Born-again porn star

CHATSWORTH -- In need of grace, Keri Humble walked into The Church at Rocky Peak one Sunday and received the recognition that shamed her.

"I love your show on the Playboy Channel," a door greeter told her, referring to "Spice Hotel."

There are many lifestyles born-again Christians can leave behind and begin with a clean slate. Porn star is not one of them.

"Once you do it, you are putting a permanent black fingerprint on your life that is going to follow you the rest of your life," Humble said. "You can't take it back: It's on film."

Every church pastor in America deals with porn's effect on their flock. But in the San Fernando Valley -- the heart of the adult-film industry -- ministers and churchgoers also must mend the fractured souls of people like Humble.

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"After I did it once, it was almost just like, `Now I've screwed up. I might as well just do a couple more,"' she recalled. "And then after that, it just kept going and progressing and progressing. That's how it works with sin. You feel like you have already made the mistake. You can't take it back so you just might as well keep on sinning."

That is one of my two final stories for the LA Daily News, both of which ran Thursday in the paper's "Valley Exposed" porn series. Click to read the rest of Keri Humble's story or the main story I wrote about the friendship between porn legend Ron Jeremy and an evangelical minister.