The Element Community Church sent postcards with this image to 35,000 Tucson homes.

Photo courtesy Pastor Jeremiah McDuffie

Related articles:

Pastor hopes sex-talk campaign lures crowd to Tucson church

Other articles by Stephanie Innes:

Town hall pushes health-care changes Soup kitchen doubles as clinic New docs in AZ more likely DOs than MDs Anal cancer isn't being caught early Heart device would free patients Sonoita-based doctor's license restricted for patient errors Sonoita doctor's patient privilege revokedUMC's 'incredible' new ER AIDS medication program cuts list of covered drugs State cuts meds available for HIV/AIDS patients

Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps

A Web site with a name like Puresextucson.com is not something you'd expect a Southern Baptist pastor to brag about.

But not only is 27-year-old Jeremiah McDuffie flaunting the site — he created it.

McDuffie sent not-so-subtle mailers this week to 35,000 Tucson homes: postcards showing a photo of four feet peeking out from under bedcovers in a suggestive pose.

He also took out full-page advertisements in two local newspapers.

McDuffie, pastor of The Element Community Church, explains that he wants Tucsonans to know that God wants them to have good sex.

Ultimately, he hopes to open up dialogue on a subject he says is too often regarded as taboo in houses of worship. Yet it's also at the root of so many issues he hears about from worshippers and others who seek him out for pastoral counseling, he said.

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

Not everyone has been happy to receive the mailers. The Catalina Baptist Association, the organization whose name is on the back of the flier, has received a few dozen irate calls, and The Element has had a few, too.

"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," McDuffie said.

On Sept. 7, his church will begin meeting at Rincon High School, in Midtown. The Element is a over a year old; it previously had been meeting at another Baptist church.

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 for a pastor whose church is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, a denomination with a conservative reputation.

McDuffie said that while he'll be using the Bible in his sermons, he doesn't plan on telling worshippers what they can and cannot do.

"This is not a 'don't have sex' talk," said McDuffie, who is limiting his sermons to those age 13 and older.

The Element is one of more than two dozen "plant" churches that the denomination has started in Tucson in recent years. The plant churches are typically contemporary in worship style — with rock bands instead of hymns and auditoriums rather than sanctuaries — and they don't have the word "Baptist" in their names.

The Element is not the only such church talking about sex. 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 recognition 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 said 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."

That's what the Rev. Jake Rasmussen wants parishioners at his church, Epic, to consider. He'll be giving four weeks of sermons about sex beginning with Porn Sunday. The series is called "Epic Sex."

"Who doesn't want to have epic sex?" asked Rasmussen, 28. "I think our desire for sex filters through in how we react to people. Hopefully, we can paint a picture of a positive, healthy sex life to pass on to another generation."

He finds it unfortunate that so many children get a message that sex is a bad thing.

"Then they get married and they are supposed to be having sex, but there's a side of them that still thinks what they are doing is bad," he said.

When Rasmussen isn't leading Epic services, he works at Starbucks. It's the conversations he's had with customers there that helped him realize, he said, how important it is to have a dialogue about meaningful relationships.

"There was one woman I met who said she'd been in Tucson for 2 1/2 years and knew just five people, none very well," Rasmussen said. "I want to talk about how relationships have become askew, and how to have productive and healthy relationships rather than counterfeit ones. In terms of sex, it's just about using it in the proper context."

McDuffie said he knows about counterfeit relationships firsthand: He was once addicted to porn.

"I've been there, so the walls are down. I'm definitely not here to judge or condemn," he said. "I just try to meet people with the arms of love. I do know what it's like to be ashamed."