Albert Mohler posted this blog on his website after sharing his comments with ABC World News
Tonight. JR went on his radio show last week, I plan on going on the show next
week. Stay tuned….Craig
A Christian ministry concerned with reaching out to those involved in pornography
— both users and producers — was present at the massive “Erotica Expo” at
the Los Angeles Convention Center. Billed as the world’s largest consumer pornography
trade show, the event was expected to attract over 50,000 persons. From their
booth at the trade show, the leaders of xxxchurch.com passed
out an edition of The Message (a paraphrase of the New Testament)
with cover art that declared: “Jesus Loves Porn Stars.”
I talked about this issue on Sunday’s edition of ABC
World News Tonight, along with Craig Gross of the XXXchurch ministry.
[See video
here, transcript
here]
From the transcript:
Christians agree that the Bible commands them to “go and make disciples
of all nations” and that Jesus “came to invite the sinners” to be his followers
and “save people who are lost.” But a new Bible with the words “Jesus Loves
Porn Stars” emblazoned on the cover has ignited a debate about how far is
too far when it comes to spreading the word.
This weekend at the erotica convention in Los Angeles, Pastor Craig Gross,
who runs an anti-pornography ministry, handed out hundreds of “Jesus Loves
Porn Stars” Bibles. Gross, in his “porn-mobile,” is a regular fixture at
porn conventions. His anti-porn Web site is provocatively entitled XXXChurch.com.
“I believe Jesus, he’d be in the show with us,” Gross said. “He’d be mixing
it up with these people. ‘Cause he doesn’t look at them as porn stars, or
porn producers. He looks at us as all the same.”
I have no doubt that Jesus loves porn stars, and the Bible is perfectly clear
in its grace-filled message that Christ came to save sinners. Jesus ate with
notorious sinners and engaged in conversation with them. Yet, the presence
of a Christian ministry within the confines of the Erotica Expo is a step beyond
the example of Jesus, I would argue. There is a difference between talking
to a prostitute about the Gospel and entering a brothel — much less buying
a booth.
A quick survey of news coverage related to the Erotica Expo is sufficient,
I believe, to indicate that a Christian ministry has no place there as one
exhibit among others. I will not link to this coverage as a matter of my own
judgment. Readers of this Web site are sufficiently intelligent to find that
coverage on your own. You have been warned.
I do not doubt the evangelistic sincerity of those who lead this ministry.
This is a question of judgment, principle, and strategy — not a question of
motivation. Furthermore, I am quite certain that middle class evangelicals
are far too risk-averse in evangelistic outreach to those outside our comfort
zones. This is to our shame.
Still, there are real questions here — and we discussed those issues on Friday’s
edition of The
Albert Mohler Program.