Before you pull out your computer and fire up the browser, we must inform you that not all the glitters is gold. Sure the provocative name incites a wide range of contemplations you might have once not considered, yet there's a significant difference between the christian porn site and your average porn site…
Before you pull out your computer and fire up the browser, we must inform you not all that glitters is gold. Sure the provocative name incites a wide range of contemplations you might have once not considered, yet there's a significant difference between the Christian porn site and your average porn site. While most porn sites intend to deliver a diverse range of fetishes, videos and life-consuming entertainment, XXXchurch's mission intends to do the opposite — the exact opposite. The anti-porn church is a Christian-based organization that raises awareness of the role of pornography in religion whose sole mission is to help people leave the porn industry and help individuals who are addicted to porn.
The website's pastor and founder, Craig Gross, believes that porn is detrimental to individuals, families, and marriages. But then again, who doesn't? Where Gross differs is that he believes porn stars are the most effected by porn and he looks to do something about it.
"I've never met a girl or guy in the industry that's told me, 'This is what I wanted to do when I was a kid,'" he told ABCNews.
"Average pay for a girl in porn is less than a $1,000," Gross said. "The lifestyle that she had to maintain, to do this, you know, living in Hollywood, or all this kind of craziness around her, it's not really even great money."
He's not out to just help the underpaid actors ad actresses but also his friends. At the age of 17, Gross realized the growing problem of porn in peoples' lives after watching some of his church buddies head towards the dark side. With bible in hand, Gross began doing God's work by founding XXXchurch.com.
In order to spread the good word of the XXXchurch though, Gross needed to market himself. He began renting booth space at adult conventions and talking with porn stars about ways to see the light and not another person's genitals. It was at one of these conventions seven years ago that Gross met his now-good-friend Ron Jeremy.
The anti-porn crusader and the legendary penis of porn were an unlikely duo but had a rare spark. Yet, both had the same mission of changing the porn industry for the better. So together, the unimaginable duo hit the speaking circuit across the country heading straight into the dragon's den of porn use: college campuses.
"On stage you see us battle it out about the industry," Gross said. "I think our relationship, though, if you could be in a car with us driving, whenever there is a line of students outside a college to see us, it's me and Ron driving in, and Ron will be like, 'quick, I gotta duck,' and Ron is ducking because we can't let them see that we're friends because that's going to ruin the show."
"It's like Lennox Lewis and Mike Tyson," Jeremy said. "Their last fight, they couldn't even shake hands. They had security guards right across the boxing ring, and yet they were friends, but they wanted it to appear that they're not."
Ron Jeremy might be a much needed endorsement for the site, but even still, Gross hasn't lost site of XXXchurch's overall stance:
"Our stance is simply this: you want to live a life that is honoring to God? Then start pleasing Him and stop pleasing yourself," a statement on the organization's website says. "Stop making excuses and get some control over your life. Yes, it is tough. Yes, we know hormones are raging. However, God is calling us to holiness. Live an extraordinary life. Masturbation will leave you hanging every time! It is a selfish act that pleases no one but you. God created sex to be between a man and his wife. Not a man and his girlfriend and not a man or woman with himself or herself."
We've found our new motto: Start pleasing God and stop pleasing yourself.
Nonetheless, the site intends to keep fighting. Even going so far as to develop creepy and awkward child characters like Pete the Porno Puppet to teach kids a lesson about the temptation of porn.
After all of the success, Gross still attends conventions helping those find a light on the dark side.
"I believe Jesus, he'd be in the show with us," Gross said. "He'd be mixing it up with these people. 'Cause he doesn't look at them as porn stars, or porn producers. He looks at us as all the same."
If Jesus is going to porn conventions, we need to start going back to church.
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