"Hey Parents, this is not your father's Playboy that your kids are viewing. Kids between 13 to 18 spend more than 72 hours a week using electronic media. You've been warned." This quote opens the 'Parents' section of a web page at www.XXXchurch.com.
They've got your attention, now. XXXchurch.com is a non-profit Christian website that aims to help those who struggle with pornography. Its targets are consumers and those in the adult entertainment industry. The organization describes itself as "the #1 Christian porn site" designed to bring awareness, openness and accountability to those affected by pornography.
In addition to their internet campaign, which includes offering, for free, the very best software programs for accountability and filtering online, they travel the world visiting porn conventions, colleges, churches and community centers, raising awareness about the true addictive and destructive nature of pornography.
A controversial evangelism, to be sure. Not being one to judge, it's certainly not a topic that many of us are willing to tackle. Not only are they putting their money where their mouth is but, they are fulfilling the great commission by going into all the world.
Mark 16:15, in The Message, reads like this, "...He said, “Go into the world. Go EVERYWHERE and announce the Message of God’s Good News to ONE and ALL. WHOEVER BELIEVES and is baptized, is saved; whoever refuses to believe, is damned."
The founder of XXXchurch.com, Craig Gross, regularly debates adult film actor, Ron Jeremy, in an event called "The Porn Debate" on college campuses across the United States. They flesh out the evils of the Pornography addiction that is threatening lives, families, and children.
Wednesday morning, early, Mr. Jeremy was having severe pain in his upper body and drove himself to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center near Beverly Hills around 2:30 a.m. His manager, Mike Esterman, said, “His instincts were correct to seek help at that moment...”. Jeremy was experiencing a heavy feeling in his chest. According to Esterman, “He is in the ICU and has not been conscious since the surgery.” This, after undergoing two operations to treat an aneurysm near his heart.
His manager Mike Esterman told The New York Daily News that the emergency surgeries “went smoothly.” Jeremy is currently “resting with complete privacy and no visitors.” One source close to Jeremy tells TMZ ... "Ron is in ICU and will be there for a few days and will remain at the hospital for at least 2 weeks until doctors can see how he reacts to the surgeries.”
Wednesday morning’s near death experience wasn’t the first time Ron Jeremy has cheated death. Several years ago, Ron was in an accident with friend, Sam Kinison. In Jeremy’s words, “At the time, we were discussing God, and I said, "I think I believe in Him." And Sam, being a former Pentecostal minister, knew more about Judaism than I did. He'd studied all religions.
In Ron's words, "...so, then he swerves and goes over an embankment, slides upside down into a field, miraculously missing trees. Had we hit a tree, we probably would have been in serious trouble. The car was upside down, so we crawled out of the windows. We might have been crushed to death. We picked glass off our faces and our bodies, and there was not one scratch, not an ounce of blood, nothing. And the first thing Sam says is, "Hey, Jeremy, do you believe in God now?"
I said to him, "You go to great lengths to prove a point, Sam." And later on that night, Carl LaBove, Sam’s opening act, and Bill Kinison (Sam's brother), said to me, "Sam wasn't the one proving the point."
Another God moment in Jeremy’s life came when, in early 2004, he appeared on the second season of the VH1 reality television series “The Surreal Life”. The show chronicled a twelve-day period wherein he, Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner, Vanilla Ice, Traci Bingham, Erik Estrada and Trishelle Cannatella lived together in a Los Angeles house and were assigned various tasks and activities.
Ron loved Tammy Faye. According to an interview in 2006, Jeremy had this to say, “She's a doll. We get along really, really well, and I still talk to her. She's fighting some serious cancer. Now, she's no longer doing chemo or radiation, and she's allowing Jesus to take over. She's lost a lot of weight, but she's been able to go shopping and have a good time. She's enjoying a basic quality of life, but she's in still serious trouble...she really cares about people, and she really cares about making the church (as a whole) accept gays because her audience is largely gay. She really cares about people.”
Tammy Faye truly loved people for who they had the potential to be, not how the world perceived them. Showing Christ’s love on earth.
As a young man, Jeremy attended Cardozo High School in Bayside, Queens, where former CIA director George Tenet was a classmate.
Before he began his career in porn, he earned a bachelor's degree in education and theater and a master's degree in special education from Queens College in New York.
According to a Vancouver 2013 team member, Tyler, these are his thoughts after working the Vancouver Taboo Show: This was a definite step outside my comfort zone, but I think it was really important that someone be at the sex show to speak truth and life into the lives of people who are following a dead end road to frustration and broken relationships.
In Craig's words, "Why do we even consider hosting an event like The Great Porn Debate?". Every Sunday millions of people go to church and then go home and watch porn. In fact, Sunday is the most popular day of the week to watch porn!! So, it is our responsibility to bring these issues to the light.
Infact:
- 50% of men in the church struggle with a porn addiction
- 1 in 6 women are addicted to porn
- The average age that children first see porn online is 11
John 8:32 says, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” As long as it remains in the dark… the devil has power over it. We boldly welcome topics like this because we know the bulletproof gospel is our only hope.
God created marriage, love, relationships, and sex; this means His church is best equipped to have these conversations. If porn is destroying people’s lives, then the church has a responsibility to help restore and address the brokenness.
So does Jesus love porn stars? Of course! God loves Ron Jeremy and porn stars just as much as he loves you and me. His love is perfect – consistent – and available to all.
Please, pray for Ron's critical issues with his heart. .
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.REFERENCES:
http://triplexchurch.com/_press/newsweekPete04.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XXXchurch.com
www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2013/01/31/Porn-star-Ron-Jeremy-undergoes...
www.upi.com/Entertainment_News/2013/01/31/Porn-star-Ron-Jeremy-undergoes...
www.tmz.com/2013/01/31/ron-jeremy-hospital-2-weeks-recovery/#ixzz2JcSb4CZt (http://www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Celebrities/That-Jewish-Porn-Star...)
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