Jesus loves porn stars

“Porn will take you places you never dreamt you’d be, doing things you never dreamt you’d do,” explains Jake Larson, lead pastor of Arcade Church. “We’ve talked to pastors who’ve gone from masturbating to Victoria’s Secret catalogs as young kids to now soliciting transsexual men. It was the next thing.”

Is Larson exaggerating? Perhaps, but his Web site, XXXChurch.com, “the No. 1 Christian porn site,” features confessions from men and women, young and old, who’ve struggled with everything from the occasional soft-core porn use to full-blown addictions that resulted in jail time. XXXChurch.com, which gets a million hits a month, offers help to people who want to quit porn, as well as people inside the porn industry looking to get out.

Larson wasn’t always in the porn business. He grew up attending Arcade Christian Church and eventually became a motivational youth speaker and traveled the country. In 2002, he and his business partner Craig Gross were frustrated. “Where is the church afraid to go?” they asked. Following Jesus’ lead “to care for the hungry, the hurting, the addicted and the outcast,” they launched www.xxxchurch.com at the world’s largest porn convention, the Adult Video Network Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas. Behind a booth stacked with Bibles, they exclaimed, “We’re just here to tell you that Jesus loves you.”

Since then, XXXChurch has visited porn conventions all over the world. Most recently they set up a booth at Erotica L.A., where they handed out 4,000 Bibles emblazoned with the message “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.” The church has become so popular that porn stars now wear the slogan on T-shirts.

“I don’t think people in that environment expect to be reminded of things that are deep within their heart,” Larson says. He cites a success story of a porn producer in Chico, once their most vocal enemy, who eventually left the industry and surrendered his life to God.

“I think the root cause of porn addiction is a wound, and porn becomes the Band-Aid to the wound,” Larson explains. “It doesn’t heal the wound, but it’s like the drug that alleviates the pain. So pornography, like other addictions such as alcohol and drugs, is merely covering up some deeper issue in people’s lives. And until they address that deeper issue, they’re going to continue to try to fill that deeper void with something else.”

In Larson’s view, the healing salve is Jesus. But rather than stand outside porn conventions with picket signs and crowing about fiery hell, his ministry goes into the heart of the porn industry, against the interests of many in the church. “We’ve been killed by the Christian community, but it’s worth it. We need to talk about porn,” Larson says. “It’s the elephant in your church that nobody wants to address.” To illustrate this point, Arcade Church set up a 25-foot blue elephant one weekend and declared it National Porn Sunday.

“Growing up in the church, if I masturbated or something I felt so guilty, like it was one of the worst things I could have possibly done,” Larson recalls. “Kids get sick of guilt and are gonna give in.

“I think it’s important to teach God’s design for sex, that it’s not a bad thing. These desires don’t make you a sinner. They’re natural.”

As a father of two young children, Larson recommends setting boundaries, starting with keeping the Internet out of a child’s bedroom. “When I was younger, I had to go to the liquor store and steal a magazine because they wouldn’t sell it to me,” he says. “Now kids get pornography funneled into their room every minute of every day if they want. No kid is exempt.”

For people wanting to overcome addiction, XXXChurch.com offers online accountability software, live help and Bible counseling. “Porn is not reality. It’s glamorized. If you can get a girl in the industry to get out of her persona and be real, it’s clear she doesn’t enjoy it. Girls are abused,” Larson says.

“You can’t overcome porn addiction by yourself. You need people to journey with.”