Ex-porn star shares Bible verses that 'set her free,' led to repentance
Christian speaker and author Brittni De La Mora says one of the factors that drove her to work for several years in the porn industry was the fact that she was verbally abused as a child, making her starved for affirmation.
Within the first month of her working as a porn actress at 18, De La Mora (known by the name “Jenna Presley”) wanted to quit. However, pride kept her from leaving the industry for seven years.
In a recent episode of her “Let’s Talk Purity” podcast, co-hosted by her husband, Pastor Richard De La Mora, the 34-year-old recalled that working in the porn business felt like being part of a “family.” She was constantly told how “beautiful” she was and that she was “destined to be a star.”
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Although she discovered over the years that the adult film industry has its “dark side,” it wasn’t until years after she started reading the Bible and letting go of her pride that she left the industry in 2012.
“I went into that industry because I just felt super rejected in life, and I was looking for a place of belonging,” Brittni De La Mora said.
“I had a series of hardships, but pride kept me stuck in that industry because pride will always keep you stuck in a season of life that you don’t want to be in because you’re too afraid to admit that you need help. And that was me.”
De La Mora opened up about how the Bible impacted her decision to leave the industry and pulled back the curtain on the “sad” realities behind the scenes that most people don’t know about when they watch pornography. Also, in the podcast, Richard De La Mora discussed his journey to sexual purity.
‘A Little step of faith’
De La Mora recalled an encounter with Jesus she had at a point when she had taken a break from the porn industry. Following the encounter, she went back to doing porn for another three years.
“I got back into the business for another three years, but I had a Bible,” she said. “And the Holy Spirit began to speak to me through the pages of that Bible.”
One day while she was reading the Bible on an airplane headed to Las Vegas to film a scene, the verses from Revelation 2:20-23 spoke to her. The passage promises suffering to Jezebel and those who commit adultery or sexual immorality with her unless they repent of her ways.
De La Mora claims those verses “set me free” and brought about a sudden “godly sorrow.”
“John 8:32 says: ‘Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free,’” she recited. “[A]nd that’s exactly what happened in that moment, and I started crying and I had this heart of repentance.”
De La Mora said she immediately repented and felt the grace of God come over her. She recalled feeling that God was telling her: “If you quit the porn industry today, I will bless your life like no man ever could.”
“I was just like: ‘God, I am so sorry. I had no idea that this is what I was doing, and I’m so sorry for harming Your heart and for harming my life and the life of others,’” she added. “I took a step of faith. That’s all I had, was that little step of faith. I took it. And God is a man of His Word, and He’s blessed my life like no man ever could.”
Behind the scenes
Although she remembers the porn industry being like a family, the experience was not as glamourous as it might seem. When people watch porn, they often don’t reflect on what happens behind the scenes, only the “entertainment” and “pleasurable” aspects, she said.
“[B]ut they don’t see the women on the set that are crying because they hate what they’re doing. And the directors are all awkwardly looking around, asking: ‘Do we cut the scene right now? What do we do?’” she described. “The [directors] end up doing edits and cutting those kinds of things out. I’ve seen women with bruises all over their body.”
She’s seen women get pressured into participating in certain pornographic scenes and has heard of women getting blacklisted for not doing certain scenes.
“They’re doing these things because, oftentimes, agents are very pressuring, and they pressure their girls to do things because they get paid when you get paid,” she added.
“And so, it’s like they feel this overwhelming sense of pressure to do things that they don’t want to do. And these are the things you will never hear about."
De La Mora argues that porn performers are "not enjoying what they are doing."
“They are doing it because they know they are going to get a paycheck at the end, and they have bills to pay, drugs to buy. We have expenses. These are the dark side of the things that you don’t see in the business. And it’s really sad.”
“I have done so many drugs with women in the industry. I have seen women pound back entire bottles of wine just to get through the scene. Not only will porn suck the soul of the person, it sucks the soul of the performers.”
She spoke of performers dying of suicide and drug overdoses.
‘Giving the heart to God’
Richard De La Mora shared his journey to purity and how he came to give his life to Christ in 2006.
An evangelist who leads the San Diego-based Love Always Ministries, De La Mora said he’ll never forget when he read a book about sexual purity at his uncle’s house about 15 years ago that radically changed his life. He said the book encouraged those who desire to be sexually pure to have a vision and recognize why they want to pursue purity.
“[The author] said in the book: ‘Get out a piece of paper, and write down seven reasons why you want to stay sexually pure. And I started jotting down reasons. Like one of the reasons was: ‘I want to be a man of God, I want to be authentic, I want to make sure it’s not going to affect my leadership, and I was just writing all these things down,” Richard De La Mora recounted.
“I’ll never forget that day because I told God, ‘If I am going to do this with You, if I’m going to walk and have this relationship with You, I want to do it right. I want to give you all of my heart.”
Richard De La Mora said he stayed sexually pure for eight years before marrying his wife in 2016.
“He was practicing real sexual purity: no masturbating, no porn behind the scenes,” Brittni De La Mora added.
“This guy is a role model to all men because when I learned his story, I was a new Christian. So I was like: ‘Wait, what? I honestly thought all men masturbated. … Is that even possible?’ He has really led the way of purity to prove that with God, all things are possible, and with God, you can have self-control over these things,” she continued.
Brittni De La Mora stated that Christians will often think that they have sexual desires that they “need” to fulfill, which leads them to believe that as long as they are not having sex before marriage, they can still masturbate or watch porn.
“If you’re looking at a woman lustfully, you already are kind of committing adultery even if you’re not married. … It’s inappropriate,” Brittni De La Mora said.
Steps to ‘manage’ purity
Richard De La Mora said many Christians tend to have misconceptions about what purity truly entails.
“Purity is not just about virginity. Purity is not just for singles and for young people, but the reality is: God wants us to be pure in heart because what is it if we’re pure externally, but we are filthy internally,” the evangelist said.
“And the way that we worship God is in Spirit and in truth. So if we’re worshipping God and our spirit is nasty and filthy, I don’t care if you’re a virgin, whatever you’re doing, it doesn’t matter if your heart isn’t pure.”
When a person gives their life to God, they become pure, De La Mora said, but they need to “manage” their purity by seeking power from the Holy Spirit.
“The way we manage our purity is not in our works, not in our strength, but it’s the Holy Spirit allowing us, to give us permission to really look at these areas in our hearts,” he added.
The De La Moras agreed that another way to “manage” purity is to have accountability partners and set boundaries in relationships — whether in dating or marriage. Accountability and boundaries, the couple said, have helped them to remain sexually pure while dating.
“It was important to us and we stayed accountable. … I had three women in my life at that time who would speak life over me, remind me of what God called me to do,” Brittni De La Mora said. “And every day when I woke up, I would speak declarations over my life and one of them was: ‘I will not fall into sexual sin.’… I kept speaking it until eventually, my spirit started to really receive those words.”
