The Egregore to Baptism Pipeline

A notorious OnlyFans performer gets religion. Or is it fake? Why not both?

Happy New Year to you all! For those of us (me) who take an interest in the strange interzone between digital culture, faith, and memes, 2026 has started with a bang: Lily Phillips, notorious porn influencer, recently posted footage to Instagram of herself being re-baptised, then immediately resumed posting adult content.

What on earth is going on?

I’m not going to share the obscenity, but here’s her baptism video:

@lily_phillipss @lily_phillipss ♬ original sound - Musictheplugg

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Religious engagement farming? Born-again repentance? Some guy on the internet says it’s AI: a fake that never happened. But since posting the video Phillips has conducted an interview with UK tabloid The Daily Star discussing her faith. So either mainstream tabloids are in on the fakeness of everything, or Phillips has pulled the wool over journalists’ eyes too. Or maybe it’s not fake, and Phillips is just confused. She is, after all, apparently still also posting porn, which seems maybe inconsistent with a full-fat Christian rebirth? Though who knows, as she did tell the Star that she expects this to “take a back seat” as she prioritises other things in 2026 and she’s “still figuring it out”.

But that’s hardly a thoroughgoing repentance. Accordingly, the general reaction has been cynical, with some comparing her to former OnlyFans performer Nala Ray, who quit making porn after meeting her Christian influencer husband - but who is still reportedly earning from her OnlyFans account. But I think several things can be true at once. It’s possible that Phillips is both engagement-farming and also sincere, and that this all points toward one of the uncanny grey-zones of the digital transformation: the point where authentic re-enchantment collides both with spiritual crisis, and also with audience capture.