For a God Time, Try Porn and Pancakes

By Carol Johnson

A billboard in Ontario, NY, a small town about 10 miles east of Rochester, caused a buzz of controversy and commentary for weeks after Christmas. The billboard, which is located near The Living Word Assembly of God Church, showed a stack of pancakes on a paper plate with the words "Porn and Pancakes" written in syrup.

The ad was for an event held at the church that was open to men and boys in junior high and older. Porn and Pancakes is a breakfast discussion on the pornography industry in America, featuring pastors from XXXchurch.com, porn industry insiders, and people who have struggled with addiction to pornography. The pastors of several churches in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse have all expressed an interest in hosting "Porn and Pancakes" events at their churches.

The group leading the events, Triple-X Church, is a group of youth ministers who travel around the country talking about the pornography industry. According to their website, theirs is a grassroots effort to "bring awareness, openness, and accountability and recovery to the church, society, and individuals in the issues of pornography and to begin to provide solutions through non-judgmental and creative means." The group says the purpose of "Porn and Pancakes" is not to criticize, but to make people think and decide where they stand on the issue of pornography.

The founders of XXXchurch.com are Mike Foster and Craig Gross, who launched their idea on January 9, 2002, at the AVN show in Las Vegas. Since then, XXXchurch has grown rapidly and now has about 50 volunteers working in different capacities. Gross and a few other staff members work for the organization full time. According to the group’s website, they chose the name "XXXchurch" because it is "provocative, memorable, and it combines the seedy and the sacred. Enough said."

Each Porn and Pancakes event covers a different issue, and each has different speakers and presenters. At one recent event, the speaker was a former porn producer who had come out of the industry, who shared with the men what the industry is like and how he actually worked to recruit girls from websites such as MySpace.com. The presenters focus on illustrating how pornography can and does ruin lives. Their purpose is to educate people struggling with porn addictions, and they hope that entire families will take part. The approach is supportive and informative, not condemning.

"It’s everybody’s dirty little secret in America, and it needs to be addressed," said one parishioner. "It needs to be spoken about openly so people can get healed."