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Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Oh JC's Girls, Book II
 I was still cloudy on the concept of the Christian sex-worker ministry known as JC's Girls, so I decided to make a pilgrimage into the desert.The desert, of course, was Sylmar, California. One would think that with a name like Sylmar there would be both a forest and a sea to view, but one would be mistaken. The forest seemed to be a roadside lot filled with potted plants and the sea was most likely the L.A. aqueduct water filtration plant by the highway. I think at one point in the region's history there might very well have been a Syl but, barring major tectonic adjustments, there was never any Mar. What better place, then, to hang around with the unlikely pairing of photographer/pornographer James DiGiorgio and the three proper missionary ladies from Riverside who want to make Jesus the V.I.P. in your champagne room?  Heather Veitch is a former stripper and softcore performer who was born again a few years ago. This year she recruited church buddies Lori and Tanya (last names withheld) to join her in a ministry to sex workers. On their initial outing they went to a Riverside strip club, bought lap dances at the exact same time from several different peelers, and each gave a two-minute spiel once they got to the private booths. Tanya remembers that her entreaty was politely dismissed, whereas Lori's stripper broke down in tears. "Jesus needed me to be more successful," Lori said. "He needed me to face a challenge," Tanya said.  So the three women have become the public face of this ministry and, due to DiGiorgio's involvement with porn crusaders XXXChurch (which apparently lost him work after some harsh critiques in AVN), Heather, Lori, and Tanya came to Sylmar for a photo session at DiGiorgio's studio and an interview with A Current Affair. That the three women have porn-worthy looks is, Veitch said, useful to the ministry. "We need to talk to people in the industry, so they need to be comfortable with us," she said. Lori said that, aside from a fetishist wanting her to step on him at Erotica LA, she has felt very comfortable with the porn crowds she has met so far. Neither Tanya nor Lori were involved in the industry otherwise. "Heather was tinting my hair at her salon and she started talking about God," Lori recalled. "I thought, 'this woman really likes God.'" I asked if conventionally-unattractive women could have a place in JC's Girls. "You know, women who might look like female versions of me," I said. "There's always room for people to be involved," Lori said, "whether in planning or behind-the-scenes or wherever God sees fit to place them." JC's Girls operates out of a ministry called Matthew's House, which is based at a Riverside church called Sandals. Sandals is affiliated, and receives some financial support from, the Southern Baptist Convention, Tanya said, but Sandals isn't strictly regimented like SBC services. "Sandals has rocking services," Tanya said. "At 35, I'm one of the older people there." JC's Girls took pains to explain that they did not judge people in the sex industry, but wanted to let sex workers know they had religious options. "Jesus sat in Matthew's House with the prostitutes and sinners," Lori said. "He didn't judge from on high." Tanya confirmed that Sandals is a so-called Bible-believing church, which maintains that the Bible is "the inspired word of God."  According to the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus was attacked by religious leaders for keeping low company at Matthew's dinner table. He responded, "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." (Matthew 9,12) So while JC's Girls say they do not come from a judgmental place, there is an indication in Matthew that the ministry is for "sick" people if the verse is to be believed. I asked Heather if I could continue shooting porn if I attended her church. "We hope you come to our church and then let God tell you what to do," she said. DiGiorgio was asked by the Current Affair reporter how the industry might respond to JC's Girls and their presence at next January's Adult Entertainment Expo. He said that one of the mistakes people make about the industry is that the industry has a uniform response to anything. "Some people might be tolerant, some people might not be," he said.  I agree with this. I think the industry will treat JC's Girls like another niche, and certainly not a destructive one. I think if the ministry's tactics become heavy-handed or if church visits result in an invasive laying-on of hands (without payment) there will be no future for them. That said, I also see the need for not giving answers like, "No, ugly women can't be in JC's Girls" and "Yes, we do judge you." But we live with contradictions and bits of polite misinformation every day. Like there being no woods or ocean in Sylmar. Like A Current Affair calling itself a news program. Like JC's Girls really believing that people in the industry aren't sick. ¶ Tuesday, August 23, 2005  
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What do you make of former porno actor Harry Reems becoming a born-again Christian and selling real estate in Utah, Gram the Man?
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Let's face it, even though Porn has become mainstream, it's still a semi-legitimate business and the survival of having sex for a living depends on whether or not any of us can keep such a life-style strictly professional!! #
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Friday, November 17, 2006
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