On April 21, anti-pornography advocate and pastor Craig Gross gave away copies of the Bible to a room full of Tulane and Loyola students in McAllister Auditorium.
But Gross’s Bibles were not only the words of Holy Scripture between two modest black covers. These Bible covers screamed, “Jesus Loves Porn Stars!” in hot pink.
Students got these pink Bibles and a few laughs at the “Tulane Porn Debate,” a Tulane Baptist Collegiate Ministry-sponsored debate between Gross and porn star Ron Jeremy Tuesday night.
Although the event was held on Tulane’s campus, many Loyola students attended the two hour debate. The opponents came to Tulane as part of nationwide debate tour on college campuses.
Gross, founder of http://www.xxxchurch.com — a site that claims to help Christians break porn addictions — stepped up to the podium to battle Jeremy. Both opponents had a few words for students before things got started.
“Craig will bring out lots of points, and I’ll slam dunk them all,” he said.
“You’re 5’6″ and in a Hawaiian shirt and Crocs. You ain’t slam dunking anything,” Gross said.
Gross and Jeremy shared their opinions about porn with the audience. According to Gross, the marriage bed should contain all anyone needs, and that porn is a “poor substitute.” Gross told the audience that porn leaves real men disappointed in real women — he called it an “unrealistic” portrait of the way a couple acts.
Jeremy agreed, but hinted that fantasy isn’t always a bad thing.
“(Porn) is one of my favorite things. Was anybody a Disney fan growing up? I have news for you. Disney is unrealistic, too,” Jeremy said.
Audience members learned about the porn industry when the moderator opened the floor to audience questions. For example, it is mandatory to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases at least once a month, Jeremy said. If actors miss the test by just a few days, they are expected to leave work.
“It’s a very rigorous process,” he said. “We even do DNA testing.”
A large part of the discussion revolved around age. Gross brought up statistics. Minors make up 30 percent of the porn site traffic, he said.
Jeremy said that sites that put this content out are illegal, and hard to control.
“We don’t cater to kids. And we can’t control what people put out on the internet illegally,” he said.
“As a matter of fact, we have letters from the FBI thanking us for helping to prosecute kiddie porn rings. Ages 35 to 49 make up our target audience.”
The moderator’s final question to the pair involved spiritual views: “What do you think God thinks about your involvement with porn?”
“Well, the people that Jesus liked spending the most time with were the ones most in need of his help,” Gross said. “And that’s what I want to do; I don’t want to ban porn. I just want to help those who seek my help.”
Jeremy had different views.
“I don’t think that the big man upstairs has a problem with two consenting adults making a video to be watched by other consenting adults,” he said.
“And that’s why (Jeremy) got his degree in special education instead of theology,” Gross said.
Students seemed to enjoy the debate.
“It was so good! There were some great questions,” said Jason Kutno, music industries sophomore.
Alex Fournet, international business sophomore, agreed.
“It was really open and set up well. It was really honest,” he said.
Lora Ghawaly can be reached at [email protected].
