"Some people," Sharon Waxman writes, "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."

Waxman writes:

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."

Mr. Boyer's embryonic ministry, devoted to bringing spiritual comfort to those marginalized by the sex industry, is driven by his deep faith and by a medical crisis that threatened the life of his child. But it is a work in progress, fraught with the contradictions and internal struggles of a man leaving behind a livelihood that was central to his identity.

Waxman notes that it will take years for Boyer to become a priest. Just recently confirmed in the church, he's training to become a deacon now. To become a priest, Waxman writes, requires about two years of seminary study; furthermore, his candidacy has to be approved by the diocesan bishop.

J. Jon Bruno, bishop for the Los Angeles Diocese, said Boyer's path to the priesthood would not be precluded by who he was, Waxman reports. "I wouldn't put up an immediate impediment because of someone's past life," he said. "There's no exclusion in the gospel for anybody."

http://blog.al.com/forthelove/2007/0...acher_man.html

I wonder how much he's being paid?

Regards,

Lee