New London Day, 1/20/07 - The sign taped to the front door of the Shoreline Church is provocative. "PORNSUNDAY," it proclaims in large print.

A disclaimer of sorts follows in smaller type explaining that the church is taking part in a national sermon series aimed at educating its congregation about the pervasiveness, allure and dangers of pornography.

Michael and Meredith Calo, the couple who founded the Shoreline Church and are its co-pastors, admit unabashedly that the suggestive title of the sermon series, contained as well in e-mails the church sent with the subtitle "Shoreline Church Announces Sex, Lust & Porn," were intentional.

Since that's how pornographers grab people's attention, "In a way, we need to do that" to compete, said Michael Calo.

The five-week series kicks off Sunday at the church, located on Mill Rock Road East in the town's business park, with the sermon "Bust lust is A Must," which the Calos said is about the need to talk openly about pornography and its dangers.

The series is part of a national campaign to get churches and their congregations to talk about a subject rarely addressed openly in most traditional churches, Michael Calo said.

"From our experience, we can tell you that pornography and lust are a huge problem in people's lives," he said. "We feel it's getting worse, that the push on pornography is getting stronger. And it's destroying families."

"And it's not being dealt with by the churches," Meredith Calo added.

The program, the couple said, is intended to help people who are addicted to pornography by educating them about the pervasiveness of porn. The sermons are also intended to reach people who are ashamed but addicted to looking at pornography on the Internet or watching it on TV by letting them know that there are many other Christians like them.

"Because other pastors aren't discussing it, Christians are at home alone, suffering with this," Meredith Calo said.

"I'm hoping when it's over they'll have a better understanding of what they're struggling with," Michael Calo added.

Quoting statistics culled from national magazines, university research reports and news group surveys, Michael Calo said that some 47 percent of Christians have reported that pornography is a problem in their homes, that 40 million people visit porn sites daily and that the porn industry now grosses nearly $1 billion annually.

Churches need to get aggressively involved in countering that influence, he said, by talking openly with their members about the destructive nature of pornography.

"To me, pornographic addiction is no different than alcoholism or drug addiction," Calo said. "It will destroy a family. I've never met anyone who said 'Pastor Mike, lust has done great things in my life."

The PORNSUNDAY lecture series was started by a group called XXXchurch of Michigan, which has a Web site billed as the "Number 1 Christian Porn Site." The group seeks to get churches to deal more openly with their congregations on the issue of porn.

Churches need to do so, Calo said, because pornographic and sexual images are so pervasive in society. Some 200 churches across the country, he added, are taking part in PORNSUNDAY.

The sermons, which are open to all, will focus on how Christ can heal the wounds that pornography can create — drug addiction, spousal abuse, alcoholism — in a nonjudgmental way, Calo said.

"We want to show people our values, not push our values on them," he said.

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Porn Sunday - An Attempt to Moralize America

Daily Campus, 10/14/05 - "Porn Sunday" may yet be conservative Christianity's most promising attempt to reach out to America's disheveled, violent, sexually obsessed culture - and thus it has taken yet another gargantuan step backward. It now resides further than ever in ignominy.

It is yet another attempt to amalgamate America's shapeless, vibrant culture to rigid morality. The synthesis is a presumptuous ideology presenting conservative values as hip using youthfully defiant lingo to dissuade renegade cultural ideas.

The "Porn Sunday" phenomenon is a declarative condemnation of pornography in the United States. It captures a pure Christian message and translates it directly into popular culture. Teenagers as well as adults can benefit from what Mike Foster and Craig Gross (collectively, the "Goofballs") have to say - that pornography is a threat to America. Let us give Christianity a round of applause for never giving up on its outdated moral foundation, although there is much to be said in its failure to realize over the course of the last 2,000 years that edicts vilifying that which does not fit a precise moral scale, no matter how they are shaped to fit culture, become intrusive and commanding.

XXXChurch.com (the "Porn Sunday" web site) is a superb illustration of conservative Christianity's stupendous knack for waging noble and moral battles against the entirely wrong targets. The "Goofballs" have astutely observed, and treated like a true epiphany, what psychologists and sociologists have been attempting to understand for decades - society's intensifying propensity for, to be terribly blunt, sex and violence. "Porn Sunday" narrows the scope of Christianity's reform to, as its name suggests, pornography. The "Goofballs" have identified pornography as a major problem in the United States, citing it as a primary cause of the prominence of sex in American culture. Though pornography remains a particularly objectionable medium - if the prevalence of pornography in American culture were to diminish, the average American may yet regain some much needed self-respect - to cite it as a cause of decay in morals in American media is an unjustifiable, misdirected and irredeemably stupid argument.

Quite simply, pornography is not responsible for America's obsession with sex, rather, the pornographic industry has grown in response to cultural attitudes that are constantly in flux. Pornography is not the cause, it is an effect. Moralists, however, always ready at a moment's notice to inject us with a healthy dose of self-indictment and guilt, have resolved to campaign against all that is not static. Why do we again and again trust the moralists to provide an objective point of view when the agenda in their title is staring us right in the face? Ironically, the overly complex answer may refer to a simple question. Why pornography? Presumably, at some point the "Goofballs" made an attempt to pinpoint what they felt was the cause of society's digression. However, it is worth noting the "Goofballs," must have performed this inquiry solely within the immediate confines of cause and effect morality. If they had made a serious, objective attempt to understand America's preoccupation with sex they would have immersed themselves in sociological studies. Pornography may only be an effect of a greater phenomenon, but it is a particularly rancorous one. Because pornography is an intense example of sexuality manifesting itself in American media, it was easy to cite as a cause. Anyone is willing to believe something as virulent as pornography is the cause of our woes, rather than the product of our appetites.

"Throttle it [sex], denaturalize it, take it away and human existence would be reduced to the prosaic, laborious, boresome, imbecile level of life in an anthill," as H.L. Mencken was ever so fond of saying, seems to summarize America's growing infatuation with sexuality. Explicit sexual themes are ubiquitous in music, television and movies. Has America become subservient to its hormones? The "Goofballs" are preaching to today's youth about what is essentially a very conservative outlook on human sexuality.

While it may seem they are doing this in response to an unprecedented sexual obsession present in society today, the truth of the matter is that folks in nursing were subject to the very same sexual didacticism during their youth. As did their grandparents, undoubtedly. Every generation seems to grow less reserved and more fond of its sexuality. Each corresponding generation of Christians has interpreted this standard increase in sexual comfort to be a dangerous and unprecedented moral divergence. Christians have a limited response to preaching. Yet each generation after the other, without fail, continues on this progression of sexual acceptance. Christianity eventually realized it wasn't reaching its audience.

Christianity began to conceal its message in pop culture. The youthful appeal of XXXChurch.com is embodied in its tag line: "The '#1 Christian Porn Site' is what we are. We also like it cuz it ticks stuffy old religious people off." The notion of disregarding "stuffy old religious people" appeals to younger generations who are characteristically frustrated with their lack of control over their lives. What teenagers detest is being subjected to authoritative decision-making concerning their lives. Simply, kids don't like being told what to do. However, religion acts in this very same fashion. The very pervasive nature of religion demands adherence. For the "Goofballs" to advocate conservative Christian messages through messages designed to convey sympathies to indignant, anti-authoritative (in a parental sense, of course) youths is a complete contradiction.

"Porn Sunday," no doubt intentionally sounding like "Palm Sunday," has had the media attention of a holiday in its own right. The "Goofballs" have engineered a seemingly new and hip transliteration of a very old set of values. It is the latest attempt to pass conservative Christianity undetected into pop culture under the guise of youthful defiance.

Christianity calls this "strategy." Common sense calls this "deception." Christians maintain that its values are timeless. Yet if this is the case, why do conservative Christians feel it is necessary to launch massive ad campaigns directed at youth, such as "Porn Sunday," to promote values? The church, in accordance with its oldest and most trusted belief - that everything inconsistent with Christian morality is an impending threat - has gone about trying to reverse America's rampant sexuality.

America, most assuredly, has not changed - culture has. The hyper-sexuality in American media is not an indication that Americans have changed, only cultural expression. A certain level of eroticism has become a media standard. Adhering to this standard has become regular business practice. Pornography is not responsible for this, it merely thrives on it.

American Bible Society Won't Print Anti-Porn Pastors' Bible

Los Angeles Times, 4/2/06 - Handing out free Bibles to porn stars and their fans at adult film conventions isn't as hard as it would seem. Pastors Mike Foster and Craig Gross say they typically give away 1,000 copies of the New Testament at the multiday conferences.

Even so, the founders of XXXchurch.com — a Corona-based anti-pornography Internet ministry — thought a hip cover could easily triple their distribution.

But the pastors' brainstorm to put their "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" brand on covers of the New Testament was rejected by the American Bible Society, the publishing company that XXXchurch.com paid to print 10,000 copies of the Scriptures.

The publisher said that while it applauded the outreach to those who make a living off pornography, "the wording is misleading and inappropriate for a New Testament," according to a letter the pastors received from Barbara Bernstengel, the executive in charge of standards at the nonprofit Bible publishing company.

Bernstengel offered several alternatives, but the pastors rejected them.

"In this case, we think this is a fight worth having because it goes to the core of the Gospel," Foster said.

Gross said their slogan isn't misleading; Jesus does love porn stars and the message doesn't insinuate that he loves pornography.

"But that's why we're putting the Bible in [the porn stars'] hands — Jesus is not OK with it," said Gross, a former youth pastor who works on the XXXchurch.com website from his Lake Elsinore garage. "The publisher is hindering the Gospel going forth."

The number of companies that publish the Bible is limited. Modern versions of the Scriptures are licensed to publishers by the organizations that did the translations.

The XXXchurch.com pastors say the rejection of the cover is typical of the clash between old-school Christianity — with its rigid structure and traditions — and an emerging brand practiced mostly by younger Christians who focus on relationships, spiritual experiences and converting nonbelievers through bold, sometimes edgy marketing.

"This whole religious rule book just needs to be burned, and we need to reinvent the rules," Gross said. "Otherwise, Christianity is going to fade away."

Roy Lloyd, a spokesman for the American Bible Society, said his 190-year-old organization publishes custom Bibles for a variety of youth-oriented ministries, including skateboarders and hip-hop devotees. "It's not that we're opposed to what [XXXchurch.com] is doing," he said. "But there needs to be a sense of propriety."

Richard Flory, a sociologist at Biola University who studies new Christian movements, said it's not surprising or outrageous that the American Bible Society would decline to publish the provocative cover.

"I actually see this as a marketing dispute," he said. "The XXXchurch.com pastors are trying to market the Bible to a niche market, and the American Bible Society, while not opposed to their efforts, is wary of the marketing strategy."

The society shouldn't jeopardize its larger mission by publishing a Bible cover that it believes will be divisive, Flory added.

Gross, 30, and Foster, 35, founded XXXchurch.com in 2002 to fight addiction to Internet pornography, especially among Christians.

Their intentionally confrontational website — billed as the "No. 1 Christian Porn Site" — includes free "accountability software" to flag questionable sites visited by users, podcasts featuring ex-porn star interviews, and hate mail from both conservative Christians and porn lovers.

"We refuse to have this be your typical Christian crap website with crosses and Bibles all over the place and communicating things that most in the world can't relate to," the pair state on XXXchurch.com.

The pastors say the "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bible would help get the word of God into the hands of those normally shunned by Christians.

"This is about the message of love and grace and compassion to the people we don't like in the Christian world," said Foster, adding that he is in talks with other publishers to get their Bible printed. "Maybe we need to think outside the box to maybe help these people."

Flory, the Biola professor, said if the "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bible were published, it would soon become a cultural icon.

"And doesn't this work at cross purposes with the XXXchurch.com goals by making it cool for people, who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with this, to appropriate the porn star symbolism?" Flory said.

Foster said it's time for Christians to take risks.

"Yeah, the cover's out there; it's controversial, it's provocative, it's wacky," he said. "But it's to draw attention to the content. If people have that book in their hands, it's a good thing."

See ...
A Christian Porno Site
Many Christians Enjoy Porn but Feel Guilty
X Rated Youth

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