A pastor who once made millions as "the world's hottest porn star" has shared how she gave her life to Christ after the voice of God dissuaded her from committing suicide.
Brittni De La Mora, formerly known as Jenna Presley, was once a rising star in the adult film industry. She came in second on porn icon Jenna Jameson's Playboy TV reality show Jenna's American Sex Star, was dubbed Howard Stern's "smartest porn star", and in 2010, Maxim magazine named her one of the world's top 12 female porn stars.
De La Mora was first introduced to the sex industry at the age of 16 following a troubled childhood filled with abuse and neglect. After two years of stripping, she began performing in adult films when a producer asked her to try "romantic film".
By the time she was 21, De La Mora had appeared in over 275 films, making over $3 million and becoming one of the most successful porn stars in the world. However, inside, she was empty, battling anorexia, depression and addiction to alcohol and drugs, including cocaine, pills, heroin and meth.
"'I was really depressed...the drugs are the only thing that helped me get through the day because they just made me feel like I wasn't in this little pit of depression," she told DailyMail.com. "It gave me a little bit of energy and a false sense of happiness."
She slid further into depression after witnessing her boyfriend, a gang member, being stabbed to death by a rival gang. In 2010, the young woman snorted large amounts of crystal meth while in her bedroom with the lights off in an attempt to end her own life.
As she began slitting her wrists, she heard a distinct voice say, "Turn the lights on and put the scissors down". De La Mora says there is no doubt it was God who spoke to her that day: "Had God not spoken to me that evening, without a shadow of doubt, I would have taken my life that day," she said.
She called her Christian grandparents in Santa Barbara that night. Her grandfather - who lived a two-hour drive away - took her to church and she says it was at this time she decided to commit her life fully to Jesus Christ. However, her troubles weren't over.
The young woman entered into an abusive relationship with a pimp and re-entered the porn industry. Three years later, while on a flight to shoot a porn scene, she read a Bible verse, Revelation 2:20: "Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols."
Speaking about that moment she said: "That was my lightbulb moment, I started to cry and I apologized to God. I didn't understand that this is what I've been doing all these years."
De La Mora finally exited the industry after meeting Rachel Collins, a member of XXXChurch, an anti-porn organization that pickets porn-movie sets and conventions.
"My first thought was: 'Are these people legitimate Christians, because how can Jesus love a porn star?'" she said, recalling the Jesus Loves Porn Stars literature and Bibles they handed out. "They were so loving and friendly and welcoming. They actually just handed out the Book of John, but they put their own cool cover on it to make it relatable."
Completely turning from her former life, the young woman started going to San Diego's Cornerstone Church three years ago and recently married Richard De La Mora, a pastor with whom she now ministers to young adults.
However, she admitted that her past continues to haunt her - and will continue to do so: "I've made decisions that have repercussions that will last a lifetime, and when I have children old enough to go out into the world, I have to explain that their mom was a porn star," she said.
"People will always talk. I've seen the 'Jenna's gone from nude to prude' stories. I just know what I am called to God. Nothing stops me from doing what I know God wants me to do now."
Today, she seeks approval from God alone and travels the country, sharing her story of redemption.
"My big goal now is just to let people know there is a God who loves them no matter what they've done," she said.
According to statistics, 40 million US adults regularly visit internet pornography websites, and 47% of Christians have admitted pornography is a "major problem" in the home.
In July, the Republican Party called internet pornography a "public health crisis", and in September, former Playboy model Pamela Anderson penned an op-ed with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in the Wall Street Journal about the dangers of pornography, calling it a "public hazard."
The duo wrote: "We have often warned about pornography's corrosive effects on a man's soul and on his ability to function as husband and, by extension, as father."
They added: "We must educate ourselves and our children to understand that porn is for losers - a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet for people too lazy to rep the ample rewards of healthy sexuality."
