Religious Scholars Want Porn Taken Out of Hotels

Porn on hotel TV's has been around for years, but some religious scholars are hoping it will soon be eliminated. They have asked hotels to stop carrying porn movies on their televisions.

Porn is easily accessible among hotel's paid television services; however two scholars, a Christian and a Muslim, sent letters to the CEOs of the top five hotel chains asking them to remove porn from their hotels. Robert P. George, a professor at Princeton University and the past chairman of the conservative National Organization for Marriage, and Shaykh Hamza Yusuf, co-founder of Zaytuna College, a Muslim school, are asking hotels "to do what is right as a matter of conscience," CNN reports.

Although the men come from different faiths, they share the same goal. "We are, respectively, a Christian and a Muslim, but we appeal to you not on the basis of truths revealed in our scriptures but on the basis of a commitment that should be shared by all people of reason and goodwill: a commitment to human dignity and the common good," the letter said. They both find that pornography is "threatening out society."

The religious scholars have had enough with hotel porn as "it is morally wrong to seek to profit from the suffering, degradation, or corruption of others," the letter says. They accuse the hotel CEO's of leading people to temptation. They disagree with how the hotels profit from showing sex on film.

In an interview with CNN, Yusuf explained, "Just because we are able to do something doesn't mean it is what we should be doing. And just because you can sell these things doesn't mean it is something you should be selling," he said.

Those in the porn industry find the request a little ridiculous. Porn star Ron Jeremy , who has starred in over 2,000 adult films put in his two cents. "What they have to understand is that freedom of speech works for all of us, not just for them," Jeremy said about those who want to get porn out of hotel rooms, as quoted by CNN. "This is a country that is secular; you have freedom from religion and freedom of religion. Give me a break."

Even those who help people with porn addiction find it to be silly. Craig Gross, a pastor who helps porn addicts and who founded XXXchurch.com believes the religious scholar are wasting their time.

"It has got to be one of the dumbest letters I have ever read," Gross said. "It is like asking the Internet to stop selling porn. It sounds good and all, but it isn't going to happen," Gross said as quoted by ABC.

George understands that porn will never go away in general, but he hopes that by asking hotels to stop showing it, they can help limit it. "The society pays heavy costs in terms of damaged relationships, wounded people, addiction," he told ABC.

According to KTLA, a 2005 report by Adult Video News shows that 55% of hotel movies are porn. According to a 2008 LodgeNet study, hotels make $16.51 per room per month

However a report in 2011 by Robert Mandelbaum at Colliers PKF Hospitality Research found that hotel movie rentals in general decreased by 39 percent.

Some hotels have done away with porn before the religious scholars' requests. Marriott International, which was founded by a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints phased out porn from their hotel rooms in 2011, CNN reports.