Wondering if you should pick up a copy of this recently-released book on the history of porn? This “Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” review will help you decide!
“Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” is a curated collection of articles previously published by adult industry journalist, Mark Kernes. The articles range from surface-level news stories, undercover journalism, editorial pieces, and more. Some of the earlier stories were even reactions to physical copies of newspaper articles that AVN was sent in the snail mail (that’s how old some of these articles are!)
Each article is its own “chapter”, providing natural stopping points if you’re someone who checks in with a book regularly while on-the-go.
The official marketing blurb for this book is:
“Preachers vs. Porn is a book about war-specifically the war between Christian religious philosophy and its adherents and the adult entertainment industry that has been targeted by Christian religious leaders and their supportive politicians. In these pages, author Mark Kemes reports the findings of his investigations into how Christianity has evolved into a political force that supports conservative politics that specifically targets sex and sexual depictions to advance its political aims.”
I think Kernes’ own marketing blurb for the book makes it sound more approachable:
“Want to know how this “homosexuality is bad” thing got started? It’s in there. Want to know why “Fuck you” is an insult even though fucking is fun? It’s in there. Want to know why some people (I’m looking at you, Dawn Hawkins and Gail Dines) find it necessary to call the days around Halloween “Pornography Awareness Week”—and not in a good way? It’s in there. Want to know why some people (I’m looking at you, Phil Burress) get bent out of shape that you can get to watch sexy movies on hotel pay-per-view? It’s in there.”
“Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” is published by Palmetto Publishing and exclusively features articles written by Mark Kernes.
The paperback copy of the book is 473 pages long. The book is also available in hardcover as well as Kindle/e-book.
Who is the Author, Mark Kernes?
While he’s now (recently!) retired, Mark Kernes was the Senior Editor and Chief Legal Analyst for the Adult Video News Media Network – one of the largest adult industry news sources.
Kernes “stumbled” into the magazine in its infancy as a DVD reviewer, and his participation only grew from there as he spent about 35 years involved as a writer with AVN.
His background as a stenographer (before coming to AVN) offers further understanding of the legal system that surrounds most of these industry issues.
How Fast Can You Finish It?
“Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” is not a fast read. It’s 473 pages of non-fiction, analytical journalism, and news stories. This will take you awhile to get through. Unlike most of my book reviews, where I can give you a read time, I can’t with this one. It took me literal months to get through this one. Not because it’s bad – but just because it’s such in-depth, long material.
As “Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” is a collection of articles, however, it’s a whole lot easier to put down the book when you’re out-and-about. While the in-depth articles within the book are still 20+ minute reads, some of the articles (especially towards the end) are just a few pages long.
Realistically, though, the biggest hindrance to reading it in short spurts is simply the book’s weight. This book weighs almost 2 pounds. (1.84 pounds, per Amazon) Seriously. It’s a heavy freakin’ book. It’s, by-far, one of the heaviest paperback books I’ve picked up in years.
Some of that weight comes from the quality of the print. With a lot of thick paperback fiction, the publisher uses thin, brownish paper that weighs less.
That isn’t the case with Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx. They used pure white, high-quality paper that has a glossy feel on your fingers.
While it makes the book feel like a higher quality, it does add a ridiculous amount of heft – especially if the book is one that you want to carry around
With that in mind, that’s why it’s taken me such a long time to finish the book. I, simply, don’t want to carry this one around. It’s one of the heaviest individual items I’d add to any bag, and I try to avoid carrying around extra weight when possible.
So, if you’re someone (like me!) who likes to read within extra spurts you have while out-and-about, consider getting the e-Book or Kindle version to have it available at a moment’s notice. While I’m a stickler for paperback versions (and I’m beyond-happy that I own this one in paperback), this particular book isn’t a great fit for tossing into a purse to read whenever you’re stuck in line after driving someone somewhere.
“Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx”: A Collection of Articles
As noted above, this book is a published version of the author, Mark Kernes’, work within the field of sexuality. In most cases, articles are copied and pasted verbatim from their original publication sources from adult news outlets.
The first article is from January 1994. The last one is from March 19, 2021.
(As a fellow writer, I can not imagine how long it took to compile all of this. I can’t imagine going back 20 years and organizing all of my writing into a cohesive body.)
The final section of the book provides the webpages that are referenced within the articles if you want to view them for yourself. (That one hurts me a bit. Knowing how fast pages 404 on Kinky World, I’d expect that section to be unusuable within a few years.)
For the most part, the articles are published, verbatim, from their original publications. In most cases, Mark prefaces the articles (in italics, to make it easy to see) with a short commentary or explanation about the article and what was going on when it was published.
As you could probably guess from the title, the book has a very, very heavy pro-pornography slant to it. As I’m on that side of things, I don’t mind the slant.
But at times, I definitely was bothered by Kernes’ heavy-handed sarcasm when referencing things that Christian-focused groups are doing. It comes across as combative – feeling at home with some of the political discussions nowadays even when it was published back in the 90s.
“Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” Review: Final Thoughts
If you’re someone who wants to see some of the anti-porn tactics that have led to the world where we are today, “Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” is probably one of the best compendiums you have. Nothing is summarized; you get to see, in real-time, the news stories that have slowly crept along to where religion and pornography sits today.
A bit like the Wayback Machine – but in printed form – “Preachers Vs. Porn: Exposing Christianity’s War on Sexxx” includes surface-level news articles as well as some of Mark Kernes undercover work, going behind-the-scenes to see what is being planned at religious organizations behind closed doors.
However, it is a very heavy (literally and figuratively) read, absorbing nearly-500 pages of in-depth journalism and news articles. The thing that makes it great (information as-is, without summation) also makes it a slow reader.
The author is clearly writing for an audience involved in the adult industry; while non-industry adults can definitely pick this up to read, I think some of the aggressive, combative language may make this book more frustrating than eye-opening for people who aren’t already embedded within the industry.
