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Exodus Cry is a non-profit advocacy organization seeking the abolition of the legal commercial sex industry, including pornography, strip clubs and sex work, and illegal sex trafficking.[1][2][3]

History

The organization began in 2007 as a weekly prayer group founded by Benjamin Nolot, a filmmaker and member of the charismatic Christian International House of Prayer. Nolot is currently the CEO of the organization. Exodus Cry says it is no longer directly affiliated with the church, but that it is faith-based and does offer prayer instruction on its website.[3][4] As of 2018, Exodus Cry was listed as a "related tax-exempt organization" on tax filings submitted by the International House of Prayer and has partnered with the church for campaigns since then.[3]

Traffickinghub campaign

In February 2020, the organization's Director of Abolition, Laila Mickelwait, launched a petition to shut down the adult website Pornhub. Mickelwait's #Traffickinghub campaign was co-sponsored the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, an anti-pornography organization formerly known as Morality in Media. By September, the campaign had gained over two million signatures, and on December 10, following an opinion column by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof alleging the site was being used to share sex abuse videos,[5] Visa and Mastercard stopped allowing Pornhub to accept credit card transactions.[6] Shortly after, the Canadian Parliament began hearings to investigate the allegations against PornHub.[7]

In the wake of the campaign against Pornhub, sex workers said that the loss of credit card processing will most impact independent performers, who use the platform to sell directly to fans.[8] The Sex Workers Outreach Project called religious groups pressure on Mastercard and Visa a "war against sex workers" in which "many sex workers will be forced even further into the margins."[9]  

Criticism

In 2017, Exodus Cry released Liberated: The New Sexual Revolution, a documentary film filmed during Spring Break condemning hook-up culture and casual sex. The film was shown on Netflix and at various college campuses. The film and the organisation were criticized with claims that it should have disclosed the group's alleged religious background, and director Nolot's historic opposition to abortion and LGBTQ rights.[10][11][12]

In November 2020, actress Melissa McCarthy and HBO pulled their planned charitable support of the organization, after learning that founder and CEO Nolot had once compared abortion to the Holocaust, and condemned gay marriage.[13] The next month, the International Slavery Museum cancelled a planned collaboration with the organization because of Nolot's views on gay marriage.[14] In both cases, Exodus Cry denied it was anti-LGBTQ and stated that Nolot's personal views were not relevant to the overall mission of the organization.[15]

On December 1, 2020, The Daily Beast reported that Exodus Cry spokesperson Laila Mickelwait had filed declarations supporting two men working with Exodus Cry accused of sexual harassment and posting death threats against Dr. Nicole Prause, a scientist whose high-profile study disputed the existence of porn addiction. "It's ironic to me that they claim to support women, when they’re actively advocating for men who are sexually harassing and intimidating women," Dr. Prause said.[16]

On April 13, 2021, Vice published an article alleging that Exodus Cry had inspired criminal death threats against Pornhub executives and sex workers. The article described posts made in Neo-Nazi groups on social media platform Gab. A spokesperson for the organization condemned the posts and alleged without evidence that they were part of a targeted attack by Pornhub. A spokesperson for Pornhub responded to this by saying "Insinuating that Pornhub puts out death threats against its own employees is exactly the kind of vile conspiracy theory we have come to expect from these extremist organizations, and all it does is empower their followers to keep making threats."[17]

References

  1. ^ "Our Solution". ExodusCry.com. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  2. ^ "Become an Abolitionist". ExodusCry.com. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c Hitt, Tarpley (November 2, 2020). "Inside Exodus Cry: The Shady Evangelical Group With Trump Ties Waging War on Pornhub". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  4. ^ Cole, Samantha (September 1, 2020). "How A Petition to Shut Down Pornhub Gained Over Two Million Signatures". VICE. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  5. ^ Kristof, Nicholas (December 4, 2020). "The Children of Pornhub". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  6. ^ Friedman, Gillian (December 10, 2020). "Visa and Mastercard Stop Allowing Their Cards to Be Used On Pornhub". The New York Times. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  7. ^ Cole, Samantha (February 8, 2021). "Watch Pornhub Execs Being Grilled for Abuse on Their Platform". Vice News. Retrieved December 16, 2020.
  8. ^ Dickson, EJ (December 11, 2020). "Pornhub Upended the Porn Industry. Now New Changes Could Destroy Sex Workers Livelihoods". Rolling Stone. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  9. ^ "SWOP Behind Bars Statement Regarding Pornhub being Banned from Accepting Visa and Mastercard". SWOPBehindBars.com. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  10. ^ Provost, Claire. "Revealed: the US 'Christian fundamentalists' behind new Netflix film on millennial sex lives". OpenDemocracy.com. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  11. ^ Grant, Melissa Gira (December 10, 2020). "Nick Kristof and the Holy War on Pornhub". The New Republic. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  12. ^ Hitt, Tarpley (November 15, 2020). "Why Are HBO and Melissa McCarthy Raising Money for an Anti-LGBTQ Group?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  13. ^ Rosen, Christopher (November 13, 2020). "Melissa McCarthy Apologizes for Supporting Charity with Anti-LGBTQ Past". Vanity Fair. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  14. ^ Pye, Laura (December 17, 2020). "A statement from Director of National Museums Liverpool, Laura Pye, about the ArtXFreedom display". International Slavery Museum. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  15. ^ Foley, Ryan (November 17, 2020). "Exodus Cry responds after Melissa McCarthy withdraws support over 'homophobic,' 'anti-choice' views". The Christian Post. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  16. ^ Hitt, Tarpley (December 17, 2020). "Inside the Shady Sex-Work Abolitionist Group That Gutted Pornhub". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 17, 2020.
  17. ^ Cole, Samantha. "The Crusade Against Pornhub Is Going to Get Someone Killed". Vice. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
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