Porn Star Turned Pastor on How Porn Infects Church
By Movieguide® Contributor
Joshua Broome, a former porn star turned pastor, has released an eight-part mini-series documenting his experience in the adult industry while explaining the dangers of consuming porn.
In “Unmentionable: The Story of the Prodigal Pornstar,” Broome meets with Lee Shelton, a former youth pastor and the CEO of Compel Studios, to discuss his story and the negative effects the adult industry has on society.
“There’s so many things that we just aren’t talking about that we desperately need to be,” Shelton told ChurchLeaders. “That is why we titled the podcast ‘Unmentionable.’”
“We wanted to bring this dark subject out of the shadows into the light by telling real stories and have a conversation about it,” he added.
Broome hopes that the podcast can help those within the church understand how porn holds people captive and why it is important to address the issue head-on rather than dance around it.
“Well, when you don’t mention the thing that’s holding you captive, you create a prison for yourself, and you’re actually holding yourself captive by believing that thing is unmentionable,” Broome said. “And in many churches, you know, throughout the U.S. and throughout the world, pornography is something that seems to be unmentionable.”
“We talk around it, but we don’t talk about it,” he continued. “And if we talk around sin, we’ll never eradicate sin. So if we don’t talk about porn, we’ll never give people language to combat it, and what we’re trying to do is give people weapons to fight the real battle that they’re in.”
Broome left the adult industry in 2012. He struggled with depression and shame before meeting his future wife, Hope, in 2014.
“Through her kindness and not rejecting me, she cultivated a curiosity in me,” Broome said. “The next weekend we went to church together.”
“I surrendered a lifetime of shame. I lived with an ‘I’m not good enough’ mindset my entire life, and I was able to let that go,” he explained.
With pornography exposure and addiction affecting the majority of young Americans – both men and women – Broome believes the failure to address the issue is something leading to the overall downfall of the church.
“[Consuming porn means] partaking in something that is contributing to sex trafficking, it is contributing to pedophilia, it is contributing to the destruction of the marriage, in the byproduct of all those things, it is destroying the world,” he said. “So, if I’m going to say I love Jesus, and we’re called to love people, I cannot serve Jesus, I cannot love people, it I’m consuming porn.”
“If we’re talking about fulfilling the Great Commission, you cannot operate in boldness and authority that comes from the Holy Spirit if you are living in habitual sin,” Broome continued. “So why are people not sharing the Gospel? Because they’re living in habitual sin.”
“I believe the lack of discipleship in churches today is because of the integrity gap,” he added. “There’s millions of people habitually watching porn every month.”
Broome also believes the problem will only get worse the longer the church waits to fight it. The porn industry has a strong grip on the male audience and has grown to a female audience in the past decade as the industry looks to expand.
“Big businesses look for new markets because they look to grow,” Shelton said. “When you’ve got a stranglehold on the young men’s market, you’re going to look for other areas that you can grow into. What does that look like? Well, women and children.”
He also speaks out about how the adult industry harms its performers.
“I have been out of the industry for over 10 years and the amount of people who have died of overdose or suicide is staggering,” he posted on Instagram. “Darkness seems overwhelming and impossible to escape…until there is light. Where there is light, darkness cannot be. It’s a scientific fact. Jesus is the light that we all desperately need which destroys the darkness that consumes us.”
The 8-part mini-series is now available to stream on Apple podcasts and Spotify.
Movieguide® previously reported on Broome’s story:
Pastor Joshua Broome is opening up about how he escaped the pornography industry and found God.
“When I was 22, I thought it was a good idea to move to Hollywood,” he said, explaining that he was hoping to become an actor. “It was hard. The grind wasn’t something that I was really prepared for.”
Broome got a job at a restaurant, where a group of girls approached him and asked if he considered entering the porn industry. He agreed to meet their agent but “knew that this was not a place that I should be.”
He agreed to do one movie and immediately regretted his decision. In addition to his guilt, his girlfriend broke up with him after he revealed what he had done.
“I’m humiliated. I’m ashamed. I don’t have friends, really, anymore,” Broome listed. “I can’t go back to that restaurant, I don’t have a job anymore.”
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