Former international porn star-turned-Good News Church Pastor Joshua Broome recounted his journey of redemption in a recent episode of his podcast, "Counter Culture."
Faithwire reported that Broome shared his journey from the adult film industry into a life in Christ through the aid of his wife, Hope.
The couple shared their love story in the podcast, "We Grew Together': Joshua Broome's Wife, Hope, Answers Some of the Biggest Questions About Their Journey," last Friday. The podcast highlighted Hope's acceptance of Joshua's past.
Hope disclosed that it took a while for her to realize that her calm reaction to a shocking revelation of Joshua being a former porn star was aided by the Holy Spirit. She said a student helped her realize this.
At that moment of revelation from Joshua, Hope said the reality of God's love and forgiveness enabled her to accept him despite being a porn star before.
"My response was, 'If God can forgive you, why can't I?" Hope recounted.
"I never knew you as that person. We just went through the same things I felt like everybody does," she added.
Joshua disclosed that this jumpstarted the radical change in his life towards Christ.
"(Hope) met me where I was. She extended grace and God started radically moving in my life. It's because I gave my life to Jesus so early on in our relationship, and we started growing together," Joshua shared.
Hope shared that a challenge she faced was the hundreds of videos on Joshua that are still available online. Joshua has no control over the videos, and trolls and online bullies sometimes would send them to Hope to harass her but she eventually learned how to handle the situation. She now simply "deletes, blocks, and ignores" them.
"It will randomly happen, and I try my best to not dwell on it. When it would first happen, it would sit there and linger in my mind," Hope said.
"I have so many other things that my brain space needs to be holding. That is not one of them," she stressed.
Joshua expressed hopes that one day the videos would really be gone. He prays for this to happen and disclosed that it is by relying in God and through His grace that he is able to handle it.
"I pray to God that everything is eradicated off the Internet and that just doesn't exist anymore. That is my prayer, but if that doesn't happen, I have no choice but to deal with it," he said.
According to Church Leaders, Joshua was one of the five top porn stars in the world. He worked in the porn industry for five years and made at least 1,000 movies that earned him $1 million. He was awarded Top Adult Male Performer of the Year.
Joshua entered the porn industry while working at a restaurant in Los Angeles where she met a group of girls who invited him to join. He knew then that it "was a bad decision" out of his fear that he will be humiliated for doing it.
Prior to becoming a part of the industry, Joshua had suffered addiction with pornography at a young age of 13. He wanted to be a model and dropped out of college to do so. Being in the porn industry was a fulfillment to his dream to become a professional model and actor.
However, being in the porn industry made him reclusive. It was on the fourth year that he experienced a "miracle" from hearing his name again for the first time, since he used a different name on screen. The miracle happened in the bank and the teller called him, "Joshua." This eventually led him to self-introspection and "felt guilty" for what he was doing in his life. This prompted him to leave the porn industry.
It took years before he recovered from the porn industry and struggled with the guilt of being a part of it while taking several jobs that were less financially rewarding. He struggled most in his relationships because of his past until he met Hope at a gym. They got married afterwards and had two children before he became a pastor.
