Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
"All creation," Everts says, "comes from one source: God the Mother; all life is spiritual and animals can ascend into heaven."
Men misinterpret the Bible, she claims. Fornication, adultery and masturbation aren't sins against God; instead they're constructs of male-based theology designed to oppress and control women.
"The Christian religion has some excellent doctrines," says Everts, "but also contains the poisons of male domination -- most notably the denigration, enslavement and exploitation of women. Women are punished for charging money for sex -- because in doing so, they claim their own bodies as a resource to exploit for their own benefit. If fornication and adultery are sins, then punishment should be applied to both sexes."
Such concepts haven't made Everts popular in her community.
"People curse me as a man-hating lesbian for speaking out against men. They think I must have had an abusive father. They call me 'the porno lady,' say I have sex with children and animals." But her father was kind, she says, and she has no interest in actually having sex -- with men, women, children or animals -- though she will allow guys to perform orally on her for the camera.
For now, Everts is trying to find followers for the storefront church she opened in Binghamton, N.Y. Living in such an isolated place makes her lonely, she admits, and she'd like to meet some spiritually minded companions. But it's hard to find disciples.
"At my storefront church they came for the free food; but it was mostly horny guys hoping to see me dance," she says. "They didn't really care about what I was saying."
Indeed, this has always been Everts' curse: Her body and striptease act got people to notice, but then they wouldn't take her seriously. Yet she perseveres because she feels she's been chosen -- and she doesn't know what else to do. She likes her land and she loves her animals. It's a little patch of her own, a place to continue her crusade: preaching redemption through sexual openness, hoping for a society that condemns neither the sinner nor the sin, working, as she puts it, for "global salvation."
As I drove back to the city from Everts' home, I wondered what I'd learned. I didn't feel enlightened, sexually or spiritually. Instead, I felt like I'd spent an afternoon with a lonely woman who believes with all her heart that she is doing God's work. A prophet who makes porn to earn a living might not be what the Apostles envisioned, but Jesus was an outcast, one might reason, so Everts is perhaps following his example.
Whatever the case, I admire her strength of character. It occurs to me that there's something sad about her isolation; that she seems hungry for love -- if not physical then spiritual. At home, I watch one of her videos and see her pee in a cup for the camera. I hope the Virgin's touch is enough to sustain her.
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