OnlyFans in the Cathedral

Imagine being an archbishop, doing whatever it is archbishops do during the week, only to find out that your cathedral just showed up on a reality show about OnlyFans stars. That's the week the Most Rev. Jeremy Greaves had in Brisbane, and he did not take it in stride.

The show is "Turned On: Dirty, Sexy Money," following women who've built incredibly lucrative careers through OnlyFans. One episode was filmed inside historic St John's Anglican Cathedral, where 24-year-old British creator Lily Phillips got baptized at the altar. It’s not exactly something most churches want to be associated with, and this one is no different. 

Greaves was not happy, and he made it abundantly clear, calling the reality tv series "clickbait" attempting to "validate the porn industry," and said cathedral staff were told the production would explore faith and "life's complexities" which is not exactly what was done. The production company disagrees, insisting the dean knew exactly what he was approving. Somebody's version of events is wrong, but it really doesn’t matter who did what. The damage to the reputation of the cathedral is done. Because a child attended that service and was visible in the footage, Greaves ordered it removed and launched a review of who gets access to church property going forward. One local commentator put it more bluntly, saying the cathedral had been reduced to "a prop" for clicks and paid subscriptions.

As for Phillips,s he isn't apologizing for any of it. She insists it means something to her, although this was actually her second baptism. But she felt it was necessary after she experienced a rough stretch in her personal life and she felt pulled back toward faith. Her family was reportedly thrilled about her decision. She comes from a religious family (and even has a close relative who's a vicar) and none of them were upset by the footage. 

Despite her newly re-established faith, Phillips insists that she doesn’t need to retire from her career. "I'm definitely not claiming to be a traditional Christian at all," she said, noting she's pro-gay-marriage and pro-choice. Her point: none of that disqualifies her from being Christian. She'd just like the Christian community to actually let her in.

She's not alone in trying to hold faith and this industry together at the same time. Sophie Rain built her whole platform around the concept that she's still a virgin, despite her explicit content and $52 million in earnings last year. She recently claimed she turned down $15 million from an anonymous athlete who offered to change that. Her response was simple: "I obviously have morals." Plenty of people online doubt her, but she hasn't wavered on the story once.

This tension isn't confined to individual creators, either — it's basically the emotional backbone of TLC’s latest reality show "Double Lives of Suburban Wives" too.  The show features adult content creators who are living lives as normal suburban wives and moms, and the topic of faith comes up in nearly every episode. The women there are trying to balance their careers and their faith; there’s just less press and more group chats than with Phillips and Rain. 

Everyone's faith is their own. Nobody gets to hand someone else a rulebook for what their relationship with God is supposed to look like. But the moment you put that faith on reality television (and especially the moment you film it inside an actual working cathedral) you've moved it out of the private and into the public. That's not a punishment. It's just the trade. Once cameras and a streaming deal are involved, faith stops being only a personal matter and becomes a story other people get to have opinions about, argue over, and in Greaves's case, apologize for. Phillips got to define her baptism on her own terms. She doesn't get to also control how the rest of the world reacts to watching it happen on TV.