Nala Ray says she made $9 million performing on OnlyFans before she left sex work and became a Christian.

Many people reading this have probably never heard of her, but I recall hearing about Ray when she was baptized last year (see below).

There was some fuss about the baptism, particularly on social media, as if Ray was the first sex worker who gave up the seedy industry and embraced the Gospel. This is hardly true, of course. I recall reading years ago how Chrissy Moran converted to Christianity after years in the porn industry, and there are similar accounts.

I’ve seen more and more chatter over Ray in recent days on social media, which makes sense after I learned she was interviewed by Michael Knowles.

It’s an interview worth watching. It turns out Ray was a pastor’s daughter who rebelled. She talks openly and, I think, honestly about what lured her into a life of online sex on OnlyFans.

“I made like $85,000 the first month,” she tells Knowles.

That’s a of money, but it’s just one part of Ray’s story. She came from a large family and her parents divorced when she was 10. Her parents would find God, however, and soon they remarried and joined a Baptist church. Her father began preaching at a few churches, several of which apparently split.

Ray’s story is wild, and it’s clear she grew up in a pretty chaotic environment.

To me, she comes across as a pretty sympathetic figure in the interview. Yet many have responded negatively to it.

In fact, some people are posting embarrassing images and old interviews of her and questioning the authenticity of her religious conversion.

Others seem angry that she’s now apparently becoming a Christian “influencer.”

“Completely sociopathic,” tweeted Ian Miles Cheong, while sharing an interview of Ray discussing her favorite sexual turn-ons. (WARNING: the discussion is sexually graphic, so don’t click the link if that bothers you. “Would you believe that she's now being heavily promoted and touted as the next major traditional Christian conservative influencer, as if there's a shortage of good conservative women.”

The negativity around Ray’s conversation to Christianity is troubling. (Though it’s important to point out that many Christians have been publicly supportive.)

One needn’t approve of her previous lifestyle to celebrate her newfound faith. But nor should it be used against her. One of the primary tenets of the Christian faith is the idea of redemption. We’re all fallen. We’re all sinful. But we are redeemed through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

The Bible is clear that this gift of forgiveness applies to anyone who repents in the name of their Redeemer. There is no asterisk that says redemption doesn’t apply to those who’ve engaged in sins of the flesh. (And be thankful for that, because most of us have at one time or another.)

Indeed, Jesus himself twice forgives women who committed sexual since, once in John 8:11 when he refuses to condemn an adulterous woman a mob was seeking to stone and again when he meets a Samarian woman at Jacob’s well and tells her he is the Messiah that has been promised (Matthew 11:28–30; John 7:37–39).

If that’s not enough, Jesus gave an explicit warning in the Book of Matthew to those who enjoy paying more attention to the sins of others than their own.

“How can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”

This passage is pretty clear, yet somehow many of my fellow Christians have a nasty habit of ignoring these words and focusing on other peoples’ sins rather than their own. Let’s face it, it’s simply easier to focus on the pornographers, adulterers and the gays than the our own pride and envy. Our own gluttony and sloth. Our own lust.

C.S. Lewis noticed this tendency to make sins of the flesh the Holy Grail of all sins, and warned against it.

…[T]hough I have had to speak at some length about sex, I want to make it as clear as I possibly can that the center of Christian morality is not here. If anyone thinks that Christians regard unchastity as the supreme vice, he is quite wrong. The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins.

…

[T]he pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and back-biting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me, competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the Animal self and the self. The Diabolical self is the worse of the two. This is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes regularly to church may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute. But of course, it is better to be neither.

That last sentence matters, of course.

None of this is to condone sin. Sin is real and harmful. It separates us from God, which is why Jesus instructed the adulterous woman to go and “sin no more.” However, we should be rejoicing at Nala Ray’s spiritual conversion. Luke 15:7 is clear on this.

“I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance."

Amen.

I don’t know what’s in Nala Ray’s heart and won’t pretend to. People are of course free to question the wisdom of this young woman doing a media tour so soon in her Christian journey. She likely has plenty of things to sort out, and media can distract us from that.

But to doubt her conversion is to doubt the redemptive power of Christ, which is precisely what the world needs right now—perhaps more than ever.

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