If you’ve even been to an adult industry convention that 1) featured performers and 2) permitted anyone to buy booth space — not just people or entities in the industry proper — then you already know who Craig Gross is.
For the uninitiated, Gross is the founder of XXXchurch.com, an organization that describes itself as a “Christian porn site designed to bring awareness, openness and accountability to those affected by pornography.” People can be “affected” by porn by being (allegedly) addicted to it, as well as by being a performer. To wit, Gross used to show up at industry trade shows — generally of the fan variety, not B2B ones — with thousands of swag bibles emblazoned with “Jesus Loves Porn Stars” on the cover.
Now, after re-branding himself as some kinda hashtag “Craig Brain” life coach and a super cool skateboarding dad, bruh — The bio on his site CraigGross.com says nothing about XXXchurch, etc. Neither does his Twitter @craiggross — Gross is shifting his focus to another controversial topic Christians allegedly aren’t comfortable talking about: weed.
Gross, currently age 43, is attempting to “start a conversation” about “the Devil’s Lettuce” by combining cannabis and Christianity. His first public step in this endeavor was to launch ChristianCannabis.com on 4/20 (April 20th) at Coachella. Yes, Coachella. He even had the URL written in the sky over the festival grounds, which isn’t attention seeking at all.
Via a statement to Fox News, Gross said, “I live in California, where recreational – not just medical – marijuana is now fully legal… And yet – whether here, or in other recreational states like Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Nevada – I’ve not heard of or spoken to a single church leader who has broached the topic with his or her congregation.”
According to a statement made in a video announcing the initiative, ChristianCannabis is a “larger conversation than just recreational or medicinal, legal or illegal, THC or CBD. But a conversation about the emotional, physical, and — dare I say — spiritual effects that I’ve had with this controversial plant.”
The backstory? Apparently Gross started getting headaches, bad ones. (Maybe they were guilt-induced? Something related to peddling fake addictions..?) He subsequently spent years in and out of hospitals, traveling from state to state. He maxed-out insurance claims and racked up massive medical bills, all to no avail. Then, he watched a documentary that introduced him to the medical potential of cannabis.
Gross was desperate — Could the Devil’s Lettuce help him?! — but he was also having some sort of existential crisis regarding whether or not his religion would condemn him for partaking. What to do?
Obvs, the answer is get in on that weed money by tapping into the anxieties of a previously untapped market.
It’s a great story, one that Fox News jumps through right up until last year, when Gross “discovered a brand of cannabis-infused mints with a small dose of THC, which he said was the perfect amount and helped him meet the Lord in ways more powerful than he had ever known.”
“My head stopped spinning and I heard His voice,” Gross said via Fox News. “I got clarity. I got direction. I got out of my head, and I let God into my heart in a lasting, visceral way.”
Gross.
https://twitter.com/craiggross/status/1121944766919299072
Image of woman at Coachella — quite possibly reading about Jesus weed in the sky — by Quaz Amir via Pexels.
