fundamental disagreement
strippers turn table on churchgoers in rural ohio town, picket sunday services
by jeannie nuss
associated press
warsaw, ohio — strippers dressed in bikinis sunbathe in lawn chairs, their backs turn*ed toward the gray clapboard church where men in ties and women in full-length skirts flock to sunday morning ser*vices.
The strippers, fueled by cheetos and nicotine, are pro*testing 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 photo*graphed license plates of pa*trons and asked them if their mothers and wives know their whereabouts.
The dueling demonstra*tions play out in central ohio, where nine miles of cornfields and amish-buggy crossing signs separate the fox hole strip club from new begin*nings ministries.
Club owner tommy george met with the preacher and of*fered 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-traf*fic- 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 com*passion from churchgoers — and quite a few honks from pickup trucks and other pass*ing 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 pro*testers with plates of noodles and chocolate cake.
Laura meske — known as lola, stage age 36 but really 42 — hid behind a sign proclaim*ing, “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 re*peated, “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 sun*light. “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. 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 an*other 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 and ministers to danc*ers, prostitutes and porn stars.
