About half the religious people I’ve talked to at length have claimed a personal relationship with God.
This usually means nothing. Many porn stars I’ve interviewed claim a personal relationship with God. I’ve yet to hear one say, “God judges.”
I prefer to be around people who fear God than people who love God just as I usually receive better treatment from people who say they fear me than from people who say they love me.
Rabbi Ariel Sokolovsky emails: “I am not a porn star, but I have noticed and acknowledged many times in my life that G-d punishes me and thanked Him for doing so as this has helped me to improve and serve Him better.”
Here are some quotes from porn stars about their relationship with God.
Nyomi told me: “I have mixed feelings about religion. I have my own relationship with God. I have some things with the Bible that I don’t agree with…. There are so many Bibles… I just know the miracles He’s done with me and my family… When the day I die I go up to the Pearly Gates and he says, ‘You’re not getting in,’ I’ll say OK, I know why, and walk away.”
Tiana told me: “I know that fornication is a sin but I know that I am a good person. Believe it or not, this has gotten me off the streets. This has got me going for my goals. I still have my relationship with God and that is all I need. He will always be in my heart and I will always believe in my Savior. He did die for my sins. Yes, I do sin.
“I believe my church is within me. I like to go to church on occasion. I don’t think going to church should be a chore. It should be something you want to do. I don’t think people should be forced to go. They should have their own relationship with their God.”
Estella told me: “My mother is a Pentacostal pastor and a nurse. She’s very strict in her religion. I’m still very Christian. I still believe in God. I have my own relationship with God. I was so secluded from the world.”
Luke to porner Barrett Blade: “Do you ever worry that God will make you pay for each sperm that you waste?”
Barrett: “Do you believe that you have to go to God to prove your faith? Do you believe in organized religion?”
Luke: “Yes.”
Barrett: “Do you believe that you do not have a one-on-one personal relationship with God?”
Luke: “I believe we can have a personal relationship with God but that’s not the main purpose of organized religion. To get a task done, you have to organize. The purpose of religion is to make this world a better place. To do that, you must organize.”
Barrett: “Then why does it have to be organized? Why do you have to go to church? Only if you’re a follower. You can organize within yourself.”
Blade was raised a Roman Catholic, along with about half of the porn industry.
Holly Randall IMs me: “All i have is my dog.”
Luke: “Huh? What about your relationship with God?”
HollyRandall: “I don’t have one.”
Journalist Ashley Kennedy writes: “Luke, with your rasta yamika (Sp?), and your insatiable attraction to your own, and society’s dark side, I knew… you will walk your own path. Jewish, pagan, Baptist, it does not matter to God. There is one God, and he wears many different faces for many different people. But he is not confined to some building or group of people. He is all of us, inside of us, everything around us, and so much more. Look inside yourself, honey. Your personal relationship with God is what is crucial here, Luke, and I certainly hope you realize this, and see your expulsion from the shul as part of his will. You see things linearally, but the creator does not. There is a blessing here, and it may not become evident for some time to you, but God knows best. And you are a spiritual person, albeit torn at times, on many issues. your Judaism…. eh…. not important. Your heart? The way you treat others? Being the change you want to see in the world? Your faith in the fact that God will always give you what you need, and often what you want…. these are the things, Luke, that matter. If you need to talk, or you need a hug, or someone to vent to because you feel down on yourself, or angry, or lonely…. call me, OK? I mean it… I’m here for you if this whole expulsion from the narrow-minded shul thing gets you down. And your spiritual journey has not ended… it is merely taking a twist in a bend. Peace dude…. blessed be…”
Chaim Amalek writes: “Why don’t you write a book about Jews in porn and their relationship with God? Something more than ten people might want to read. People like both porn and religion, so a book of interviews of the iconic porno-Juden of the seventies and eighties (Annie Sprinkle/Steinberg, Harry Reems, all the rest) would garner lots of readers. And you could include Christians, too.”
From the translation of an August 8, 2005 article in a European newspaper on Martin Del Torro: “The author of the collection called ‚ÄòRead between the lines, you muck, I will kill you anyway‚Äô has already replaced it with a new one, in which he is talking about his troubled relationship with God, but that is not so interesting so will not publish that.”
Hustler photographer Anneli Adolfsson, after giving her life to Christ, wrote on MySpace January 6, 2007: “Please understand that my relationship with God is not to judge or change thing that has no effect on the eternal outcome. All I want to do is educate whomever is hungry for facts, salvation and knowledge.”
I chat with director David Aaron Clark.
Luke: “Asian women from Asia enjoy being female and enjoy making a man feel manly.”
David: “It’s not about ego for them. It’s about practicality. That goes to the Buddhism Vs. Christianity thing. These martyr religions are ego-centric and narcissistic. There’s a martyr figure who represents us so each of us walks around feeling special and like a martyr as opposed to religions based on our outward actions rather than our relationship with [God].”
Towards the end of 2005, Sky Lopez told Indiestreetlatino.com: “From that point on I quit the Adult Industry, moved into a Ministry Home for six months, studied Bible theology and did some soul searching. Where I worked on my relationship with God and Myself. Getting back to who I really was, a Break-dancing Hip-Hop Artist Raised in Oakland CA and been rapping since the age twelve.”
