By HAROLD KELLER

The computer – a blessing or a curse? Like anything else, it depends on the person that controls it.

Last week, a news release read: “86 people charged in child-porn bust.” The FBI, according to the report, has shut down an internet child-pornography ring with criminal charges against 86 people in 26 states. The sweep, called “Operation Candyman,” was expected to arrest another 50 people by week’s end.

Some of the people arrested were a few clergymen, a school bus driver, a preschool teacher’s aide, a child photographer and a police officer. All had positions where they spent time with children.

It was reported that 7,000 people world-wide and 1,400 people in the United States registered e-mail addresses with the Candyman group. Organizers of the group described it online as “for people who love kids. You can post any type of messages you like, too, or any type of pics and vids you like, too. P.S. If we all work together, we will have the best group on the Net.”

At one time, perverts had to go to an adult bookstore, or visit a triple-X video store, to be satisfied with the garbage for which all perverts lust. Today, it’s available on a computer with internet access to anyone, including children, right in the privacy of your home.

The liberals in today’s society will argue “one man’s pornography is another man’s art.” Tell that to the parents of the many children who have been sexually molested, tortured, or even killed because of pornography. In almost every case of a child abducted, sexually molested and then killed, it’s no coincidence that the perpetrator had a long history of enjoying pornography.

I am convinced that pornography is a fast-growing industry that contributed more to the decay of this country, than all the illegal drug business.

While on the subject of the computer and the availability of pornography – it’s also been a tool to wreck many marriages. I’m amazed at the number of men and women who search for companionship through the computer. Some leave their long-time mates because they supposedly fall in love with an anonymous person.

Idleness is the devil’s workshop. People who search the internet for excitement and sexual pleasure, instead of constructive information, will eventually get in trouble.

My message to all parents is to protect your children by supervising their use of the internet.

To the pervert that feeds his lust with pornography, I say that you’re sick.

To the sexual child abuser, I remind you of what the Bible says in Matthew 18:6 – “But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”

HAROLD KELLER writes this column as part of his affiliation with the Get High on Life religious motivational group. Call him at (985) 652-8477 or write to P.O. Drawer U, Reserve, LA 70084.