Church’s Leader Defends Sex Rituals as Religious

The self-proclaimed high priest of a church that professes to incorporate sex into its rituals told a federal judge Tuesday that his organization’s doctrines are expressions of religious “dedication,” not prostitution.

In opening statements in a civil suit against the city of Los Angeles and its Police Department, Will Tracy said he established his church in Canyon Country after seeing visions in which he was visited by a 6-foot man with flowing white hair and a transparent white robe.

“His eyes were extremely brilliant and flashing” and “he was also well-built,” Tracy said of the April, 1984, vision.

Tracy, 51, and his wife, Mary Ellen, 47, were convicted Sept. 8 of operating a house of prostitution and other related charges. They were sentenced to jail but their terms were put off pending appeal.