Church protests strip club, and vice versa

For several years, New Beginnings Ministries pastor Bill Dunfee and members of his flock have protested outside the Foxhole strip club in the small town of Warsaw, Ohio. They carry signs and bullhorns, and post images of customers' license plates online. Now, the Foxhole dancers have started protesting outside of the New Beginnings church, "wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers," according to the Columbus Dispatch:

"These church people say horrible things about us," (Foxhole dancer Gina) Hughes said. "They say we're homewreckers and whores. The fact of the matter is, we're working to keep our own homes together, to give our kids what they need."
Dunfee said it's not that simple. He said he consistently offers the women help, a chance at redemption.
"I tell them, 'I will put a roof over your heads, and your bills will be paid, and your children's bellies will be full,'" he said. Yet they don't come inside.
The first few weeks, Dunfee piped the sermon outside. But that "agitated" them, he said, and made them dance in the streets.
He said their presence has united his church members and reinvigorated their mission to shut down the club.
"They have now seen the evil firsthand," Dunfee said. "This has just made us stronger."

"Churchgoers, strippers protest one another in Coshocton County"

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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Trotsky

Here’s a crazy thought…

What if some women LIKE being strippers?

Like any job I suspect the venue and class of clientele can have a profound impact on whether or not you enjoy your work. Waiting tables (I know this from first hand experience) can be the most miserable job or quite enjoyable and lucrative depending on the venue.

Being a stripper in some tiny backwater with a toothless and grabby clientele is probably pure misery, but still a better gig than working at Walmart. For the church goers on this thread who claim to be about love and acceptance in helping someone give up stripping, what if they wanted to attend your church and loved the shit out of getting paid to dance naked? Unrepentant and fulfilled in their choice of labor?

In my experience, most “love” and “acceptance” from churches is entirely contingent on conforming entirely to their idea of what is appropriate.

And that’s one of the biggest reasons why governments ceding so-called “faith-based” charity and social support to churches is such a disaster. If, for example, handing out water and food to survivors of a natural disaster is contingent in any way on a moral filter, then churches and their support are useless.

Churches will only ever become truly useful and truly helpful and truly loving when they dispense assistance without twisting arms and compelling behavior through oily smiles and sham concern.

Take the pastor of this church in Ohio, for example. If he says he wants to help these women, why doesn’t he just do it? Don’t tell the women what you WILL do or MIGHT do or COULD do. DO IT! Answer: he won’t because, once again, it’s entirely contingent on their fulfilling his checklist of proper lifestyle choices. If they’ll play, he’ll pay. Maybe.

If he wants to truly demonstrate the altruism and generosity of Christ, he should have put 100% of that Sunday’s collection into an envelope and walked it right out the front door to those women (who BTW are not “strippers,” but rather are women who strip). He can hand it to them and say: “No strings attached. From us to you. Use it to pay your rent, or buy some lunch. Or whatever strikes your fancy, because we care.”

The prayer part is useless (the photo of the one burly guy kneeling in prayer). Prayer has never worked ever. Not once. And these women know that full well. They’ve made the hard and practical choices necessary to keep body and soul together. No landlord has ever accepted prayer as payment. Never will either.
- Anonymous
  
  Actually, you are correct: venue matters. My best friend from my late teens was a stripper, and when I would meet her at work, I often got asked.
  
  She worked all over southern Ontario, and sometimes in American great-lakes-area clubs too. Broken down by size, smaller cities’ biggest issues are a lack of customers. Strippers are paid by tip, after all. Medium-size towns are the best; they treat the girls well. Big cities are BAD.
  
  Customers are interesting sociology studies themselves. Guys in groups, whether regulars or bachelor parties, just seemed like regular clubgoers. So did some guys who came in on their own. But some lonely guys would hide in the corner just looking, never buying a dance, just the mandatory drinks. That’s the one that gives you the willies.
  
  From a feminist perspective, the problems with stripping is more about poverty, gender roles, and perceived power. Strippers tend to be young, uneducated or in the process of paying tuition, and attractive enough that men are constantly propositioning them anyway. One mistake can be very expensive in this environment.
  
  Lastly, on being judged — not helpful at all. Actively harmful if it leads to shame.
  
  Two anecdotes, both in Toronto.
  
  Overheard at the bar:
  Waitress: I won’t wear a button that says HOT NUTS
  Owner: There’s plenty more where you came from.
  Then he slaps her ass.
  Also he never threw out rowdy customers, even one who bit a dancer.
  
  Or when we were in the owner’s office (different place, mind you) and overheard his end of a conversation where he told a prospective dancer he was only looking for white girls, since he had too many black girls as it was. Also, this guy all-but-mandated prostitution on the side.Bit of
Anonymous

Not every church is like this one. Check this out: Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky has over 200 people involved serving a homemade dinner to club dancers and staff every Wednesday night.

http://www.christianstandard.com/articledisplay.asp?id=1564
Anonymous

Can’t imagine why they don’t want help from someone who calls them “whores”. Also, they have jobs, just not jobs he likes.
blueelm

I hope they’re wearing sunscreen.
Brainspore

This is the kind of story that almost always ends with the ultra-conservative pastor getting publicly outed for an affair, usually with a nubile young boy-toy.
nerak

Ah Ohio, how I love thee.
dhalgren

Okay reality check here: We are talking about strippers from Warsaw, Ohio! I believe this pastor is doing the community a service! I’ve never been to Warsaw personally but I’ve been to Ohio. Okay maybe I’m spoiled being an Orange County California resident all my life but I really wouldn’t want to imagine the horror show of the line-up of girls at this strip club.

I personally think this church and this strip club deserve each other. 100% Americana. Good old traditional Middle of America Bible thumping versus the local single moms and throwaways trying to make a living and feeding their kids.

You could almost make a movie out of it, I can see it now…John Lithgow as the bible thumping pastor, Ron Jeremy as the strip club owner, Ellen Page as the young daughter of the pastor who has been cast off and cut off after having a baby out of wedlock who has turned to being a stripper to make enough money for her and her kid to move to the city and get a real job…

It writes itself. Of course the pastor could be the local master vampire and his congregants his vampires and the strippers are actually vampire hunters…

I mean it is 2010 – all things vampires.

Fun times all around. This is an awesome Americana!
- blueelm
  
  “Okay reality check here: We are talking about strippers from Warsaw, Ohio! I believe this pastor is doing the community a service! I’ve never been to Warsaw personally but I’ve been to Ohio. Okay maybe I’m spoiled being an Orange County California resident all my life but I really wouldn’t want to imagine the horror show of the line-up of girls at this strip club.”
  
  There’s a picture of them in the article.
  
  *blinks*
Anonymous

Now I’m really confused. Where to I go to see naked women? When they pass the plate around is that for the church, or the stripper? Which place serves wine? And which place can I take my kids to?
knappa

“I tell them, ‘I will put a roof over your heads, and your bills will be paid, and your children’s bellies will be full,’” he said.

That would be quite a commitment, if he didn’t almost certainly mean that God would do these things.
edbh

If only there was a way to combine the two.
- Phikus
  
  Here’s one attempt.
  - Felton
    
    It was a good attempt. Too bad it didn’t catch on, although I have seen a few “Clapton is God” bumper stickers.
    - Phikus
      
      Gotta love the communion…
- rick386
  
  I love you man.
mgfarrelly

I believe the lede has been buried on this one, from near the bottom of the story comes this chestnut:

“The first few weeks, Dunfee piped the sermon outside. But that ‘agitated’ them, he said, and made them dance in the streets.”

GLORIOUS.
- Boomshadow
  
  What did he say, and how can I get a copy to broadcast in front of my local strip clubs?
lasttide

Some legal type should write up a contract for the dancers to call the pastor’s bluff. The conditions would be that if the dancer quits her job, the church will provide housing, health insurance and $25k per year.

Somehow I don’t think the pastor will live up to his word.
Anonymous

From what I have seen over the years ….

Strip clubs are tolerant of churches.
Churches are intolerant of strip clubs.

Churches want you to enjoy things after you die.
Strip clubs want you to enjoy now.

Churches say that the human body is beautiful, but you cannot show it off.
Strip clubs say that the human body is beautiful, come and see for yourself.

Churches say that once you get to heaven you will spend all eternity praising God, which seems pretty vain for an all knowing all powerful invisible super-being.
Strip clubs say heaven is here, we are all vain.
Matt Staggs

See, this is what some people don’t get about religion: it’s not about what those individuals want to believe, it’s about how those individuals want you to behave. It’s probably easier to have a moderate opinion on these kinds of things living in a bigger city, but where I am the Southern Baptists and their fundamentalist ilk run pretty much everything.
Cowicide

Dunfee said it’s not that simple. He said he consistently offers the women help, a chance at redemption. “I tell them, ‘I will put a roof over your heads, and your bills will be paid, and your children’s bellies will be full,’” he said. Yet they don’t come inside.

google-translated to:

Dunfee said it’s not that simple. He said he consistently offers the women money and a chance to stay at his pad.
verdecove

Welcome to the conservative part of the US, the country with one of the biggest porn industries in the world. But I guess certain people forget about that and rather complain about a night club.
As if there were no more important things and bigger problems in our country this pastor should worry about.
Anonymous

Wow – strippers in bikinis are going to protest outside the church!

Where’s the downside for the churchgoers again?
sapere_aude

This gives new meaning to the concept of a “tit-for-tat” response.

But, on a more serious note, while I certainly agree that turnabout is fair play, I don’t like the idea of fighting fire with fire: Ultimately, all that does is fan the flames even further, so that both sides get burned. What the strippers should have done was go out and do good deeds in the community — i.e. the sort of things that the church ought to be doing instead of harassing strippers and their customers. That would have given the strippers the moral high ground, and may have shamed at least some of the churchgoers into rethinking their priorities. Protesting at the church makes them seem just as petty as the churchgoers who have been protesting at the strip club. It’s more likely to turn the members of the community against them than to persuade the members of the community to take their side against the church.
- Rex Schrader
  
  Ultimately, all that does is fan the flames even further, so that both sides get burned.
  
  I don’t think the strip club owner wants to “fan the flames” – I think he’s just a canny business man. Look at all the free publicity he’s getting. It’s funny and attention getting. Here we are, talking about it.
  
  They could really run with it though – start up “angel nights”, take donations for charity, etc. Basically set themselves up as a parody of the church. Say “We don’t judge you here, come enjoy yourself.”
  
  Some legal type should write up a contract for the dancers to call the pastor’s bluff. The conditions would be that if the dancer quits her job, the church will provide housing, health insurance and $25k per year.
  
  Going to take a bit more than that – the article quotes one of the women as making $2k/week. Even if that’s above average, you’re looking at $75k-100k/year for each woman.
  
  And why should they give up their work? Maybe some enjoy it. Or they at least enjoy the money, which would be more than enough to put food on the table, especially in Ohio.
Tensegrity

Wait, you mean all I have to do is go protest a strip club, and they will come and dance around in skimpy clothes in front of my house? Giggity Giggity!
Andrea James

I see one of the strippers’ signs asserts that the pastor is an “admitted adulterer.” What a whited sepulchre!
- Anonymous
  
  That might mean that he is being honest about a struggle in his own life. I don’t think he is being a hypocrite… I think that he could be admitting that he is a sinner.
  
  Also, it is possible that the woman was lying and that the sign is not true.
  I think stripping brings society down. It just encourages the self-serving tendencies that are already hardwired into our brains. It also seems to reinforce the idea that a woman’s sexuality is meant to serve people, rather than serve herself.
  
  I would like a world where sex was not something that was ever paid for, only given freely.
Anonymous

This country was originally settled by puritan douchebags. It’s a shame they didn’t all die out 400 years ago.
Anonymous

Surely they are cutting into their profits by giving the pastor a free show.
Daedalus

Interesting that this is his approach after a lawsuit failed to get them to stop (though I’m a little surprised taking photos of patrons’ liscence plates and posting them online is totally OK).

I want to go to Ohio and blow a couple of thousand at this strip club. I’m not even that into strip clubs, but these gals deserve some support.
- blueelm
  
  Haha! They should open a donation page.
Anonymous

>”They have now seen the evil firsthand,” Dunfee said.

I think the strippers should send the good Reverend a bill for their services, seeing as he’s gotten a free show all this time. Tips appreciated.
Trotsky

>> help, a chance at redemption.

“Help” and “help, a chance of redemption” are not the same thing.

He should lose the redemption rider and just help people.
Nadreck

Evangelical establishments and strip clubs just seem to go together. Just about all of the strip clubs that are off the main drag on Yonge Street in Toronto have some sort of “mission” next door. I guess that they have some sort of symbiotic relationship.
- Anonymous
  
  The history of the red light district in Amsterdam is exactly this.
  
  The churches were basically the pimps selling sex to the sailors. I don’t mean that vaguely; it’s pretty much exactly that.
Anonymous

I wonder how many of those church members are customers of both establishments?
rick386

Too bad it’s so far away. It’s the perfect way for my wife to get our son to get up on Sunday and go to church with her.
Sagodjur

So there are Christian aid workers getting killed in Afghanistan, but this congregation has, “seen the evil firsthand,” of women in bikinis. Who would Jesus protest?
Trotsky

I’ve attended a lot of different churches from a number of different denominations. Church is the most deadening, depressing, and lifeless place (apart from the DMV, emergency room, or laundromat) a human can find themselves.

That being said, they have a lot in common with strip clubs. I can count the number of strip clubs I’ve been to on one hand. I like naked women (a lot, yo!), but strip clubs can have the exact same vibe as a church. Desperate and lonely people trying to artificially gin up a sense of belonging or satisfaction.

I do admire the chutzpah of those strippers though. They have more guts and true grit than the cowardly, deceptive, and judgmental church goers who profess concern, but are really about casting the affairs of other humans into marginalization and contempt.

Churches do *FAR* greater damage in warping humans than any strip club and the comparison is not even close.

Telling small children that an invisible man watches their every action and thought and will punish disobedience with an eternity of fire and torture cannot be compared to seeing boobs and over-paying for watered down drinks.
- blueelm
  
  Both are formulaic and rehearsed, and both operate on the delusion that the person asking you for money really likes you.
- imag
  
  What a great post.
chetspartan

Hmmmm….how does one grill Monster energy drinks? And how do they taste?

“They bring lawn chairs and – yesterday, anyway – grilled hamburgers, Monster energy drinks and corn on the cob.”

I like sapere_aude’s approach, that would really be interesting to see and watch the church and it’s patrons reaction.
okiedokie

A few years ago we had a stripper thatattended our church but she kept her job secret. She finally told some folks in a small group about her job and she could see no way out of it & still raise her children. The folks in that small group:

* Gave her a job (as a receptionist working for one of the group).
* Paid the rent on a new apartment for her.
* Moved her family for free.
* Helped her get training for a better job (either through paying for school or private tutoring)
* Helped tutor her children that were having trouble in school.
* Got her a new wardrobe through either clothes donations or purchasing her new clothes.

Eventually, after a few years, she got a better job than the one the group got her and she is now on her own raising her family. All of it done without condemnation from the congregation.

Not all churches are douchebags. Some churches actually love and help people.
- Anonymous
  
  Sadly, I am required to remind the rest of the world that you are lying.
Anonymous

I don’t understand why this hasn’t been on CNN? It’s got the two things Americans love most! Sex and Religion all in the same shot.
“I went to church and a strip show broke out…”
“I went to the strip bar and a sermon broke out”
Anonymous

Hmmm. Easy solution: Create your own bumper sticker, put it on your car near your license plate, and attend the strip club. When your plate appears online, along with your bumper sticker, send them a DMCA takedown notice and sue for a few hundred grand for copyright infringement. And then you get the bonus of having churches fighting against copyright law!
claudius753bc

I believe that this is not acting in Christ Love, which is how the church is supposed to act. How is this, going to another establishment and condemning them bringing glory to God? The answer…it’s not. This is not how the Body of Christ is supposed to be acting. We are called to first love, no matter what the situation, because that is how God loves us. No sin is better than the other, so how can this church go and judge the women at their work. Christ says in Matthew 7: “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3″Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ”

This isn’t right. There are a lot of good, loving Christ followers out there, and this is just another thing pulling people away from Him. Just like those people who preach on a streetcorner, yelling at people that they are going to Hell. That isn’t showing love, and that is not what Christ would want you to do. Rather, go to someone who is hurting, someone who is sick, poor, etc. and help them. And do it without expecting something back, or them to convert. All one can do is plant the seed.

For those of you who read this, please do not judge God or Jesus based upon the actions of Christians, because we all fall short of His glory. We all sin, we all fail, but through His grace and love, we are free. I am hereby apologizing for any bad interactions you have had with Christians, whether here or in the past. I know we have a lot of explaining to do, but just remember that we are human, and we are not better than anyone else. Most of us are trying our best with what we have.
Jackasimov

I’m sure if the strippers were to accept the kind offer and come into the church (is that the only way this works is to convert?) they would be welcomed with open arms (by most of the men) at least for a few Sundays before they became so ostracized and the victim of scornful looks by the congregation.

Seriously, Christians, why do you give a shit what people do with their lives? Why do you hate our freedom?
Anonymous

if “Christians” acted more like Christ, they wouldn’t be so friggin’ annoying. These a-holes just make Christians look like egotistical, judgmental jerks.
Trotsky

The women in front of the church take money to show their breasts. The women inside the church also take money to show their breasts, but accept payment on the installment plan.
Anonymous

A personal theory of mine:

Whats the difference between a cult and a religon?

A cult tells you what to think, a religon gives you something to think about.

Which catagory does the church fall into do you think?
Anonymous

Hmmmm….how does one grill Monster energy drinks? And how do they taste?

No,no…it is the marinate!
Anonymous

Church needs to get a life. I don’t think picking an enemy and using hatred of that enemy to unify your congregation sounds terribly Christian. I think we hear stories about religious behavior like that coming out of Afghanistan.

I think it’s hilarious and awesome that the dancers turned the tables. Bullies count on their victims not to hit back. Keep on picketing, ladies!
Anonymous

The annoyance of religion and protests aside…

So, is everyone commenting here FOR the objectification and degradation of women? (Is there another way to view/spin stripping that I do not yet see?)
- blueelm
  
  Women in both the church and in strip clubs can suffer from the patriarchal society and the way both organizations function within it. Some one just above had commented basically that all women show their breasts for money… eventually. That’s a viewpoint that expresses some of the tacit sexism that is simply a part of our culture. Men have power and control, women use sex to get it. Inherently if such a dichotomy were really absolutely true then all women are, to some degree, whores in need of control or liberation by OTHERS.
  
  The church and the sex industry just end up touting different versions of the same dichotomy this way. However it’s the cultural myth that is truly at fault.
  
  The power and control dynamics in that are obvious.
  
  It’s a societal problem. It’s disingenuous at best to point a finger at the sex industry because it makes objectification visible.
  
  There’s no ideological reason that stripping should be degrading for women, after all. Freed of the othering (all women are like x), and the shame surrounding the concept of whore (as opposed to marketing executive), then a stripper is just a kind of dancer. And there’s no reason she should be anything but happy with her job and anyone should be anything but happy for her.
  
  Similarly it doesn’t imply that all women wish to be strippers any more than all might wish to be marketing execs.
  
  At least in ideal-world it would work that way.
  
  As it stands though, shaming and picking on strippers (or insinuating that none of them like what they do) isn’t doing anyone any favors.
  
  I think that’s kind of the point of the protest in fact.
- skoteinos
  
  @ Anon #29:
  
  “Is there another way to view/spin stripping that I do not yet see?”
  
  I get the vague feeling that might be rhetorical. Whatever, passive-aggressive pants.
  
  I’ve seen sound arguments in the feminist canon that support stripping in some contexts. If you actually care about the rational foundation of your beliefs you’ll find these arguments yourself. Try a large public or university library. And if you can’t be bothered, there’s always Wikipedia.
- mn_camera
  
  I think they’re commenting on the pointless and stupid condemnation of these women, who are doing their jobs because they have to.
  
  I have trouble imagining stripping is a recreational activity for any of them.
  
  Sorry that level of meaning is lost on you.
  - Boomshadow
    
    I think it’s a shame that exotic dancing is generally not a happy fun time for the dancers. Why shouldn’t it be? I mean, in a perfect world, strippers would get paid to show off their bodies at their best, in front of appreciative audiences who tip heavily.
    
    Unfortunately, in the real world, dancers have to pay for stage time (and in some cases, for time in the club at all), plus sometimes give up a percentage of their tips to the club as well–and then they have to deal with pretty much anyone who comes in through the door (though if the client gets too fresh, usually a very large guy with a club t-shirt who got all C’s in high school and couldn’t get into the police academy will remove the client).
    
    In a perfect world, Tony Hayward would have jumped in front of John Lennon.
- Anonymous
  
  Isn’t it more objectifying of women to believe that they don’t choose to do such jobs of their own free will? It’s like someone saying “how can your wife stand your jokes,” not realizing they’re being sexist for thinking the person’s wife can’t handle them.
  
  And yea, there are good churches and bad churches – most of them feel like you’re ringing a deaht knell while attending them. That said, I live on the bible belt (not a churchgoer, just saying) and for the most part the people around here aren’t stuck up like these people. They have charity drives, cheap food that they sell (they buy it in bulk so it’s cheaper than even wal-mart) and events for kids and whatnot. There’s also a church out here that, from what I hear, is very lively because of the type of music they play (think black gospel, not to be racist, but they have very lively services compared to us white people).
  
  Either way, to each their own. If they want to help them like the poster above mentioned, that’s all fine and dandy, but picketing in front of their workplace and harassing their customers does absolutely nothing to help the people.
blueworld

The management of sex work venues is a much bigger problem for the workers than the type of work itself.

I have a friend who is an escort and a waitress. She says her “straight” job is much more demeaning than having sex for money. Even when she was working in a brothel (aka house of “spiritual healing”), she could reject any client who creeped her out or treated her poorly. As a waitress, she has to be nice to rude customers, she’s tipped based partly on her sex appeal anyway, and she’s on her feet all night. Which job is really “selling her body?”
bob d

“Ultimately, all that does is fan the flames even further, so that both sides get burned.”
Sadly, yes. It also allows the church to feel like they’re the victims in the situation, and fundamentalists in this country love to feel persecuted (I think it fits into some mythologies about the founding of Christianity).
I think no matter what acts of charity the strippers engaged in, it wouldn’t have changed their moral status in that church’s eyes. For some fundamentalists, strippers are morally equivalent to child molesters. Worse even, as the women are considered responsible for corrupting men, men who then go out and commit sins, enflamed by their lust (which wouldn’t have existed if it weren’t for those women, of course). The women are viewed as willing plague carriers, destroying society around them.

@lasttide:
I don’t think a pastor could cover typical strip club wages. I’m sure either knappa is correct and it was a “God will provide” sort of “promise” (and if he doesn’t, well, you didn’t repent fervently enough) or, less likely, he was offering the church basement and the results of the church food drive for a limited time.
Blue

Live and let live.

If anyone thinks the way you’re living your life has merit, you won’t have to go out and covert anyone.
johnnyaction

I wonder what would happen if the girls advertised drink specials via bullhorns.

This is golden photo-op material. I think the club owner and the strippers should dress up as the devil and his lovely demons. It would cheer me up to no end to see him in a red suit, little horns on his head and the girls in “hot stuff” demon outfits.