from www.sandiego.com – “Ron Jeremy was not at all what I expected. When I imagined that a real live ‘porn star’ would be gracing our church, about the last thing I expected to see was a long-haired, chubby, 57 year old man,” according to Rock Church attender and Point Loma Nazarene University student Jennifer Dupray.

The tension was tangible as almost every neck in the church crained to see the first glimpse of porn star Ron Jeremy as he waddled around the corner of the stage. The church was packed to the point where individuals were sitting on the floor, and when Jeremy was about half-way across the stage the entire room filled with cheers, which you could see shocked him. It was the first time EVER that Ron Jeremy and Craig Gross debated inside of a church, in front of a congregation. They have debated publically more than 60 times, but usually on college campuses.

In previous interviews, Jeremy has stated that he is sure that the porn industry has treated Gross with a lot more acceptance than any church or Christian community would treat him with, but he was proven wrong this past Saturday.

The sanctuary was mixed with individuals that support porn and of course those that oppose it, but the entirety of the crowd treated each individual with complete kindness and respect. No shouts of opposition were heard and no name-calling was brought about–in fact, one male individual screamed out how much he loved Ron Jeremy, which of course made the crowd, including Jeremy and Gross, laugh.

Although the night started out with Jeremy looking understandably nervous, it didn’t take him long to bring out the comedic side of himself and even bring out the unrated side of himself as well. He kept commenting on the fact that he wanted to say certain things but the scenery was making him hesistate; but that did not stop him from dropping the “F-bomb,” promoting anal sex, and even explaining that he thinks about his gramdma, dead dogs, and Vietnam War victims to help him maintain sexual stamina during a sex scene for a film. He did draw the line at going into detail to explain what a “Dirty Sanchez” is, which I am sure pastor Miles McPherson appreciated.

McPherson was the moderator of the event and he warmly welcomed Jeremy and Gross. He commented on how hilarious Jeremy was and asked everyone to be just as welcoming as he was toward Jeremy. Jeremy and McPherson even joked with each other on stage; everyone’s favorite joke was when McPherson pretended, on more than one occasion, to annoint Jeremy with holy water (which was in actuality Kirkland bottled water) after a sexual innuendo was made.

Jeremy stated that he believes porn to be an empowering industry that has its problems like anything else, but is not bad as a whole. He compared porn to alcohol; he said that no one asks for a liquor store to be shut down because it sells alcohol, so the porn industry should not be shut down because it sells sex as an entertainment.

He also stated that pornography must be used responsibly, as with alcohol, and that addiction is never a good thing, even in the eyes of the industry. Jeremy also said that it promotes positive images of women because it displays older women as beautiful and being lusted after by younger men; he mentioned that the “cougar” genre is one of the biggest sellers in the market at this point. He also stated that he, himself had sex with an 87-year old woman in a sex tape to promote such an image.

Gross argued that porn is detrimental to women and society as a whole. He explained that he believes that porn desensitizes men to the point in which they become overly aggressive with females, believing that they enjoy being dominated and denigrated when in actuality most do not enjoy such hardcore sex.

He stated that women in porn are sexual athletes, that they train their body to take on abnormal strenuousness, and that an average woman cannot compete with such an image, but when men watch porn, they believe that their partner is capable of enduring what porn stars are capable of. Gross stated that porn is unhealthy because it is fantasy, and living in fantasy is not a good way to go through life because it distorts everything in a person’s life.

Who won this controversial debate? Well, there was no pronounced winner, but besides the fact that there was no certain outcome, each side had the chance to state their beliefs and opinions, and the crowd got to listen to a porn star and a pastor talk about sex for two hours, which was well worth it.