I stumbled across this site today, whilst flipping through some flickr photos. Saw their "Jesus loves porn stars" Bible editions & went looking around on their website. It's--for the most part--a pretty decent & intriguing website. Take a hop, skip & a jump over there if you're bored: www.xxxchurch.com. I may even end up buying one of their shirts just for the heck of it.
14 comments:
hYa, apparently Christians don't mastrubate...
Too bad Christians could not spend their time doing something more useful, like stopping poverty and disease.
I know, Kathryn, I know... It is a shame that Christians invest more time in consuming pornography and other products/services offered by the sex industry than sharing the core of Christ's message: love God & love thy neighbour.
At least the folk at xxxchurch.com are trying to love their neighbours in the porn industry, and in so doing, perhaps they will curtail consumption of such products & services, thereby freeing up Christians & regular 'Joe Somebody's to actually start caring about people around them.
Hopefully.
No, see actually I was talking about getting the Christians who run xxxchurch to stop wasting their time trying to get people to stop masturbating (which for guys is almost physically impossible).
I would rather THEY spent their time running websites trying to help those less fortunate.
Although i completely disagree with porn. That is a choice informed educated people make, unlike the 25 000 children who die from preventable causes every day.
It is almost like Jesus coming to earth trying to change the Pharisee's instead of focusing on the poor.
Unfortunately the probably make a lot more money selling "Jesus loves porn stars", then "Jesus loves Africa".
Hi Kathryn;
Yes, I know that that was what you were trying to get at. I was trying to state that these guys have an interesting outreach goal--an area that a lot of Christian-religious types would steer very clear from. I think that what they're doing is quite laudable (though, I'm not a super-huge fan of all their programs, and I take exception to some of their ideas, but...), especially their outreach work into the sex industry. Creating change towards a common good is, I think, what their aim is. That, and if their efforts prove fruitful, insert last half of my previous comment (above) in this section now.
Not sure who I agree with here.. my very limited expose to xxxchurch seems like they are trying to make the message "dont' look at porn" cool and flashy to Christians.... kind of preaching to a not-sex-having choir. (If I Am wrong, and xxxchurch ministers mostly to non-Christians caught up in the porn industry, good for them.)
This is not "wrong" per say, but I wish that we as Christians would spend less time fighting the "evils" of our nature, such as sexual desire, and more time fighting real, rampant evil. In, say, South Africa, the message "stop sleeping around" is sorely needed before the whole country dies of AIDS. I wish Christians would spend there time and money on such courses, rather then reminding their own church bretheren, who already know full well to stop looking at porn, one more time.
If someone wants to do some reading, the second post down on the below link "the Christian practice room part 2" elaborates what I am talking about.
http://filth-man.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_archive.html
P.S. To Kathryn, I'm not sure that looking at porn is always a "choice by informend people", many of us were first introduced to pictures of naked people as jr. high kids in locker rooms.
Jens you should always agree with your gf:)
Yes I agree reaching out to those whom have been ignored and shunned by Christians in general is very important. However when you click on the link "get help" at xxxchurch.com, all the information is about helping people with their porn addictions, not helping people get out of the porn industry. In fact all the information on the whole website is about not looking at porn. I could not find any outreach to people in the porn industry.
(Also to go on a little tangent. I DO NOT agree with porn, but the porn industry (i am talking about companies that make videos and run websites), is actually fairly responsible. According to all the things I have read and seen (documentaries, good ol' cbc) the women and men choose to go into it, they are tested every 6 months, have to be 18, and are paid fairly well. The not responsible part of the porn addiction is the illegal videos of underage girls, brothels where girls are raped and the 15 year old hookers. )
People who are addicted to porn have a problem, as it harms their social every day functioning (I am not talking about the junior high boys who look at some nudie photos). However it began as a value choice "i belive it is ok for me to look at this, it is not harming anyone". That is what I mean by informed choice.
What I think we should do as Christians is try and help those who have no choice in their situation. People who are slaves in the sex industry around the world have no choice. Jesus helped the people who needed him the most, that is where I think we should concentrate our efforts. Not the guys that jack off to jenna jamieson.
Ha!
I think I should start posting more controversial blog entries from now on: look at all these comments! Between sex & gender in Christianity, I've hit a veritable gold mine of feedback. What shall my next comment-worthy post be about, I wonder... alien abduction being the cause for the virgin birth? :) Who knows? (that one, probably not, but... I guess time will tell all)
You should leave controvertail comments on MY blog so I can have massive feedback:)
i just wrote a huge post and now it has been erased. oh dear.
okay,
I heard a sermon by the guy that founded this and I have to disagree with the fact that certain missions are more important that others.
You see, the Western world has defaced, smeared, and mocked the most beautiful example of intimacy God has given us.
Porn addictions are like any other addiction, they ruin families, lives, jobs. It is destructive and yet the church sweeps it under the rug and ignores it. "Good Christian don't struggle with lust."
We swoop into other countries fora two week misions trip and come in to save the poor people, the diseased people when we are also diseased ourselves with different things.
It's the cleaning the inside of the cup thing Jesus talked about. It's real and a huge problem.
We see over and over again pastors and heads of church organizations resigning over sex scanadals. And we look at them as sick individuals, when in many ways I think they're just like us but made poor choices and were taken away on a slippery slide.
So, I definitely think that caring about people in Africa is important, and people in India, and Thailand and downtown Edmonton. I think that the poor should be fed and the sick cared for.
But in the old Testament and new Testament people are codemned for not taking care of the poor, but also for defacing God's temple with temple prostitutes and committing adultery and the like.
We have to do something about own state as well as others. Eminating Christ should exist in our priorities but also in our own private lives.
I just think we don't like it because it makes us uncomfortable because we have to face our own lust. We are all right with admitting that we don't always use money wisely or that we should care more about people that are hungry, but not many are willing to openly declare that they struggle with lust. someone should be talking about it.
Well said, Lisa.
I struggle with Lust...
I meant to question the effectiveness of xxxchurch.com more than its target, I guess. If they are indeed hepling large numbers of people through their work, theb good.)
I guess I've just seen too many Christian anti-lust programs that seem, well, borderline ridiculous... read stories about Christians trying to drive up a hill with their eyes closed so as to avoid looking at the pretty joggers... I doubt the effectiveness of selling "christians don't mastrubate" t-shirts, I guess.
Today I saw a person dying of AIDS. I am fully aware of the seriosuness of sexual sin. However, too many Christian groups (and I blithely assumed xxxchurch was one of them, perhaps mistakenly) are flat-out paranoid about human sexuality. People "kiss dating goodbye", get mad at themselves whenever they look at a hot man or woman, and counsel at camps where 17 year old kids get glared at for showing interest in the opposite sex (while, of course, the 19 y old staff carry on their own relationships".
I guess I'm just bitter. Human sexuality is a God-created force of nature. Pornography is, I think, a disgusting perversion of that force. However, I see so many Christians trying to wage war on any form of sexuality, while much of the world starves around them, that it makes me very suspicious, and cynical.
And perhaps if more of us "swooped in" to the third world and offered time, money and services they wouldn't be dying of hunger, malaria and other highly preventable causes quite as fast.
my favorite Jesus story is about lust ;)
(Alright this will seem like a big tangent but it seems like we have kind of steered away from the main issue that was first brought up)
Christians are so afraid of sex. I happen to be a big fan of it. Porn is bad. I am not a big fan of it. There is nothing wrong with sex or wanting to have sex (yep i said it there is nothing wrong with wanting to have sex!).
However any time I hear about sex in the church it tends to go like this: lust is bad, do not be lustful, avoid things that will make you lustful, in short lust=terrible terrible sin.
This is what makes ppl ashamed about talking about wanting to have sex. It makes it seem dirty and awful. In truth I think it tends to push the issue away. Then people have a hard time dealing with lust and sex and turn to porn to get immediate satisfaction while not having to deal with the issue (uneducated people do uneducated things).
The main strategy that seems to have been employed is..concentrate on God don't think about the opposite sex. Well that is unhelpful, especially to every teenager who is trying everything they can to get in contact with the opposite sex.
So how bout instead of freaking out about johnny wanting to sit next to suzy, we teach them how to have a proper respectful relationship with each other. Then maybe together we can all go help people that really need it.
After re-reading my last post, it looks a little jerk-ish, so I apologise. I stand by what I wrote but I could have expressed myself more politely.
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