her son had forged her signature for the audition form). Even after the police assured her(and me!) that there is nothing illegal about the site(the Sgt. told her to look at videos, magazines and tv), she was still certain that I was doing something immoral. And this is the point of the post-I had to struggle with the fact that what I am doing is completely legal AND moral. What was eating at me was other peoples opinions and unfounded suspicions. I finally had to stand up and say, "No, this is fun and harmless. The kids love it, their parents love it, and it is helping them to get out the ghetto they live in." Sound familiar? This is what I always preached to the BL community. "Stand up for yourselves! Dont worry about public opinion! If you only want the best for the boy and arent doing anything against Gods law, then you are obligated to offend those who are spreading lies and innuendo!" Little did I know God would ask me to do the same. Thanks for listening and please reply. |