By Erik Kropp

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Tensions were high on Wednesday at Memorial Hall as porn star Ron Jeremy  and Christian minister Craig Gross  engaged each other in an intense debate.

Some of the main points during the debate consisted of minors encountering porn at an early age, how porn can ruin relationships and how porn can misconstrue the human mind into thinking what sex is really like.

“It is scary that this has become kids’ education about sex,” Gross said. “The fact is you take Stormy Daniels, a big porn star, look at her logo then look at Disney. They’re pretty similar.”

Gross also focused on how the porn companies use younger looking actresses to attract minors.

“I am not a fan of kids watching porn,” said Jeremy in response. “The average age of kids watching porn for the first time is 11 — that is not good. We don’t like that.”

Jeremy mentioned how parents need to learn how to block websites and TV channels because the Internet is a big place where it is easy to find anything.  He said that married couples could actually improve their relationship by using porn, but criticized any spouse who watched porn without the other spouse knowing about it.

A heated moment occurred during the Q&A section of the debate.

An audience member asked a question directed toward Gross about how people who do not choose their sexual identity at birth fit into the conversation. Gross responded by saying that the topic was on porn and not on including all sexual preferences.

The audience member later said, “You need to take into consideration on how our society at large and the porn industry focuses on heterosexual men.”

Gross interrupted her by yelling, “95 percent of the porn issue is heterosexual, so I am sorry that we did not spend the majority of our time focusing on the other five percent.” This quickly ended the conversation and she left immediately to sit back down.

Another audience member became antagonistic toward Gross and he told the member that they could not come up to the debate with a chip on their shoulder.

“The Q&A was really intense at the very end,” said special education senior Allyson Shirley.

Despite heated moments, students like Integrated Strategic Communications senior Nick Tatoian found the event to be insightful.

“I thought it was a great debate, I was pleasantly surprised on how it turned out,” Tatoian said.