www.freep.com – Two unconventional preachers — one called the porn pastor — are to give away a house at a Detroit church Sunday as part of a book tour with a simple message: Jesus loves you.
The book, “Jesus Loves You … This I Know,” is written by Jason Harper and Craig Gross, [pictured left with Harper] who has garnered nationwide attention for his outreach to consumers of and participants in the porn industry.
The book has several chapters with titles like “Jesus Loves the Disconnected,” “Jesus Loves the Glutton,” “Jesus Loves the Crook” and “Jesus Loves the Porn Star.”
Their tour is taking them to six cities, tying in the themes to particular needs.
In recent weeks, they’ve given away free lunch buffets to gluttons in Las Vegas and debated porn star Ron Jeremy in California.
On Sunday, Harper and Gross plan to be at Citadel of Faith Covenant Church in Detroit because the state has the highest unemployment rate in the country.
In partnership with the church, they rehabbed a donated home in Detroit and they are to give it away to a needy family. Located a couple of blocks west of Woodward and south of West Chicago Boulevard, the colonial house was worth about $12,000, and had about $11,000 in improvements, Gross said.
“With people in such bad shape economically, we thought this was the least we could do,” Gross said.
Gross, who ministered in Michigan for two years, founded the Strip Church in Las Vegas and XXXchurch.com, a Web site that some conservative Christians criticized but others lauded because of its outreach.
“Often, Christians and churches try to point fingers and are the first to judge, saying, ‘You’re wrong, we’re right,’ ” he said. “Our thought is, let’s lead with this message of love. We think that works a whole lot better.”