“Amid the strippers slipping out of their shirts and the sex-toy makers hawking the latest products at the AVN adult trade show, two youth ministers from Southern California stand in front of their own show booth, preaching to the crowd…. They have ventured into Sin City, diving deep into a conference that revels in explicit sexuality, to convince a multibillion-dollar industry that Jesus is far more compelling than the miles of glistening bare skin inside the Sands Convention Center. ‘If Jesus were walking the Earth today, we think that he’d be here too,’ says Gross, 26, who lives in Mission Viejo. ‘After all, [he] hung out with prostitutes and stuff…’ The XXXChurch message at the show appears to fall on somewhat confused ears. To the right of the ministers’ booth, a company advertises explicit Japanese cartoons; to its left, a firm sells gay S&M films. Gross steps toward one visitor, handing him a flier promoting the Web site. The man glances at the sheet of paper in confusion. ‘What do you mean, you’re the No. 1 Christian porn site?’ asks David Kreller, an executive at a small adult video distribution firm. ‘Christians are selling porn?’” — Almenconi Ministries (US)

Regardless of where you stand on either religion or pornography, you have to admire the pluck of these young ministers. Because so much religion amounts to preaching to the converted, or sometimes to standing outside and yelling epithets at the perverted, it takes real guts to step right into the lion’s den. And their gutsy outreach is complemented by their fascinating “Christian Porn” site, which is definitely worth a perusal. It is an intelligent and fresh approach to perversion from the other side — the side that would prohibit it.

That being said, it’s hard not to feel that Christianity in particular retains a lamentably binary attitude toward sexuality: you can have God or fuck but not both. And that’s just not true. An immense sexuality already suffuses Christianity — perhaps nowhere better evidenced than in the story of Saint Catherine’s mystic marriage with Jesus, in which she uses his foreskin as a wedding ring. And there can also be a religiosity or spirituality to sex too: it’s called love.

In that sense, however innovative these young missionaries may be, you can’t help but feel that the most radical person featured in the article is the Catholic stripper. For her, sex and God are not mutually exclusive. She need not deny one to have the other. She says the rosary three times a week, prays, crosses herself, then climbs a ladder and shakes her booty.

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