From the New York Times:
SOME people have their midlife crisis in reverse, like Ronald Boyer, who for most of his professional life has been better known as a star of pornographic films, Rod Fontana.
After 30 years of sowing the wildest of oats, Mr. Boyer, 54, has searched his soul and chosen, to the surprise of family and colleagues, to seek a priesthood in the Episcopal Church.
From his work in the rented villas of the San Fernando Valley, where hard-core sex films are shot, he has moved just a short distance west, to the Church of the Epiphany, which is guiding his transformation from pornography star to preacher.
The psychic distance, however, has been vast. In January, the lumbering 6-foot-3 performer was greeting fans on the red carpet of the Adult Video News Awards in Las Vegas, along with the superstars of pornography like Jenna Jameson and Ron Jeremy.
In June, he was carrying the Holy Bible and a text titled “Gospel Light” to a live Internet show where he preached on the relative evils of pornography. “Is pornography a sin?” he asked on the show, which is aimed at people in the sex industry. “Probably. Definitely,” he answered, a response that reflected his own ambivalence as much as a desire not to alienate his audience. “So is eating carrot cake until you’re sick to your stomach,” he continued. “And so is punching somebody in the face. That’s a sin.”
Just another part of the diversity created by the big bang. Have you noticed that the big bang created everything except the abnormal variations which are part of God’s plan. Curiouser and curiouser.
My hope is that Mr. Boyer would be welcomed at my church as well as your church. If we believe that God’s redemptive power is real, I hope we do not discount his journey just because he is doing it in the Diocese of LA. How much different is his story than, say, St. Augustine’s?
We need witnesses to conversion. God bless him on his way. And I admire his sober understanding of sin – porn, gluttony, wrath and all kinds of things that are against God’s will – and his Christ-like, missionary desire to move among those who need the doctor.
May God continue to bless this man and draw his family closer to his purpose.
I do think he’s mistaken though: pornography is not like eating too much carrot cake. Carrot cake is fine in moderate quantities. Pornography is not fine in any quantity. Speaking as a man who, like many here, has had to come to grips with the harmful effects of pornography in his own life, I say that it’s a stinking business that preys on a person’s natural instincts and is as addictive as any drug I saw in college. To the best of my knowledge, carrot cake has never broken up a marriage, driven someone to despair, or ruined a person financially.
St Augustine was a pornographer? Who knew?
I’m hoping that the reporter got the details of the story wrong, and that next week there will be a correction. I have problems believing that anyone goes from appearing in a pornographic film to “training to become a deacon” in six months – not that dramatic conversions don’t happen, but that the discernment process works like that.
Even Augustine had to undergo a discipleship period before being asked to join the priest-hood. As did St. Paul. One should not be allowed to become a priest so suddenly after conversion. There needs to be a discipleship period. Otherwise, what theological foundation will there be?
While I join BillyD in hoping the reporter got the details wrong, permit me this: you folks have got to be kidding! “his sober understanding of sin”? This man doesn’t appear yet to have left much of anything behind. Yet we’re already talking about potential ordination! And “Not one time did Jesus refer to pornography, or homosexuality. . . . Jesus could have commented. He didn’t.” How many times have we heard that line?
Steve, I agree with you. He doesn’t seem to have left much of anything behind. He seems not to have had a conversion so much as to have lost interest in his previous employment.
And the “Not one time did Jesus refer to…” line is getting a little thin. It seems a pretty weak basis for making moral decisions. No, Jesus didn’t refer to pornography, or homosexuality. Or drug abuse. Or slavery. (Full disclosure: I am gay).
Absolutely nothing surprises me anymore.
He’s 54. So the porn business has lost its appeal to him. He’s used up its potential. What then? Time to move on, time to take a step up. At some point, he has decided he has built a bad rep, but he still wants to be on display. But where? Someone remarked that there are two kiinds of famous: Piety and notoriety. Well, he’s used up the latter, so what else?
When will TEC learn, lie down with dogs, rise with fleas. This man’s “conversion” smells as bad as his prior job. Am I being cynical? You bet. Do youo remember Paris Hilton (do I have tht right or was it one of the other good-for-nothings?) walking along, displaying a Bible. Prodigal son indeed. LM
Thanks, BillyD. God bless.
Steve,
That’s why I posted that the need for a time of discipleship is [b]key[/b] before he does anything remotely resembling Church/pastoral leadership. Unless he gets a good grounding in the faith, he should [b]not[/b] be allowed to take up any ministry position.
But then, we ARE speaking of TEC, aren’t we? I was offered a slot on the vestry ballot and to be sent to seminary [i]while[/i] I was still taking inquirer’s classes! I hadn’t even been received into the Episcopal Church yet! Sheesh! I declined, of course, and blew any chance of either serving in that church OR being sent to seminary. :long:
Uh-huh. Yeah, probably. Good Episcopal answer. Uh-huh, yeah, probably.
‘Oakwyse’, McGreevy, Redding … well, why not? Not as if we were talking about a real church.
I wasn’t reacting to you, libraryjim. And yes, on the subject of premature recruitment I entirely agree.
Public penance is designed for cases such as this. Mr. Boyer would probably find it liberating. But thanks be to God for his metanoia.
[blockquote]Fellow parishioners at the Church of the Epiphany in Oak Park do not know about Mr. Boyer’s life in pornography[/blockquote]
Well, I guess they do now.
Good on them for welcoming him as a parishioner, but let him spend a few years learning to live out of the limelight before anyone even considers putting him in a position of spiritual leadership. It will take time for him to be purified of the distorting influence of the lifestyle he has [i]begun[/i] to walk away from.
Nothing in The Episcopal Church surprises me anymore.
When I first accepted Christ I had many struggles leaving my past life behind. I had to deal with problems to include sex, drugs, alcohol abuse etc. It took years for God to help me over come many things, and I wanted those things out of my life. He seems ambivalent. I am reminded of when Linda Lovelace confessed her belief in Christ. It took about 6 months before she was waffling. I just don’t see how some one can go from Porn star to Deacon in less than a year. It seems his wife is still involved in porn. For him not to recognize the destruction in porn is amazing. This smells like the muslim priest.
One other note. I don’t think, with a history of being involved in porn he would have gotten a clearance to be in military intel. I had a friend who was in the Air Force doing intelligence work during Nam and his back ground check was pretty extensive. I went into the service shortly after nam and issues of moral turpitude were big no no’s to security clearances. That part of his story also smells.
Well, if former Governor McGreevey can do it, why can’t this guy? Both seemed to have stumbled upon a potential career with a decent salary, a good pension, and where there are absolutely no disqualifying factors (save perhaps orthodoxy)–and no demands to change. This man’s conversion–or return to the faith–may be genuine: who knows. But in reading this there seems little evidence of metanoia. Also, funny, isn’t it, that the parish didn’t know about this: one would think the bishop would have at least disclosed the potential for publicity and embarrassment. It’s amazing the efforts those in purple go to keep pew dwellers in the dark, but this rather takes the cake.
Babylon wasn’t torn down in a day, one might say, so let us pray that the ambivalence Ronald Boyer now shows will grow into a complete repudiation of pornography, and yes, let us give thanks that he has distanced himself from the industry.
Compare Boyer’s story with the powerful testimony of [url=http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=24088]Eduardo Verastegui[/url], who stars in the new film [i]Bella[/i], winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.
[blockquote]He understood he had hurt people through the work he had done and the messages in his movies were “poisoning society.â€
“It broke my heart,†the actor told the annual Rose Dinner in Ottawa May 10, following the 10th annual March for Life in Ottawa. “I realized I had offended God.†He said he spent “many months in tears.†[/blockquote]
#21. For Heave;s sake, he hasn’t “distanced himself
from the industry,” he hs taken it with him. Just like McGreevey. Can you not recognized a Typhoid Mary?
Larry
Seems there was more sloppy reporting than truth involved here. See http://episcopalchurch.typepad.com/episcope/2007/07/stop-the-presse.html.
Thanks, Ross.
There is a contact form for Sharon Waxman here:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/sharon_waxman/index.html?inline=nyt-per
And this is the e-mail address posted on her blog (http://sharonwaxman.typepad.com/waxword/):
sharon.waxman@gmail.com
Larry,
I’m not recommending that we slaughter the fatted calf for Boyer just yet, as saying pornography is “probably” a sin doesn’t sound like much of a renunciation. But McGreevey’s still sleeping with his boyfriend, no? whereas Boyer, whatever else he’s doing, and whatever his motives, has reportedly stopped making porn, and that’s a step in the right direction. Even a year after I returned to Christianity, some of the things I remained involved in were pretty vile. When someone’s been up to his eyeballs in muck, it may take a while before hosing him down looks like it’s having any effect.
Though Boyer is hardly a beacon of moral clarity at the moment, he [i]may[/i] be getting serious about following Christ–or he may not. I say wait and see, and keep praying in the meantime that he gets some decent moral instruction.
O M G.
What’s next? I guess we now know.
First it was Bishop Pike.
Then it was the first Bishop Robinson.
Then it was Bishop Spong.
Then it was the second Bishop Robinson. Victor (Vicki) Eugene.
Then it was Presiding Bishop Schori (Jefferts-Schori?).
Then it was candidate McGreevey.
Then it was Father (?) Reading.
Now candidate Boyer.
I do not mean to demean the existence of other stumbling blocks on the path. I merely mean to use the above list of names as an indication fthe steady slide into the cesspool.
Forget the Old Testament. Forget the New Testament. Forget the Seven Ecumenical Councils. Forget the traditions of the Anglican Faith. Forget the XXXIX Articles.
If it feels good, do it.
Just forget about the Bishop of Northern California (Swing) ordaining a convicted murderer. Just forget about the Diocese of Washington, DC forbidding the ordination of heterosexual white males. Just forget about all of that.
Filth. Disgusting filth. Obscene, depraved, sick, disgusting conduct, not accepted by any religion which I am familiar with. But surely accepted in TEc.
Clueless leaders. The blind leading the blind. They will both fall into the ditch.
And since it is only eternal life which is in question, so what? Live forever in torment? Sure, as there is no life after death to worry about. Just make merry, and tomorrow you die.
Oh. You went to Hell? Too bad. Where the worms dieth not and the fire is not quenched? Well, do not say you were not warned. You were in TEc? Oh, you weren’t warned after all. Too bad. You should have gone to a church where the Word was preached.
Mathman,
See Ross’s link (#23) above. Seems to me the media smells blood in the Episcopal waters and they’re looking for anything to cause a greater stir–and we’re in a screwed up enough place to give it to them and to make exaggerations and lies believable. But sloppy reporting is sloppy reporting–we have enough to get riled up about without having it invented for us.
Mathman: You have names misspelt, you have chronology out of order, you have a bishop in the wrong diocese, and your vitriol is out of place in a conversation by reasonable people.
Jody, you are soooo right. Our church is in the news because there’s controversy. Controversy, particularly in churches it seems, draws readers. Newspapers need readers. Ergo, sloppy reporting of false controversy sells papers.
I am afraid, that rather than this being an episcopal church problem, it is just more sloppy reporting from the “paper of record” the new york slimes.
Sharon Waxman of the New York Times responded to me via e-mail this afternoon as follows: “i absolutely stand by the story and its reporting. . . . [But] i am travelling in [the] far reaches of turkey on book leave (the book is about looted antiquities), and am physically unable to query the parties involved to get further answers. i have written to my editor and have not heard back yet” (the point there being that by protocol it is editors, not reporters, who handle these sorts of challenges).
I evidently just lost a post… I think perhaps I used the wrong html code. Oh well…
I simply said that I think we’ll have to wait to see who is being deceptive–and that neither Bishop Bruno or various others in the Diocese of LA or the New York Times instill a great deal of confidence in me.
That being said, in regards to the article, if it were true, I don’t think many people would have a problem if Mr. Boyer had repented of his previous deeds–and as Fr. WB said, this is what public penance was intended for–and was involved in a (long) discernment process. Certainly there could be a need for a ministry to people involved in the porn industry by people who have come out of it and experienced the transforming power of Christ. But the fact that this story is believable demonstrates just what a crisis the Episcopal Church is in–and it is indeed a crisis of trust, i.e. we can no longer trust our church or the decisions it will make.
Whatever the outcome of this story, kudos to Steve Perisho for seeking Sharon Waxman’s response to her critics.
Today the New York Times issued a “correction”: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/pageoneplus/corrections.html?_r=1&oref=slogin