Happy Porn Sunday!

That's right friends, Sun., Oct. 9 is [Inter]National Porn Sunday! I just got done writing an article about it, so I figured I'd just re-publish it here for your edification. I won't be around for a few days, so I'll not be able to keep up with my updating (ha!). This will have to hold you through the weekend.

It should be said, that Ron Jeremy said, "In honor of Porn Sunday (and football) I'm going to find two girls to pass me back and forth as part of my new movie, 'Wide World of Spurt.'"

That's the truth.

Below, my article:

Porn Sunday: getting off getting off

Free Sex! Live Nude Girls!

Five simple words; attention grabbing and provocative. But lift them from dreary newsprint and put them up in big flashing neon letters and you’ve got something people will investigate. They’ll even pay.

It’s no secret that sex sells. We see evidence of its effectiveness as a marketing tool for products from shampoo to shoes.

But what sex sells best is sex; and its best marketplace is the Internet.

Some facts: there are about 4.2 million pornographic web sites online with something like 40 million daily visitors. Sixty five percent of those visitors are men and 35 percent are women. Thirty percent of all unsolicited email spam is pornographic (much of it related to “male enhancement”).

All this adds up to a staggering amount of cash. Estimates from Google, WordTracker, PBS, MSNBC, NRC and Alexa research say the porn industry makes $57 billion each year worldwide, $12 billion of which comes from the U.S. That’s twice the combined revenues of ABC, CBS and NBC ($6.2 billion).

It’s obvious that a lot of people drive the industry, and there’s a popular misconception that God-fearing types are immune. That was belied in a 2000 study by Christianity Today that reported more than one third of all pastors who responded said they viewed porn online. That’s only slightly less than their parishioners.

Those kinds of figures motivated Craig Gross and Mike Foster, two So Cal pastors in their early-thirties and late-twenties (respectively), to found XXXchurch.com – an online anti-pornography ministry.

Advertised as the web’s “#1 Christian Porn Site,” XXXchurch.com is unlike any religious site out there.

Replete with links to sexual counseling services, a web-based support group and access to free porno-blocking software, XXXchurch.com combines age old religious instruction with 21^st century technology and verve.

It’s mission statement: “to drive the conversation about pornography in our churches, families and lives.”

Gross and Foster took that conversation on the road (in a tripped out van called “The Porn Mobile”), had it all recorded and made into a documentary entitled, “Missionary Positions.”

Directed by (secular) filmmaker Bill Day, the film details the pair’s journey through porn’s seedy underbelly from trade shows to motel rooms-turned movie studios.

“Missionary Positions” forms the centerpiece for their most ambitious undertaking: National Porn Sunday.

Scheduled for Sun., Oct. 9, Porn Sunday is meant as a day when churches across the world will sit down with their congregations and frankly discuss the effects of porn and porn addiction.

More than 50 churches across the U.S. will be participating, along with seven from Mexico, Great Britain, Germany, Turkey and Australia.

In Idaho, only two churches have signed on for the event – one in Nampa and Sandpoint’s own Cedar Hills Church.

For Gross and Foster, Porn Sunday is a chance for some grass-roots action. They say it’s high time that churches address the little talked about subject of porn addiction – one that is often swept under the rug, or politely ignored.

Justin Landis, music and art director at Cedar Hills agrees.

“An event like this is important because it discusses an issue that is typically sort of hidden in a dark corner and not addressed openly, and does just that: addresses it in an authentic and open way,” Landis said.

“It also sends a message that as a church, we will not steer clear of issues that may be difficult to deal with,” he added.

That willingness to call out such an uncomfortable subject, and market it using porno-style tactics (the Porn Sunday site – www.pornsunday.com – features flashy pink backgrounds, bulbous retro 70s fonts and tiny glimpses of porn mags) has riled some congregations around the country.

Even the film “Missionary Positions,” with its R-rating, has suffered some criticism from church leaders, saying its occasional profanity and suggestions of nudity were too much for their congregations.

Gross and Foster haven’t been daunted by such concerns, and neither is 32-year-old Cedar Hills Senior Pastor Eric Rust.

“Jesus was no stranger to controversy,” he said. “They didn’t kill Jesus because he was a conformist.”

Landis agreed, going on to reiterate the importance of facing the issue honestly.

“…As for people who would say that this shouldn’t be discussed in a church environment, I can’t imagine a better environment. As a church family we need to be willing to discuss any and all aspects of life authentically.”

He went on to add that Porn Sunday represents a valuable breakthrough in church dialogue.

“In an attempt to be clear and embrace truth, some churches I’ve had experience with in the past have blurred the line between what people do and who they are. It’s important for people to know that while pornography is dangerous and unhealthy, it doesn’t mean that people who consume it or who are porn addicts are bad people.”

While Gross and Foster have made it clear that their mission is not to cast judgment but offer help, Landis pointed out that there’s still an underlying hard-line interpretation of pornography at work.

“The Bible talks clearly about the way God designed our sexuality to work and pornography is very detrimental to realizing the potential God has designed us for sexually,” he said.