In December, I published an interview with Mr. Phillip Cosby from the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families that centered mostly on various legislative and legal efforts to combat adult (sexually based) businesses in Missouri.

That interview, which can be read on the "Past Articles" page, generated enough interest to convince me to present an opposing viewpoint. David Browning provides that viewpoint in this week’s interview. Mr. Browning is an attorney who practices family law in Independence. He formerly worked as an Assistant Prosecutor in both Jefferson County and Jackson County and was the Libertarian Party’s nominee for Missouri Attorney General in 2004. Currently, Mr. Browning is the Chairman of the Jackson County Libertarian Party.

You can learn more about Mr. Browning by visiting: http://davikki.com/fatlib/

(Publisher’s note: I had hoped to publish an interview with Democratic State Rep. Jason Holsman this week after featuring Republican State Rep. Brian Baker’s views on various issues facing the Legislature last week. Unfortunately, Rep. Holsman’s schedule did not allow him to participate in an interview this week. I hope to publish an interview with him next week.)

Mr. Browning: "Mike this is actually a compound question that can not be answered unless broken down.

"The first question is: how do you respond to those who say there is a community interest in preventing adult businesses from opening in their towns? I agree that there is a community interest in preventing adult business from opening in their town if one worships a government-regulated society, in biblical terms, worships Caesar. They are arguing that the government (Caesar) has all the rights and individuals have no rights so long as Caesar is powerful enough to enforce the wishes of Caesar and his friends on other individuals. What they forget is that in the world of politics Caesar is fickle and changes friends at his convenience. Someday they may be the ones Caesar and his friends wish to regulate, and in sponsoring such regulation as proper they will have given the government the tools to regulate them out of existence. I, on the other hand, oppose the idea that life should be regulated by any force other than the marketplace and the good conscience of free men.

"The second question is: how do you respond to those who say there is a community interest in preventing adult businesses from opening near their towns? My answer here is similar to my first. The argument that Government (Caesar) has a right to regulate other communities is an extension of the power of government beyond any reasonable relationship with the problem. Clearly a community has a right to regulate itself within the proscriptions of the Constitution. Such regulation may be (read: probably is) unconstitutional. However to extend the power to act away from the area of reasonable affect? That is just over reaching tyranny!

"The third question is: how do you respond to those who say there is a community interest in shutting down sexually-based business? I deny it. I believe that government regulation generally distorts the social fabric. I think that those who seek to shut down ‘sexually-based’ business suffer from the terrible delusion that they can perfect man. All good Christians know that no man can achieve perfection, therefore ‘Grace’ is necessary for all. To then try to create perfection via law and not proselytizing, well I feel that such efforts declare the supremacy of man and diminish God. As a side effect they convince non-Christians that the love and concern Christians assert is merely a scam to gain control over others. Christians are supposed to be concerned with winning others to a superior way of life. Even Jesus (‘the Boss’) said give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. These people who cloak their worship of power behind purported religious motivation do not know what is Caesar’s and what is God’s."

Mr. Browning: "Strangely this is really a question about the proper place of government in our lives. If you believe that others will not exercise the freedoms you want for yourself, wisely, then you become a believer in regulation. Zoning laws are an example of such a government planned society belief. I have lived in major metropolitan areas with zoning and without zoning. The results of not having government land regulation do not result in appreciable chaos. The results of government land regulation results in a society that fines and incarcerates because your grass is an inch too long or your beloved classic car is not kept in a separate garage. I moved to the part of the county that is less regulated to get away from social busybodies. I have deer in my yard, turkeys in the woods next door, geese on the pond, chipmunks and groundhogs. I am wakened to the lowing of cows.

"It is a value judgement, I prefer my world. I hate the sterility of shopping center suburbia, and brick walled cities. Using zoning as you have suggested is using the power of government to influence society’s development. Personally, I have never yet found a politician so wise that I preferred to let him or her rule my life, so I do not believe in social regulation through zoning."

Mr. Browning: "I say that targeting any business for government intervention interferes with the natural forces that regulate the economy. This is inherently bad, in my humble opinion. I suppose that people have already forgotten that in the Soviet Union it was a crime to be a capitalist, and in the People’s Republic of China it has been a crime for my life to be a Christian missionary. Good and bad should never be left to the whims of politicians."

Mr. Browning: "Frankly, Mike, I don’t get it. The government is going to become partners with the adult-sexually based business? This is just a blatant protection racket. ‘Mr. Mike, you can stay in business right here, and our police and firemen will protect you against bad things, but you must pay Mr. Caesar 25% of your gross!’ Or, alternatively, its ok to be in an adult-sexually based business so long as we get a cut?

"Riddle me this Mike: ‘What kind of people prefer government strong arm extortion to freedom?’"

Mr. Browning: "I believe the interpretation takes a minor part out of context and mis-summarizes it in an attempt to confuse the reader. The Miller rule has been in place since 1973, and remains the law to the best of my knowledge. Of course I have not shepardized the case, and so can not speak with authority.

"The fact is that the case is very complicated and should be read by your readers to understand that the argument that obscenity is not unregulatable free speech is not so simple as he would make it. I have therefore linked Miller v. California, 413 US 15 for their reading. Link this, Mike:

"http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0413_0015_ZS.html"

Mr. Browning: "I saw those billboards and they were not suggestive, except to suggest where the stores were located. This is just more of people wanting to tell others what they can see, read and believe. You have to be aware that some tree hugger nut cases would find billboards for GM and Ford offensive. Many Gians and Wiccans I know find the pro-Christian [pro-] life billboards to be offensive. I would think that my opposition to what I see as pro-big-government idolatry that these folks represent to me would feel very offensive to them.

"There is a saying in the law, the cure for free speech is more free speech. Hearing things you do not want to hear, or seeing things you do not want to see makes us all uncomfortable. But, it is how we grow."

Mr. Browning: "There is a poem that a friend of me often quotes. I am sorry I do not know its attribution. It goes something like this:

"They came for the communists, and I did nothing.

"They came for the gays, and I did nothing.

"They came for the gypsies, and I did nothing.

"They came for the Jews, and I did nothing.

"They came for me, and no one was left to do anything!

"People of faith should know that the sword brings no one to a loving relationship with God. People of faith are the servants of God. As such they are required to be God’s vehicle of redeeming love. This requires respect for the freewill of each individual. The use of force against the man we hate did not win a, it did not win Matthew, it will not win these men and women. To take up the sword of Caesar you have to lay down the mantle of God."