Porn elephants
As far as colored elephants go, I've always been partial to the pink elephants on parade from Dumbo. (I link to the YouTube instead of embedding, since I assume that Disney's cease and desist letters have already gone out. There are a lot of versions there, though, so do a search on YouTube for "elephants on parade" if you need your recollection refreshed.) It's actually the only part of Dumbo that I really like. Dumbo, for better or worse, makes me cry and makes me sad and makes me feel all sorts of things that I'm perfectly capable of feeling without a cute baby elephant with big ears pulling on my heartstrings. The scene where his mama's in jail and he's crying and she's crying and he rocks on her trunk. Gets.Me.Bawling.Every.Single.Time. I am not allowed to see that movie if small children are around. It gets bad. Bad. I tell you. Bad.
Ahem.
I digress. Anyhow, as I was saying, the pink elephants (on parade) in Dumbo are my favorite colored elephants.
This guy, though, may be number two. He's the mascot of a new movement, and he was in Galveston over the weekend. I'll let the Houstonist tell you more about it:Porn-Hating Blue Elephant Visits Galveston
Yep, you read that correctly. Sunday morning an inflatable blue elephant visited Bridge Community church in Galveston. The elephant is part of National Porn Sunday campaign which is trying to beat out battle the multibillion dollar Porn industry. All bad puns aside, the 25ft inflatable blue elephant is a symbol of the “elephant in the pew,” said J.R. Mahon, pastor of XXXChurch.com, which spearheads the National Porn Sunday movement. Although their website name seems a bit askew, the group claims that 47 percent of Christian families say porn is a problem in their home, and 40 million people look at Internet porn daily. By addressing the problem in the church, the group is taking a proactive approach by reinforcing family values.
In addition to raising awareness among churches, XXXChurch.com pastors also attend pornography shows (interesting?) and pass out Bibles to participants, in an effort to help actors get out of the business. “We need to turn people’s heads and use big language and outrageous methodology to get public attention,” said Mahon. “We make no excuses or apologies for that.”
After leaving Galveston on Sunday, the Blue Elephant continues the fight against the porn on a world tour.
He sort of looks like the type of elephant that a car dealership would use to advertise Chevy's Truck Month. Stamping out porn, selling half-ton pickups, same thing.
Of course, I went to his website.
In addition to ministry to help out porn addicts and users (lord help me, I"m a sinner) among the masses, the church hands out Bibles to porn shows. Their next visit on this vein will be to Toronto, Canada. XXXchurch began its ministry in January of 2002 at the AVN porn show in Las Vegas. X3church porn show outreaches are designed to touch the lives of those who surround the porn industry and those who call porn a career. We are bold in our approach; believing the best place for XXXchurch is inside the walls of the many porn conventions throughout the year. XXXchurch rents booth space inside the shows and mans these booths with a team of men and women with the common goal of sharing hope with everyone in attendance. Every show has it's own unique outreach. From our Bible giveaways to our professional women stylists who minister directly to the ladies of the porn industry, we try to meet the physical and spiritual needs at every show.
I don't know about ya'll, but I'm the type of heathen (and yes, I know I'm going straight to hell) that would ask porn stars to sign my bible if one were given to me at a porn show. And hell, porn stars need religion too, I guess.
On the other hand, I kinda like what they have to say here: Does Jesus really love porn stars? Absolutely. Now that may go against what you thought about Jesus, but it is true. You see Jesus loves porn stars as much as he loves pastors, soccer moms, liars, thieves, and prostitutes. In his eyes, we are all the same. We're all just people in need of a Savior, who can come into our world and fix our messed up lives. The Bible says that we have all screwed up. Whether you're making porn, working at Starbucks, or running a church, we are all sinners. And despite this fact, Jesus really, really loves us. He is not angry with us. He is not too busy for us. He isn't waiting for us to get our crap together. He just says come. Come now. Check out what I have for you. A life that is greater then you could ever imagine.
And they sell a Jesus Loves Porn Stars tee shirt. So as long as they've got no beef with the sex toy industry, how bad could they be?