So far so good with Craig Gross, I have only read one of his books, but I was very impressed with his handling of the whole ‘Deadly Viper’ incident, and am peripherally aware of XXXchurch…

Steven – Concerning the latter half of your comment, I think you’re thinking of Mike Foster, who was the other co-founder of xxxchurch.com and the co-author of Deadly Viper with Jud Wilhite. To my knowledge Craig wasn’t involved with Deadly Viper at all…was he?

“On spending Easter with a porn star”

On that part of the title alone – that would be enough for my atheist cousin to be interested in hanging with a pastor! LOL! Unfortunately, he would quickly figure out the title to be misleading.:-)

I’ve actually heard about the xxxchurch quite a few years back. Jeff did a small (very small) article on it on his now old and quite neglected blog. From what I read back then, they seemed pretty impressive.

I’ll have to read/listen to the interview later but I personally don’t know how (other than the power of God) that he would have been able to even BE in the same room as Fred Phelps and the people of Westboro Baptist Church without having to keep his fists glued to his side. I’m a pretty tolerant person myself but in order to KEEP “law and order” (as well as being a good witness for Christ), it would be best for me to never meet the Phelps….

Yep, you were right, it was Mike Foster.

1) How many people out there are named “Jason” to begin with!? Geesh!:-)

2) I’m almost jealous of you. That job of yours sounds fun.:-) (and I don’t remember ever hearing of the company until a few months ago)

Anyway – Great interview, Jason. Did you write the questions yourself or were they given to you to ask? They were good questions. The one question that wasn’t asked which I was personally curious about in the end was if after some of the porn stars came to Christ and left the industry because of their new found relationship with Him – I wonder if he has made some enemies to some degree because producers, directors (and agents) may have lost their “money makers” so to speak. (Unfortunately, I’m sure there are plenty waiting in the wing to take their place but still….).

Honestly – and I don’t put Craig Gross on a pedistal – I *really* don’t know how he can hang around the constant influences of porn and lust and not fall into it. He’s completely right when he talked (near the end) about how it’s just as wrong to be a consumer and/or watcher of porn as it is to be the one providing the service – and that people from all walks of life are guilty for experimenting (so to speak) with porn. Whether through going on web sites and looking at pics for free or actually purchasing the products through movies and magazines.

God has really blessed him for his obedience – for not only reaching out but also abstaining himself from those materials that are obviously easily within his reach. Not many people – including myself – WOULD be able to do what he’s doing and not eventually fall into the sin of being some sort of a consumer.

As far as him talking about the Westboro “church”….I understand what he was saying. We’ve all been in positions to where either we’ve been around others who have displayed such hateful and angry behaviour or we HAVE been that person ourselves. It reminds me of what my mother used to tell me (and still does)….that those who are the most angry and hateful are the ones who usually – if not always – have the most pain. Listening to Gross’s statements about the people/family of that “church”, it was a reminder of that lesson many of us have already learned but sometimes find it very hard in some circumstances to see.

Thanks for sharing.

Julie - Yes, those were my questions. It’s one of the nice things about this particular aspect of my job that I’m given a great deal of freedom to interact with the authors.

I really agree that Craig is demonstrating tremendous acceptance in these kinds of ministries. His comments about the Westboro folks are what really floored me. In some ways that’s a bigger risk.

Thanks for the feedback!