'Unscripted' Butts Porn Pastor Against Porn King

By Nathan Black, Christian Post Reporter Saturday, April 28, 2007

Professional wrestling, music and a pastor debating a porn star will hit Center Stage in Atlanta on Saturday.

Unscripted 2007 will see legendary porn star Ron Jeremy butt heads with Craig Gross, pastor of the largest anti-porn ministry in the country, XXXChurch.com. The debate will address such pornography issues as whether it's degrading to women and whether it's addictive or destructive, among other topics.

Gross and pastor Mike Foster launched XXXChurch.com in 2002, drawing wide media attention and criticism from Christians, who one of the porn pastors says can't stand them.

"Our biggest critics are Christians," "Porn Pastor" JR Mahon told ABC News.

California pastors Gross and Foster promote National Porn Sunday every year, hold regular Porn & Pancakes mornings to get Christians struggling with porn addiction to talk about it, and recently began handing out Bibles with the cover words "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" at porn conventions.

A nonscientific poll on XXXChurch.com found that 70 percent of Christians admitted to struggling with porn in their daily lives. A majority of pastors also admitted the same struggle.

"A lot of people think Christians sure don't struggle with this," Gross told CNN. "The stats don't lie: Christians are consuming pornography. And to me, it's not a surprise."

A recent Porn & Pancakes breakfast saw more the 250 men gathered at New Life Christian Church in Morton, Ill. Some attended to make sure they don't develop a porn problem and others joined as a last resort to reclaim their Christian values, CNN reported.

During their years of reaching out to both porn stars and Christians addicted to porn, the porn pastors have become good friends with Jeremy, who holds the Guinness World Record for "Most Appearances in Adult Films." Jeremy starred in more than 1,800 porn films.

On Saturday, Gross and Jeremy will battle it out on porn issues while heavy-metal recording artist Stryper is scheduled to perform and throw out hundreds of "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bibles to the crowd.

While Jeremy remains undeterred as the "porn king" and the porn pastors continue to receive hate mail, they are still grilling pancakes to address a growing problem in the Church.

Unscripted 2007 is presented by XXXChurch.com and World Impact Wrestling.