Heather Veitch doesn’t give up easily. The blond-haired, blue-eyed former stripper-turned evangelist is hard at work, preaching the gospel to the adult industry.
As head of JC’s Girls, Veitch has been making the rounds with radio and television stations, newspapers and magazines, touting her missionary work with strippers, porn stars and other members of the adult industry.
The 31-year-old Veitch told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that she has grown accustomed to criticisms from industry members as well as fellow Christian leaders who say she isn’t doing enough to help strippers and others leave the world of pornography.
The Rev. Ray Turner of San Bernardino’s Temple Missionary Baptist Church, said he was offended that Veitch does not urge strippers to leave the sex trade.
But the Rev. Matt Brown, pastor of the Sandals Church in Riverside where JC’s Girls originates, said Veitch’s work is vital since evangelical churches have largely ignored the adult industry.
The one-time stripper made headlines in January when she and others clad in Holy Hottie t-shirts, attended the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo, and handed out more than 200 Bibles and t-shirts.
Veitch herself joined the industry after a traumatic childhood in which she was raped at 14 and became pregnant at 17. She went on to become a stripper and star in four softcore films.
But in 1999, she found religion and abandoned the industry for good before ultimately establishing JC’s Girls in 2003 after learning an alcoholic stripper friend had died.
Today, the California Southern Baptist Convention, which supports JC’s Girls, remains fully behind Veitch’s efforts. Its spokesman said JC’s Girls Web site, www.jcsgirls.com, may be too edgy for most Southern Baptists, with Veitch in a provocative pose holding a bible and the words “If you are a Christian… See us in action.”
