The seeker sensitivity movement has ushered competing troughs for American Christianity as churches compete to increasingly debase themselves in their desperate attempts to appeal to a lost world. While a megachurch with thousands of attendees and a massive online footprint would be the prime candidate for these profane stunts, there are plenty of smaller churches that compete in this space too. These churches care more about establishing a brand than preaching the gospel, let alone being real churches. They are houses of tickled ears designed to entertain, not to convict.
Fearless Church
Fearless Church was founded by Jeremy and Christy Johnson and has three locations in Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego. Jeremy Johnson is the lead pastor and author of the book Declare War on Fear while Christy leads the band Fearless BND. Per the book’s Amazon description:
Declare War on Fear shows you how you can defeat the demonic agenda of fear and live the radically fulfilling life you were created for.
Discover:
· How fear is proof of God’s call on your life because the powers of hell tremble at the thought of your fulfilled destiny.
· How to overcome the “taunt of fear”, silencing the intimidation that is keeping you from abundant life.
· How to become the devil’s greatest threat by confronting fear with heavenly power.
· How to kick fear out once and for all by basking in the love of God.
A scared world needs a fearless you! You have been chosen by God for great things—and fear knows it. It’s time to silence fear’s demonic whispers and awaken to your destiny!
Much of this sounds like a self-help gospel that over-spiritualizes fear and seeks personal empowerment and fulfillment. Much like the aforementioned consumerist churches, Fearless Church is a brand first, a church second. They have a snappy logo of “greater than” and “less than” signs interwoven and a slogan that reads, “Love More Fear Less.” They even have an apparel shop on their website so people can get some slick threads. Their church worship has an in-house band and their Facebook indicates that they indulge in dance routines during their service.
Do they have a statement of faith or a robust theology? No. There is nothing on their beliefs page pertaining to the bible. They list a creed of trite statements like “Jesus is our pursuit” and “Love is our Action” but they do not articulate who Jesus is and the idea of sin is too trivial a matter to mention as that would distract from the bumper-sticker theology.
Nala the Porn Star
Nala Ray is a notorious porn star on Only Fans and in the last year, was featured in several viral clips from the Whatever Podcast where she promoted various degenerate behaviors, most notoriously her position of cheating in relationships and sodomizing men. She grew up in a religious household and her father was a former pastor who retired. In this clip (posted on December 4, 2023), she claims to be financially supporting her family with her proceeds. She also said that her mother no longer speaks to her but her father “supports” her. As an aside, Andrew Wilson accurately contends that parents should disown their children if they do Only Fans so that they clean up their lives, which is the unambiguous biblical approach as her compromised father demonstrates.
On December 26, 2023, Nala would be baptized at Fearless Church. She is wearing a “Love More Fear Less” shirt which bears the logo of the church while the background matches the church’s aesthetic. It is from the branding of the shirt that the church was identified. Much of this only began going viral recently when Nala posted a video of her so-called testimony on social media.
So I’ve had quite a few people reach out to me comments, you know, just truly curious about what and why I changed so. So listen I was a pastors kid for almost all my life, I grew up in church. I was always in church. You know, I was also homeschooled, so my life truly felt like a cage. And I’m not saying Christianity is a cage, I’m saying religion was the cage. I was a Baptist, you know, as a Baptist pastor’s child, for the longest time, right, me and my family did not have a good relationship. And I’m the middle of five children. So I’m talking about my other brothers and sisters and my parents. It just truly felt like such a cage. I was a very rebellious child, like sneaking out when I was like 16 years old. I was like, I was just going the wrong way, right?
She begins this testimony by touting that while she was a rebellious child, her upbringing felt like a cage which she ascribes to be Christianity as a Religion. Essentially, she had an upbringing most Christians want for their children: two parents, siblings, and homeschooled. Like the prodigal son, she acknowledges her rebellion, but in stark contrast, she does not acknowledge that her parents’ ways were correct and that she was the one who strayed. Instead, she calls her Christian upbringing a “cage.” This would be akin to the Prodigal Son returning home and complaining about how mean his father was during his youth. Her castigation of her upbringing is consistent throughout the video as she would later claim to have lacked good role models.
The whole “Relationship>Religion” mantra creates an individualistic approach to faith, that while grace is truly received at the individual level, this approach is devoid of an emphasis on doctrine, tradition, and orthopraxis that is denotive of what is religion. It reduces faith to a slogan—a most capitalistic instinct.
[About] four years ago I started my only fans because I think truly it was out of pure rebellion and like, honestly, I’m such a like, independent person that I never felt the need for a man to provide for me… So I started only fans about four years ago, and I climbed to top .01%. I’m not saying that to brag. I’m saying that the devil can truly give you things in this life. He has a budget, though. He can only go so far. So couple million. OK, great. The devil can do that sometimes. I, but I truly have gifts and talents. I just did not use them in the right way?
This is truly laughable. She literally was dependent on male simps to pay for her smut yet contends that she “does not need no man.” It further displays the lack of respect these women have for their simps, not that they deserve any. The fact that she also claims that she has “gifts and talents” is equally hilarious, as sex work is not real work, nor is spreading her legs on the internet the equivalent of talent. Women choose Only Fans for the easy money that they lack the talent to otherwise obtain through ordinary means.
Nevertheless, she laments the success as being of the devil, which while true, her counterclaim is that God has a greater budget.
So I made what I made. I did what I did, but I want to share you share with you guys the truth of it all because I am now giving it all up for Christ. I am now truly a believer. I would never take it back. God radically saved me from this darkness. And let me tell you again, the devil has a budget, but God does not. God literally made you. He made this world. He made the heavens. Like, what makes you think that God can’t bless you with any? But the devil will give you these things that trip you up and money in front of your face. And these worldly friends, your family that doesn’t isn’t there for you, you know? But don’t be discouraged because God has a better plan for your life. And let me tell you, I have felt and started living that plan and since then.
This is very much a Prosperity Gospel testimony that many supposed Christian commenters lapped up like dogs. Just because God is more powerful than Satan does not mean He will “outbid” the devil. Technically, Jesus paid the price that no man or being could have paid, but in a material sense, the Lord does not always use His “budget,” just as He does not always cap the devil’s budget. Whereas Satan will promise the things of this world, which is all he can promise, faith will lead one to forsake material blessings for a path of suffering.
Yet one thing that cannot be ignored is that she is still living off the fruits of the “devil’s budget.”
Repentance or Grift?
Given the vast chasm of content she has produced, did she scrub her social media presence? No. There is an abundance of thirst trap photos on her Instagram and she still uses sexually suggestive images that elicit overt innuendos pertaining to oral sex. She deleted her main account, but her backup pornographic handles are still active. Has she removed her Only Fans? No. According to Keaton McNeely of Reclaim Your Crown, it is still active. In the testimony video, she is wearing a necklace that has handcuffs subtly around her neck, which is a kink for those unaware. Even her meretricious appearance has been unchanged since receiving baptism. In other words, what changed? Where is the fruit?
Months after the baptism, Nala operated an Only Fans account and even raised the price of a monthly subscription to $10, inhibiting her promise to delete the account because there are active subscriptions. One would think someone with a religious upbringing upon repentance would not need to be told that monetizing pornography is sinful. While the account is currently paywalled, showing a singular post, this does not account for direct messages. McNeely explains that in order to delete the account, she needs to make it free so that all of the subscriptions expire, but Nala has refused to do this.
McNeely describes this tactic as a “lead funnel” that Nala used to reach new audiences. In the aforementioned clip on the Whatever Podcast, she alluded to the money drying up, so by claiming Christianity she is able to market herself and capture new simps. This is not unlike what many in Big Eva do when they “switch teams” after exhausting their value in one particular camp. For example, Beth Moore leaving the SBC or Tulsi Gabbard grifting off of Conservative Inc. She has continued doing promiscuous dancing videos on TikTok and is seemingly trying to pivot away from porn while maintaining her “brand.” This is the equivalent of a gangster going legitimate.
Moreover, she announced an upcoming clothing line based on banal positivism.
A manosphere type might cynically suggest that this is a ploy to transition away from porn and possibly land a man to settle down with. This is the so-called “born again virgins” trend where women claim Christianity to absolve their past whoredom. There is much debate over whether she would make a “good wife” or not with her past. Still, the reality is that men are not morally obligated to overlook a woman’s past when selecting a wife. Furthermore, there is no Scriptural basis to suggest that forgiveness liberates one from the earthly consequences of sin.
So far, there is nothing that lends credibility to the notion that this is anything other than a ruse. Men need not be lured into the siren’s trap merely because she got baptized at a seeker sensitive, marketing brand that calls itself a church. Nor should Christians buy into every high-profile profession of faith just to stay relevant.