I couldn’t resist reporting on this. When a Lion’s Den (adult store) opened in Uniontown, Indiana, four years ago, I’m sure the owners were not prepared for the community reaction. Thirty-five residents have protested outside the Lion’s Den in shifts for four years—365 days a year, 24 hours a day. Their website boasts: this is the longest running protest against a sex business in the United States.
They are the Uniontown Watchdogs.
When a truck driver pulls into the Lion’s Den parking lot he sees a sign: “Warning Truckers. If you visit this adult bookstore we will take your picture and send it to your employer. Plus post it on website War-Line.net.” Similar signs warn other potential Lion’s Den customers. And the Watchdogs make good on their promises (their website features dozens of pictures of Lion’s Den patrons, many whom seem rather . . . um . . . irritated by the Watchdogs).
According to the owner, Ronald Stone, the business model estimated over 200 truck visits per night. However, 90% of the potential customers turn away when they see the signs. According to the protesters’ website, the Lion’s Den property is now up for sale, and two local buyers are soon to make offers on the property (to be used for anther type of business).
What else has the protest accomplished? One of the protesters signs offers free Bibles to Lion’s Den patrons: they’ve given away over 1,000 Bibles to date. Protesters have also prayed with customers who wanted help for addiction or relationship problems. The Watchdogs claim over 100 customers have prayed to accept Christ in the last four years. In addition, a parole officer from another county ran the plate numbers recorded by the Watchdogs and discovered several sex offenders violating their parole.
What do you think about this protest? Some have mentioned that the protesters are guilty of harassment and intimidation (Title 35, Article 45, Chapter 2 of the Indiana Code). Others say the protesters are merely exercising their first amendment right to assembly. Some say they are doing injustice to their anti-porn message with their methods. Others think they are being good concerned citizens doing their part to rid Uniontown of adult businesses.
Hi Scott –
I’m from the Uniontown Protest. If you are referring about our protest in Uniontown and http://www.war-line.net I can assure you we do not judge anyone. We never call customers rapists, molesters and other such names. Quite the contrary we openly call for dialog there at the Uniontown site and on our website plus on other websites including this one. You appear to have some preconceived notions about us (i.e. judgement) so we invite you to dialog with us on http://www.war-line.net or this site. We won’t judge you.
Oh, by the way, ALL of us vote. We hope you do too. It is the great American privilege. Many of us in Uniontown served in war (Vietnam, Desert Storm, Iraq, Afganistan) to help preserve our freedom for all of us, including you.
We look forward to dialog with you.
Ahhhh religion the only legal pyramid scheme. I thought christians were not supposed to judge others. I hope these idiots don’t vote….
To T Roberts –
Your previous work for Hospice shows a good heart and loving character. I personally received Hospice services during the terminal illness of my father in 1994. They made the unbearable a time for understanding and healing for me and my family. It takes very special people to reach out and help the terminally ill and their families. They were a blessing.
All good Christian people should work to make this world a little better for our lives God grants us. We thank you for your service to Hospice. We also do what we can to do similar good work for our little rural community. It’s amazing the number of people who came here for porn that left with a new life in Jesus. They just needed to talk to people who cared about them. We are like a Hospice service for the spiritual terminally ill.
God bless.
Yes I do help (did) I did work for hospice (a cause for good people who are in desperate need of help). I won custody of my son and dont have the extra time anymore. Its good to see somebody fight for what they beleive in. By the way it looks like you are on the verge of winning (they are selling it). Good luck!
To T Roberts
I’m from the Uniontown protest. To partially answer your question please look at a previous post I made to John Y that I expect to be posted here soon.
To be specific about your inquery I can explain the following:
The protesters are not from one church. There are 50 of us and we come from a variety of churches in the area including Baptist, Methodist, Nazarene, Pentecostal, non-denominational plus others I am not aware. Some protesters do not attened a church.
We do not throw Bibles at people. In fact to get a Bible from us a person usually must drive up and request it. We have given out close to 2,000 Bibles in this way including some to employees of the Lion’s Den. We’ve counseled hundreds and countless have accepted Jesus at our protest site.
You ask why we don’t “better” spend our time working with Big Brother, Big Sisters or helping the aged or needy. Who says we don’t? With 50 protesters, we schedule people for 4 hour shifts. Most of us are there only 1 or 2 shifts a week. We have plenty of time to share with others in community projects and many of us do.
We are there at the Lion’s Den to protect our families. Look on http://www.war-line.net and see the dangerous behavior of Lion’s Den customers yourself.
We are glad to see you have a giving heart and care for such groups as Big Brothers, Big Sisters and desire to help the needy and elderly. We assume you are already personally participating in these fine endevors setting an example for all instead of simply advocating others to do them instead of you. That would be very shallow of you if that was the case.
So we urge you to keep on helping Big Brothers, Big Sisters and helping the aged and needy. We will be happy to join up with you and the good work you do for others when we are done here.
We have not physically stopped a single customer from choosing to go to the Lion’s Den for smut (your defination – not hours). We simply take pictures and post them on our website http://www.war-line.net. The result is 90 percent of Lion’s Den customers CHOOSE not to patronize because they do not wish to be exposed (Ephesians 5:11). This is also absolutely constitutionally legal.
But beyond that we are there due to “secondary effects.” Porn customers act in unsocial, illegal and violent behavior. You can see the proof on WAR-LINE.NET’s “GOTCHA” page. Customers expose their body parts in public, give obscene gestures and shout obscenities to residents, physically attack residents including children, throw sex toys, sex magazines, condoms (used and unused) in our yards that children have found plus many other dangerous behaviors. Three times we have stopped pimps setting up hookers at the Lion’s Den and we interfered/stopped drug trafficing on the Lion’s Den property more times than we can count. Lion’s Den customers have attacked children three times in Uniontown even though adults were present. All this is typical “secondary” behavior around sex businesses according to federal court statistics. The proof this is also true in Uniontown is on our website.
Uniontown is a community of just 50 people. We do not have a police force here. Even Mayberry had Andy and Barney, It thus becomes the responsibility of the residents here to look out for each other. The Lion’s Den bought a 9 acre plot to hold 200 trucks per night to layover overnight here while watching porn. This means there would be four times the population of smut watching truckers than residents living here every night. Our remote, rural infrastructure (including no police) cannot handle this. The danger is obvious. The pictures on our website prove it.. Would you want this dangerous behavior next door to your wife, children or family 24/7? Please understand its around our families 24/7 and we suffer from these customers dangerous behavior every day. We might also add a 10 yeral old girl in our area was abducted, raped and murdered right about the time the Lion’s Den opened. . The man who did this outrage was caught and in court testimony, the man and his wife testified porn played a part in his behavior. The man went to prison for life and his wife lost custody of their children. All this suffering because they chose to view smut.
The issue is not about the right to view smut. Our issue in Uniontown is safety for residents. Jackson County has a constitutionally correct ordinance that allows the Lion’s Den or any other sexually oriented business to operate in the county in accordance with federal law. The federal courts and Supreme Court also grant the local community the right to zone sex businesses away from residential to give a reasonable expectation of safety for families and children. The Lion’s Den has dozens of locations they can operate in Jackson County. The only condition is they be just 1,000 feet from residential zone. This is far less restrictive than in other communities. In fact, it’s more than reasonable. Other businesses operating in Jackson County (example: night clubs, bars, liquor stores, industrial buildings, etc) have far more restrictions than the Lion’s Den.
The Lion’s Den, however, refuses to abide by the law all other local businesses obey, even to the point of refusing to pay the mininum fee ($50) for a business license that every other Jackson County business complies.
As you can see, there is much more to the Uniontown story than you and other people realize. We thank you for asking and allowing us an opportunity to respond.
What we explained here is just a small tip of the iceberg.
Why not let these people make their own choices to or not to look at smut. God gave everybody a soul if they burn their own soul its up to them. Besides Each protester probably has a neighbor that gets porn online or by mailorder. Seems to me if a church has that many people with that much spare time they would use their time to help the homeless, big brother big sister cleaning an elderly persons house or mowing for them. When you throw a bible at someone it just hits them and falls off. They have to want to be saved. I dint know how many people in that area are needy but all that time spent down there sitting would have helped alot of needy people that are asking for help.
John – We have not been attempting to derail your post. You made accusations and we defended them. You presumed another allegation on us and we answered and defended that with all the facts. You see, we live with this kind of stuff every day from porn customers. We like all the facts to come out not just the allegations or one side.
For example you alleged in your recent post aboput the “arrest records” of protesters. There is some truth to this. But the full story is 17 protesters have been arrested at the site. ALL of them aquitted in court. I myself was almost arrested because a female customer alleged I “assaulted” her. Police were all set to arrest me but fortunately our security cameras picked up the incident. In reality the video clearly showed the woman assualted me!!
But to clear the record, I have been arrested on numerous occassions due to porn customers alleging complaints on me through the years. In each case I was aquitted. From this I hope you see we are sensitive to accusations. You may not agree with our position but hope you at least admire we stand up and sacrifice for our beliefs. Your allegation was minor compared to the garbage porn customers try to do to us.
We agree with your Scripture referance Luke 6:37-38, I can honestly say we do not judge. We never call any Lion’s Den customer rapist, molester or other slander. That is against our beliefs. In your first post you stated: “It’s always amazed me that the one’s that claim to be so righteous are the ones that are so unrighteous”. I believe reasonable people would call that a judgment.on the protesters.
We won’t judge you either. We never accused you of lying. We simply requested you to provide us with information (pictures) you stated you possess to give credence to your position. That is the same standard we hold to ourselves on anything we say in public.
So let’s leave it at that. There is much more to the story of the Uniontown Protesters than you know. Please don’t assume anything you read or hear is accurate. We welcome you to come by the protest anytime you are in the area. If you stop by and see us you will not receive an obscene gesture but a warm smile and handshake. We look forward to that day
God bless,
Rob
Rob I respectively ask you stop trying to derail my post. I simply came here to share my experience with others. Since then in a roundabout way you have done everything you can to call me a liar. I’m sorry that you find it hard to believe that one of your protesters acted in such a repulsive way.
I never changed the subject. I have posted my experience and a post I thought was very interesting. You’re the one coming in trying to derail my post and change the subject. You act as if this is a court of law needing pictures, video, audio and the list goes on. Just because I don’t have a picture of one of the protesters flipping my girlfriend off doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. At the very least there are three people that know it happened a Protester, Myself and my Girlfriend. There was only one man there that day in the little guard shack. Unless it was you I ask you to stop derailing my post and alluding that I’m some sort of porn loving liar.
You have offered to dialog with me. What you mean to say is you want to try and convince me of your views. I have read through some of the postings by various individuals. They make many valid points, but you never listen. You are a very close minded individual and always try to justify your actions.
Rob I’m not going to get caught up in some sort of ongoing argument with you. You can choose to continue posting and defending one of the protesters all you want. I will be no part of your agenda on here. I pray and hope others don’t have a similar experience as ours.
It’s very well documented that many of the protester’s have arrest records. We have all sinned and made mistakes including one of the protesters. Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
In closing I leave you with these words.
Luke 6:37-38, 41-42
1“Stop judging, so that you won’t be judged, 2because the way that you judge others will be the way that you will be judged, and you will be evaluated by the standard with which you evaluate others.
3“Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when the beam is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
To John Y –
We find it typical of people who accuse us of anything to back off when challenged. You did this in your last post. Then the typical next step is when our accuser fails in his argument to suddenly change the subject. That’s OK. We go through this all the time. It’s all old news.
The “newspaper” you link is a simple one man operation and is more a newsletter than a newspaper. In fact, we’ve seen company newsletters much bigger than this pamphlet.
The owner/operator/editor/writer/janitor and delivery boy (yes, he personally delivers his little newsletter around town) is one who actively oposses our protest and refuses to interview us nor publish any news (except negative) about the Uniontown protest. We’ve tried many times over the years to dialog with the “editor” but he refuses. He certainly is no journalist who seeks out balanced information from both sides.
For example, the “editor” neglected to mention the sister of the accuser who was there at the time, testified to police that no such incident happened. The father of the girls also disputed his daughter’s accusation. There are logical reasons for this, but we do not wish to go further as we are talking about an underage person.
The “police officer” in question is also considered something of a joke by residents. He, too shows obvious signs of opposing the protesters. He has performed a number of harrasment acts against the protesters including following a protester around the county in his police car for no purpose and far outside his jurisdiction. Let’s just say there are many things about the police officer many residents feel are suspect. The leader of the protesters went to Crothersville town hall and in no uncertain terms told the town government of the police officer’s illegal harrassment and that we will take action if it happens again. From that time the officer has had an “attitude adjustment” and now leaves the protesters alone.
Again, the protesters can easily provide proof of all we do and say. You, on the other hand, still refuse to not only provide proof of your original accusation, but not even provide a simple picture you say you took. Instead you do what others have done when challenged to come forth, you change the subject. You are about the 500th person to do that.
We are happy to dialog with you. In fact we welcome it. We respectfully request to please stay on subject or quit bothering the good readers of this website.