Pastor hopes sex-talk campaign lures crowd to Tucson church

In addition to taking out full-page advertisements in two local newspapers, the Rev. Jeremiah McDuffie also sent not-so-subtle mailers this week to 35,000 Tucson homes featuring four feet in a suggestive pose.

McDuffie explained that among other things, he wants Tucsonans to know that God wants them to have good sex.

In a larger context he hopes to open up dialogue on a subject that he says is too often regarded as taboo in houses of worship.

“Sex wasn’t invented in a dark alley behind a porn shop. It’s part of God’s design,” McDuffie’s Web site says.

“The negative calls we’ve had were basically from people saying this was a subject we shouldn’t be dealing with in church, that it’s inappropriate,” said McDuffie, pastor of The Element Community Church, which meets in Midtown. The church is a little more than a year old.

McDuffie’s in-your-face message is meant to attract people to a series of sermons about sex that he’ll be giving on consecutive Sundays beginning Sept. 7. The first one is titled, “The Greatest Sex You’ll Ever Have.”

It’s an interesting topic from a pastor whose church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination with an arguably prudish reputation. The Element is one of more than two dozen “plant” churches that the denomination has started up in Tucson in recent years.

It’s not the only one talking about sex, however. Also on Sept. 7, two other local Baptist “plant churches” will hold events titled “Porn Sunday.”

One of those churches — CityEdge — is even having a wet t-shirt contest in honor of “Porn Sunday.”

“It’s actually just a couple of our guys being silly, wearing wet t-shirts,” said the Rev. Billy Creech, the 34-year-old pastor of CityEdge, which is just four months old.

But Creech says the message behind “Porn Sunday” is a serious one. Like McDuffie, he wants to broach subjects that are normally not discussed in church — at least not with frankness. Porn Sunday opens a series of sermons at CityEdge titled, “The Unspeakable.” Other subjects include money, work and sex.

“Let’s stop hiding things and stop playing ‘church,’” Creech said. “People are tired of that. Instead of pointing fingers at what our culture is doing we want to be real and talk about who we are in here.”