Donny Pauling

Donny Pauling (born c. 1984) is a former pornographic film producer who later worked as an anti-porn activist, Christian speaker, and Internet advertiser. His views were shaped by his time in the porn industry, in which he worked for nine years, and led him to view its effect as detrimental to persons involved.
In 2015, Pauling admitted to engaging in sex with three teenage girls from 2012 to 2014, "motivated by an unnatural or abnormal interest in children," according to his plea. He pleaded no contest and agreed to a 6-year prison sentence.

Pauling was born the son of a Pentecostal pastor. He has stated that his strong Christian upbringing is what began to turn him away from Christianity. When he was a senior in high school he moved into his aunt's home in another city to take an advanced math class. It was here he met his future wife, Wendy, who was a devout Christian. He would eventually reconvert to Christianity. They dated for many years before finally marrying. Pauling has stated that it was during this time, when he lived with his young wife, that they purchased a computer and he began his fascination with pornography. Eventually he decided he somehow wanted a career making pornography and founded Pauling Technology Consulting.

Pauling Technology Consulting was founded in 1997 to create pornographic content to be licensed by other larger companies. He funded this side business all through his own money he had saved up. For the first three years of his career, it was a side business of his that earned him extra income. When he eventually told his wife about his activities, the marriage fell apart and he moved into his office. When he began doing his porn career full-time, the first month he brought in over $50,000.

He began at first taking photos of young women, ultimately filming scenes of both "hardcore" and "softcore" pornography. He created content with pornographic models and actresses that he then published under contract for larger porn sites. One of his largest and most lucrative contracts was with Playboy, with whom he worked for many years.

For several years he was averaging an income of around half a million dollars. Pauling stated that he was deeply immersed in the lifestyle, wealth, and affluence that came with his career. He claims it further pushed him away from his family and Christianity.

Young women, he recalled, were attracted to the lavish lifestyle that was associated with the industry. He stated that his method of recruitment involved showing the women the lavish lifestyle that could be, then telling them that they could not have it. This sparked their desire and they would insist on doing pornography. "They're usually your daughters who are going to school and they meet a guy like me," stated Pauling. "So they can start at $500 a day or they can go work at a coffee shop and bring home a couple hundred every few weeks, so in this age, it's really not hard to recruit."

However he says that he still felt compassion for the young women he worked with. He recalled "I’d receive phone calls from girls who would be in tears. And they’d be begging me to remove the content that we’d produced of them, because it was destroying their life.” Pauling continued saying “You’d see these bright-eyed girls who would come in to do work they thought was cool. Our society now tells them it’s OK. And then over the course of time you couldn’t help but watch the lights go out in their eyes. And that’s really what happened. The bright-eyed eyes would become dull, because that’s the reality of porn.”

He again fell out of Christianity at this time, developing a hatred for it. Part of this hatred, he has stated, stemmed from Christian groups protesting against his work or outside porn conventions telling him he was "going to hell".

Pauling routinely advertised his content on Christian web pages and forums, since he saw them as 'hypocrites' and 'sexually repressed'. He has claimed that it was on these databases and forums that he received some of his greatest number of clients.

Despite his continuing and successful career he began to despise the man he had become. He has stated that late in his career, many of the women he had recruited into the industry had contacted him in the hopes of having their Internet content taken down, although he lacked the authority to do so. He has also stated that several of these women had careers and relationships ruined due to their involvement in pornography.

XXX Church

In 2006, while entering the Las Vegas Porn Convention, and after being accosted by Christian protesters, he took notice of a sign for XXXChurch, a church group preaching acceptance of any and all persons, including porn-industry workers. He had previously been introduced to XXCChurch in 2002, but it had not taken serious steps into joining until then. XXXChurch, headed by Craig Gross became very popular at porn conventions, brothels, strip clubs, etc. Pauling became interested in this group, as it preached tolerance for all. “The Christians I grew up around would never talk to a porn producer, much less broadcast it to their listeners...But they were doing things in such a different way. They were actually loving people. It was such a non-confrontational approach. I couldn’t help but say, if I was going to be a Christian, this is the kind of Christian I’d want to be.”

At first he was antagonistic towards the group, calling them 'hypocrites' and posting online comments such as "God does not exist". However, over time he became more open and accepting of the group. He eventually would become more active in it, eventually joining and deciding to reconvert once more.

He had begun to detest the lifestyle and affects pornography had on his life.

Leaving the industry

Due to his reconversion into Christianity, he began second-guessing his career in pornography. He was offered a new, very lucrative contract by Playboy. At first he intended to accept the offer, believing that his Christian faith and a porn career were compatible. However, after what he claims to be an intervention by God, he decided that he could no longer stay in the industry.

“Two weeks after I stopped producing porn was when I actually surrendered my life to God,” Pauling recalls. “So that’s exactly what I did. I had that prayer right in my car. And I surrendered my life to Him, I asked Him to take control, I asked Him to forgive me of everything I’d done. It didn’t mean it was easy though. It’s not like I surrendered my life to God and everything turned rosy. I was at peace, the most peace I’d ever had in my life. But I was also in a hugely painful emotional state. But it was so peaceful at the same time. It felt kind of like detox.”

Soon after he partially reconciled with his wife, although they remain divorced. Quitting the industry, he suddenly had much less income. However the family received large donations from various Christian charities and Pauling has stated that all his hatred of Christianity melted then.

He has lamented at the number of women he had previously recruited or worked with who have since contacted him depicting their regret and shame at having done porn.

Pauling soon after began taking seminary classes to become a Pastor. He viewed his previous life in porn production and use as an addiction and began speaking about it. With the help of Craig Gross and XXXChurch, he started an outreach that spoke about the dangers of pornography from multiple points of view.

He has stated that pornography is undoubtedly an addictive activity that intrudes on people's lives the same as any drug or addiction would.

Secondly, he advocates against porn use due to the unseen side of its effect on those making it. He personally witnessed many young women deteriorate and have their lives ruined. “The reason I speak is not [simply] because I have become a Christian. I do so because someone needs to. Porn is often portrayed as great fun, happy go lucky, and victimless. The fantasy shown on screen seems fantastic. The realities of porn, however, are not even close.”

In his talks and writing he cites numerous cases of young women's lives being ruined to their involvement in porn. He presents this because he believes there needs to be a “wake-up call” for the side of pornography no one has before considered.

Many of the women whom he had recruited and worked with had their lives damaged, if not completely destroyed. He recalled that several lost jobs or were denied employment due to employers finding the content online. Several had relationships ruined because a partner would stumble upon something. Some were even disowned by their parents once they found out their daughter had been involved in pornography. The stories that Pauling heard from these girls deeply affected him and he felt responsible for ruining these women's lives. "What's appealing about a girl that's curled up in a fetal position in a corner sucking her thumb because her mind is so blown by what she's just done to herself that she doesn't know how to handle it? Because that's what porn is."

As a Christian, he believes that pornography is a sin against God and nature. However, he stated “One of the things that I like to tell people who are struggling with an addiction to pornography, or just about any other thing in their life, is that it’s really true that there’s nothing you could do that would change the fact that God loves you and wants to redeem you...It’s kind of like a parent who is watching their toddler learn to walk. And the toddler might fall down several times a day, but there’s never a good parent that ever says, ‘this walking thing isn’t for you. You should probably stay down there on the floor.’ But yet, some of us want to think that God’s that way and that our sin separates us from Him to such an extreme that He would never redeem us. But that’s not true. There’s nothing that we could do that would change the fact that when we turn to Him, and we ask Him to help us stand back up, He’s right there, willing to pick us up.”

He has endorsed the belief that pornography use can lead to other more serious vices, including sex trafficking since, as he states, it increases the appetite for depravity. He believes it is an addictive drug of the mind, and offers several media and tools to combat its usage and addiction.

He believes strongly in freedom of speech and the right to opinion and he therefore does not wish to force his beliefs upon anyone, but rather seeks to educate the public on how the porn industry is damaging to both its workers and its users.

Guilty Pleasure

Pauling spoke at the Guilty Pleasure conference in Melbourne, Australia. Guilty Pleasure is a non-profit Christian organization with the goal of showing the negative effects of pornography use. At this conference Pauling explained his mission to educate the world on the negative effects of porn usage. In this conference he also illustrated how widespread porn usage was, even among Christian groups.

He has done several interviews for Guilty Pleasure in which he expresses his beliefs that porn is incredibly damaging to the actors who parttake, along with families, and individuals themselves. He states that porn usage is overall degrading for all parties involved and seeks to educate users on the damage they do to themselves.

Debate

Pauling and Gross together debated at Yale University against two famous porn actors including Ron Jeremy. In the debate, Pauling and Gross brought to light that today far more porn is viewed than historically and that it has become easier to fall into the hands of young children.

Pauling stated that porn is incredibly degrading to the women, and sometimes men, involved. The other side did not deny that exploitation and abuse happens, but claimed that women accepted the risk of doing porn. The debate was inconclusive, but each side kept strongly to their beliefs.

Pauling was arrested December 1, 2014 on three felony sex charges, including unlawful intercourse (statutory rape), after a 16-year-old female told law enforcement that Pauling had ongoing sexual contact with her for the past three years. The teen informed detectives that Pauling had told her that if she were to ever tell officers about the relationship, she should tell him first so he could kill himself. She also said Pauling told her he wasn’t like other child molesters because he loved her.

On October 15, 2015, Pauling admitted to engaging in oral and vaginal sex with that victim from when she was age 14 in 2012, continuing into 2014. He also admitted to lewd or lascivious behavior with a 16-year-old female, “motivated by an unnatural or abnormal interest in children,” according to the plea. Pauling also admitted massaging a third teen victim’s genitals in early 2014. He pleaded no contest and agreed to a 6-year prison sentence.