Bikini-clad strippers protest
church in rural Ohio
Jeannie Nuss (AP, August 27, 2010)
Warsaw, USA - Strippers dressed in bikinis sunbathe
in lawn chairs, their backs turned toward the gray
clapboard church where men in ties and women in
full-length skirts flock to Sunday morning services.
The strippers, fueled by Cheetos and nicotine, are
protesting a fundamentalist Christian church whose
Bible-brandishing congregants have picketed the club
where they work. The dancers roll up with signs
carrying messages adapted from Scripture, such as
"Do unto others as you would have done unto you," to
counter church members who for four years have
photographed license plates of patrons and asked
them if their mothers and wives know their
whereabouts.
The dueling demonstrations play out in central
Ohio, where nine miles of cornfields and Amish-buggy
crossing signs separate The Fox Hole strip club from
New Beginnings Ministries.
Club owner Tommy George met with the preacher and
offered to call off his not-quite-nude crew from
their three-month-long protest if the church
responds in kind. But pastor Bill Dunfee believes
that a higher power has tasked him with shutting
down the strip club.
"As a Christian community, we cannot share
territory with the devil," Dunfee said. "Light and
darkness cannot exist together, so The Fox Hole has
got to go."
New Beginnings is one of four churches in this
one-traffic-light village of 900 people, 60 miles
outside Columbus. There's one gas station and a
sit-down restaurant that serves country staples like
mashed potatoes with gravy and Salisbury steak.
On Sunday, four of The Fox Hole's seven strippers
and more than a dozen supporters garnered both scorn
and compassion from churchgoers - and quite a few
honks from pickup trucks and other passing vehicles.
One woman offered her skills as a hair dresser to
the dancers: "If you or your kids ever need a
haircut, give me a holler." Another woman from the
church waited on the protesters with plates of
noodles and chocolate cake.
Laura Meske - known as Lola, stage age 36 but
really 42 - hid behind a sign proclaiming, "Jesus
loves the children of the world!" as the preacher
extended his hand for a shake.
Two nights earlier, Dunfee and more than a dozen
churchgoers stood outside the club, one of them
calling out Meske's stripper name.
"He who casts the first stone ... ," Meske said
Sunday.
The pastor cut her off and repeated, "Lola, Lord
bless you."
"Everybody has sinned, and that doesn't mean I'm
not gonna get into heaven," she said, the stud
piercing in her chin shimmering in the sunlight. "I
believe in Jesus. I don't believe what they preach.
They preach hate."
Debi Durr, who attends the church, disagreed. "You
don't stand up there for four years for hate. That's
not hate. That's love," she said. Durr left Meske
with a copy of Jeremiah 3:13 - a Bible passage that
urges sinners to acknowledge their guilt.
Inside the church, voices from the 121 congregants
seemed to float to the cedar rafters as they sang
lyrics projected on a screen. Outside, a man
strummed a guitar and sang, "God forbid you ever had
to walk a mile in her shoes."
Dunfee has offered to help the strippers pay for
food, rent, utilities and gas if they leave The Fox
Hole. But many of the women say their jobs are only
a stopover on the way to work in cosmetology or the
medical field - a meal ticket that shelters them
from another stigma: welfare.
"No little girl is growing up like, `I wanna do a
pole trick,'" said Anny Donewald, a former stripper
who lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., and ministers to
dancers, prostitutes and porn stars.
She and other Christian groups that work with women
in the adult entertainment industry have criticized
Dunfee's methods of ministry as a means of putting
the strippers on the defensive instead of showing
support.
"I never saw Jesus with a picket sign," Donewald
said.
Community advocacy groups, including Citizens for
Community Values in Cincinnati, support Dunfee's
protests. But the group's president, Phil Burress,
said the strip club has a right to be there.
"It's a legal business whether he likes it or I
like it or not," Burress said.
The club operates in a white plywood box of a
building. Beer cans and a dollar bill peaked out
from the grass like Easter eggs last Sunday.
The Fox Hole encourages customers to check out its
$30 private dance special, promoting it on the kind
of sign convenience stores use to advertise cheap
milk and cigarettes. Out back, letters on a bulletin
board have faded away so that "No touching" now
reads "ouch."
It's here where dancers strip down to panties and
pasties for cash. Meske - a tattooed mother of four
- said she made $30 instead of a couple hundred
dollars last Friday with the protesters outside.
"I'm not the most beautiful woman in the world,"
she said. "I go out there and I try to make my
money."
A few houses and a ribs joint called Peggy Sue's
separate the club from another white building, a
church where some of the strippers donate blood
during drives for the American Red Cross.
"I got a church 900 feet down the street that
causes me no problems," club owner George said. "And
I got this moron nine miles down the street that
causes me more headaches."
Rae Anderson, who heads New Castle Ministries with
her husband, says her church believes Dunfee is
doing what the Lord called him to do, but her parish
takes a different approach.
"You can share the truth, but you can't make anyone
believe what you believe."
