“…shamelessly attempts to validate the porn-industry. I unreservedly condemn any attempt to validate an industry that exploits women and girls…” Brisbane Archbishop Greaves apologies for the cathedral’s involvement in Nine/Stan’s Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money

OPINION

Imagine a child going to church to serve at the altar…and learning she’d been filmed for a show about selling sex, currently streaming on Nine-owned Stan.

That’s what happened in Brisbane’s 125-year-old St John’s Cathedral when the church became a prop in the OnlyFans ‘reality’ TV series glamourising the commercialisation of women’s bodies.

The little girl altar server, in white robes and holding a candle, was pictured in the promotional thumbnail for episode 6 of the series ‘Turned On: Dirty Sexy Money’ currently streaming on Stan.

Having endured all nine episodes – and despite my years-long line of work writing and speaking about the sex trade and the exploitation of women and girls – even I was taken aback to see the co-option of this beautiful building for a supposed ‘re-affirmation’ ceremony for one of the world’s best-known practitioners of extreme sex stunts, UK porn performer Lily Phillips, 25.

Phillips has also been criticised for preying on ‘barely legal’ Aussie male school leavers at Gold Coast Schoolies to film pornographic sex scenes with for her OnlyFans platform.

Phillips has a history of mixing claims to ‘faith’ with extreme sex stunts. Mere days after her ‘baptism’ last year, she shared a video of a ‘prayer’ meeting with a group of men she was about to film a gang bang with. The men asked God to help Phillips endure what they were about to do to her.

A sensitive and therapeutic approach away from Nine’s cameras would have gently explored the reasons for this degree of self-harm and self-debasement. A caring church would have asked about the tears she cried at the end of the 100-men-in-a-day stunt – not opened the door to Stan’ cameras to film the click-bait pseudo ceremony and enabling the church to become a recruitment tool for the solicitation of more male subscribers – most of them married men spending money that should be supporting wives and kids.

During the ceremony – officiated by Dean The Very Reverend Dr Peter Catt – Phillips pledges to turn to Christ and away from sin. She – and it appears some of the other sexfluencers from the series – is then served the Eucharistic bread and wine.

The next frame shows Phillips on the hustle to recruit 22 Gold Coast tradies to film ‘Creampie’ gang bang content with her.

This all takes place in an episode promoted with the angelic child’s face. Where was child safeguarding?

Was written permission sought from a parent or guardian of the child for her to be filmed by Nine/Stan as she was serving at the altar?

Or weren’t her caregivers informed that their minor child would appear alongside OnlyFans porn content creators in the opening image for episode 6 which also featured discussion of graphic sex acts?

On Thursday, after significant pressure, Brisbane Archbishop Jeremy Greaves apologised for the Cathedral’s misuse in the Stan porn series

“On behalf of the dean…and the Cathedral Chapter, I would like to apologise for the distress and anger generated by the dean’s decision to allow St John’s Cathedral to be used as a backdrop for a reality television program currently streaming on Stan.

“Like many of you, I am shocked by the content, nature, and intent of the program, which does not align with the faith and values of this Diocese.”

The Archbishop wrote that the program’s producers had misled the dean about the true nature of the series.

“ …the series is nothing more than click-bait, reality TV content that shamelessly attempts to validate the porn-industry. I unreservedly condemn any attempt to validate an industry that exploits women and girls and contributes to degrading and unhealthy messaging around sex and sexuality,” the Archbishop wrote.

The program’s producers have denied they misled the church.

Greaves acknowledged gaps in the cathedral’s policies and procedures which enabled the filming – “a situation which should never have happened”.

He called on the producers to remove all content involving people in the church (apart from the dean which, given his status, contributes to legitimising the show, seems odd) and so they should. Some edits have since been made including blurring the faces of the altar servers and removing the thumbnail containing minors.

Nine/Stan needs to explain its actions, which do not appear consistent with Nine’s corporate governance charter which includes upholding “highest ethical standards” and “maintaining community trust”.

These values are not consistent with what appears to be the use of a sacred space dedicated to the Glory of God – and the altar at which a small girl served -for the glory of the global porn industry which exploits the bodies of women and girls on an industrial scale.

Melinda Tankard Reist is a writer and speaker. She is co-author of a global report on the recruitment of young women onto Only Fans, to be published in September.