Pastors and Porn Stars
September 7th, 2010
My take: Jesus loves porn stars: Short but interesting piece by a pastor who regularly debates legendary porn star Ron Jeremy
Ron is for porn and I am against porn. We are opponents on stage. In fact we have debated each other over 60 times in the last 4 years. We have debated at Yale, Ohio State, University of Southern California, Texas Tech, and in a few weeks we start the school year off with another debate at the University of Tennessee.
We are opponents on stage but off stage we are great friends. That’s really what this is about. Jesus dined with tax collectors and befriended prostitutes. I don’t want to be known as the guy who debates Ron, I’d rather be known as the guy who loves Ron.
Love wins. My old pastor in Grand Rapids said that a lot. I have come to realize not only does love win, but love works and love waits.
Reminds me of Larry Flynt and Jerry Falwell. Their positions were totally opposite, and Falwell sued Flynt in the landmark case that became the movie “The People vs. Larry Flynt.” Still, they became friends. Back in 2007 when Falwell died, Flynt wrote an op-end called The Porn King and the Preacher.
The first time the Rev. Jerry Falwell put his hands on me, I was stunned. Not only had we been archenemies for 15 years, his beliefs and mine traveling in different solar systems, and not only had he sued me for $50 million (a case I lost repeatedly yet eventually won in the Supreme Court), but now he was hugging me in front of millions on the Larry King show.
[…] I’ll never admire him for his views or his opinions. To this day, I’m not sure if his television embrace was meant to mend fences, to show himself to the public as a generous and forgiving preacher or merely to make me uneasy, but the ultimate result was one I never expected and was just as shocking a turn to me as was winning that famous Supreme Court case: We became friends.
Apparently they spoke quite often about various issues, with Flynt usually calling to berate Falwell for one thing or another.
Friendship comes from the strangest places sometimes.