Missionary Positions

Ho ho. See what they did there? It’s about a pair of funky California pastors, Craig Gross (no, really) and Mike Foster, taking their anti-porn message to adult entertainment conventions, so it’s called 'Missionary Positions'. Their calling began when Mike, showering, was told by God to do something about porn, so he and Craig designed ‘the No 1 Christian porn site’ website, xxxchurch.com, and got on the road to do porn patrol.

For liberal viewers who are both anti-porn and anti-religion, their position poses something of a problem, but it’s one the film sidesteps neatly by focusing on the more secular aspects of the pastors’ work with people who’ve been adversely affected by pornography, and by the ministers themselves. Craig and Mike are the antithesis of your common-or-garden Godsquad members: thoughtful, sympathetic, witty and likeable. This may be one reason for the film’s lack of objectivity or clarity.

Which isn’t to say it’s not fascinating. The hilarious hiccups the pair have engineered – by using a little person in an ad (short person, high shelves, you’re there, yeah?), creating a porn ad using puppets, or taking out billboard ads to offend right-wing Christian groups – make for light moments in a film balanced by the pastors’ self-doubt, despondency, and feelings of failure. The result’s a fascinating portrait of two maverick ministers on a mission from God. And we all know how much fun the original ones had.