Nadia Bolz-Weber is a Lutheran pastor, author and the founder of The House for All Sinners and Saints in Denver, Colorado, where she has ministered for a decade. In her forthcoming second book, Shameless: A Sexual Reformation, she defends Christians’ right to watch porn and experience pleasure without being ashamed.

In a recent interview with Out In Jersey, Bolz-Weber said that, in her new book, “I refused to pick the low-hanging ‘Moral Outrage Fruit’ of Liberals and Conservatives about porn. Now, there are issues of justice and exploitation within the porn industry, no question, but it doesn’t mean consumption of pornography should be shamed. There is ethically sourced porn.”

Predictably, the heads of conservative Christians began exploding as soon as the interview was published. Joshua Sharp of the Baptist Standard seems flummoxed when he wrote, “I find the concept of ‘ethically sourced porn’ about as absurd as ‘ethically sourced cyanide.’ Pornography is corrosive to relationships, individual sexual health and spiritual vitality.”

And Rod Dreher at the American Conservative blustered, “If there is a more cartoonish example of progressive Christianity than a foul-mouthed lady pastor praising consumption of ‘ethically-sourced porn,’ I can’t think of it.”

Both conservative writers add to their astonishment the idea that pornography affects the brain like an addictive drug — a concept that the scientific community is far from agreed upon.

But Bolz-Weber has clearly put a lot of thought and research into her stance, and she’s got some interesting points.

“People have viewed erotic imagery since we could scratch it on the inside of caves,” she told Out In Jersey. “Our bodies are wired to have empathic responses to others, and it includes erotic ones. To say you should have shame for that is problematic.” She concluded, “We have a perverted relationship to pleasure.”

Bolz-Weber’s new book will be out in January from Convergent Books. You can watch the book trailer here.

Image of Nadia Bolz-Weber via Out In Jersey.