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  God Doesn't Like Pornography: Stephen Baldwin and America's Culture War

God Doesn't Like Pornography Stephen Baldwin and America's Culture War

By Alexander Osang

Part 3: Bad for the "emotional environment"

Sevastian's dark eyes betray a mixture of derision and weariness. He looks like a man who doesn't like to lose.

"I have no idea how much money the operators of that porn shop have. But if I were them, I would put all my money together, hire a good lawyer and sue Baldwin and this weird Catholic alliance. The porn shop owners invested a ton of money and they met all of our requirements. And now they're supposed to prove that they're good for Nyack's emotional environment?"

The shop's owners aren't suing, and their attorney isn't even willing to comment. By May, their black, glass-encased shop in Nyack resembled a coffin. The parking lot -- complete with handicapped parking spaces -- was empty. And yet there were always two employees at the shop, almost as if they expected to throw open its doors at a moment's notice. They're both from Sri Lanka, as is the Algama family. Sri Lankans control much of New York's sex shop business.

The shelves are filled with DVDs, magazines and sex toys. The eight video booths are on the left. They were made in Germany, says Denis Perera, who was sent to Nyack to be the store's general manager.

"Simplex Arcade," says Perera, "the best you can get." He opens and closes and opens the door to a video booth. "We had them all rebuilt because they were supposed to be handicapped accessible. It wasn't even a requirement, but we did it because we thought it would be the next thing the planning board would want us to do. And there's also enough room now for a wheelchair between the shelves," he says. He talks about his porn shop as if it were a retirement home.

"We didn't want to open an illegal business here, after all. We sell a product. We're operating on the basis of the US Constitution. This is still a free country," says Perera. It's an odd statement in this forest of dildos and blow-up sex dolls.

Liberties under attack

As far as the mayor of Nyack, John Shields, is concerned, larger issues are at stake when he tries to explain what's happening in his town. He talks about polygamists in Utah and a neo-Nazi demonstration that took place in Illinois in the 1960s -- with an official permit. Shields sued the State of New York last year for annulling gay marriages. In the last gay pride march in New York City, Shields marched at the head of the parade with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Hillary Clinton.

"I think it's a very interesting dispute," says Shields. "I really have no feelings one way or another about this sex shop. But we have a zoning law here in Nyack that says that sex shops are permitted in that part of town. The planning board based its decision on that law. Too many civil liberties are being threatened in this country at the moment. We have to be vigilant, even when it comes to minor issues."

Shields, a retired history teacher, has been the small town's mayor for ten years now. His job is all about grappling with small problems and larger issues.

"Maybe they shouldn't have made the place so conspicuous," he says. "There's another sex shop two miles down the road, the Romantic Depot, and it doesn't bother anyone. It isn't quite as in-your-face as this place is."

But even the owners of the Romantic Depot aren't sure how to behave these days. They say that they prefer not to comment on the fate of the competition down the road in Nyack. A large sign hanging above the door to the shop reads: "We support our troops and their families." The Romantic Depot offers discounts to firefighters, police officers and members of the military.

By early July, at the beginning of summer vacation, there are no signs of life in front of the black glass building in Nyack. Manager Denis Perera and his associate are either not there or not opening the door anymore. Stephen Baldwin has just returned from California, where he was promoting his new Christian skateboard movie. The deck of his white wooden house has a view of the Hudson. But the signs bearing scripture are gone and Baldwin says he plans to sell the house and move away from Nyack. He wants more land, he says. He's thinking of starting a farm and dedicating the profits to church projects. Like Paul Newman's sauces, he says, but for a different cause. Maybe in Connecticut, he adds.

There's so much left to do.

On Sept. 11, Stephen Baldwin sensed that the world was headed for destruction. Although he was in Los Angeles when it happened, he says he saw the unimaginable unfolding in the images on TV. At that point everything was possible. He fell to his knees and prayed for a long time. He began reading the Bible and at some point he realized that it was time for him to do something, now that the world was approaching the Bible's Book of Revelations. Like George W. Bush, Baldwin believed that it was his duty to do something. The president is someone he trusts, he says.

They don't drink and they don't smoke, but they do pray. They're out there to save the world. Of course, this is something the Nyack planning board and its attorney, Walter Sevastian, couldn't possibly have anticipated.

During the few days in which the porn shop was open for business, Baldwin occasionally brought his camera to the parking lot to photograph customers. But there was never anyone there to photograph and his plan didn't work.

Did he ever ask a lawyer whether photographing people in front of sex shops and publishing their pictures is even legal?

"No. I took a gamble," says Baldwin, grinning. "But big things have often happened in American history because someone rolled the dice."

The Algama family posted a small notice on the door of their black glass box last week. They're leaving Nyack.

Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan

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