Ho hum. The New Zealand Christian Right is starting to get shrill about the demon smut again. Case in point- New Plymouth Baptist minister Grant Harris invites xxxchurch.com’s Craig Gross to spread the message.

And what message might this be? Apparently, Gross tries to deliver the fundamentalist message at erotic media conventions, because “Jesus loves erotic media stars.” The workshops centred on father/son and parent/child interactions designed to challenge the spread of erotic media into New Zealand society, even (gasp) within fundamentalist churches!!! Apparently too, erotic media consumption qualifies as an “addiction”.  To be sure, Gross has aroused (!!!) opposition within more conservative fundamentalist circles. Some other fundamentalists have picketed his services in the United States, and the American Bible Society got sniffy about producing a specialist Bible for erotic media stars.

Sorry, but to say that ‘fundamentalist churches have a problem with erotic media’ and that ‘erotic media consumption is an addiction’ are both missing the boat somewhat. Granted US New Life Church minister Ted Haggard may have watched a hot gay erotic DVD before having his little dalliance with sex worker Michael Jones, which cost him his megabucks ministry. However, Graham Capill may not have watched it, due to his outbursts against deceased gay artists Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe over Wellington exhibitions of the same.

During the eighties, some radical feminists attributed sexual violence against women to the pervasiveness of heterosexual erotic media. Nowadays, it seems to have shifted back to the question of whether that deprives such feminists of a greater focus on the range of causes that legitimise violence against women. “Erotic media addiction” is a psuedoscientific copout that deprives rapists, sexually harrassing men and others of any personal responsibility for behavioural change in the workplace and other social situations. It also sabotages prospects of real reform in the erotic media industries through stigmatisation and restrictive regulation that are the best hope of challenging misogynist imagery, barebacking, substance abuse and other fringe industry problems.

Sorry, guys. After Capillgate, it’s difficult to believe you on this one…

Not Recommended:

John McNeil: www.xxxchurch.com” Challenge Weekly: 07.04.08