At the Crossroads of Sects and Sex

Eyebrows were raised Friday as the paths of educational products salesmen Aaron Del Monte and Jeffrey Stembokas unexpectedly crossed in Los Angeles.

Del Monte, of Petaluma, was packing boxloads of religious books as the four-day gathering of the National Catholic Educational Assn. came to an end at the downtown Convention Center.

Stembokas, of Stony Brook, N.Y., was unloading boxes of books about lovemaking as the three-day Erotica L.A. convention got underway at the same place.

“The departing Catholics and the arriving perverts,” Erotica convention organizer Ron Miller laughed facetiously as workers stocked his convention’s 110 booths with X-rated videotapes, lacy teddies and inflatable gadgets that defy description.

“But I would say we’re both here in a similar capacity--education.”

Down the hall where Catholics were attending seminars and viewing school supplies displayed in more than 600 booths, convention spokeswoman Devon Villa shook her head at the “Erotica” signs going up.

“Well, people at our convention understand that this is L.A.,” Villa said. “But I’d say that our education deals more with moral family ethics and values.”

The question as to whether one group of convention-goers was praying together while the other was preying together remained up in the air, however.

Del Monte, a publisher’s representative, described the Catholic gathering as a “communications conference” that helped improve dialogue between the family and school communities.

Stembokas, an inventor and entrepreneur, said the book and a companion $29.95 board game he is selling help couples communicate better by showing that “the mind is the most erogenous part of the body.”

The religious convention drew 10,000 people interested in such things as the latest teaching techniques, trends in religious instruction and the newest classroom technology.

Erotica’s Miller hopes to draw a similar-size crowd that is interested in the latest marital aids, adult videos and such things as a chance to visit the set of an X-rated movie shoot before his convention ends Sunday afternoon. Admission is $15 and is restricted to those 18 and older.

Erotica L.A. was started two years ago by Miller and his wife, Alisa, after the Woodland Hills couple decided that typical adult bookstores are uninviting to married couples.

“A lot of the adult stores are on the seedy side,” said Alisa Miller, a 32-year-old nurse.

Her husband, a 49-year-old attorney, said some adult video outlets carry only hard-core fare, not adult films suitable “for a romantic evening” at home.

“We’re pro-family--we want people to be able to spice up their lives and expand their relationships at home. We’re after the same thing as the other convention: families staying together.”

About 8,000 people attended last year’s Erotica show in Hollywood, he said, proving the need for a “safe, secure environment where people will not be embarrassed or chastised for shopping.”

So no wonder Miller was happy to see the crowds of Catholic schoolteachers, nuns and priests depart the Convention Center on Friday afternoon. He was also happy to see workers remove the huge signs near the entrance to the Erotica convention that directed Catholic visitors to the “Religious Education Department Meeting” next to his convention space.

Convention Center electrician Ron Lauer was trying to keep his mind on his work as he did last-minute wiring on booths being stocked with the latest battery-operated devices and XXX-rated film releases.

“The other day I set up the lighting for the Catholic Mass. Now I’m installing the power for VCRs for these videos,” Lauer said.

The good thing about his job, he said, is that on Friday he could go down the hall “and repent.”