Church Protests Strippers So Strippers Protest Church

posted by: Robin Marty 

Everyone loves a good "man bites dog" story, and this most definitely qualifies.  Via Ed Brayton at Dispatches from the Culture War, a group of "dancers" became so fed up with a church targeting their workplace, they've decided to turn the tables.

Now the strippers are protesting the church.

From the Columbus Dispatch:

The battle that has heretofore played out in the parking lot of George's strip club - the Foxhole, a run-down, garage-like building at a Coshocton County crossroads called Newcastle - has shifted 7 miles east to Church Street.

Every weekend for the last four years, Dunfee and members of his ministry have stood watch over George's joint, taking up residence in the right of way with signs, video cameras and bullhorns in hand. They videotape customers' license plates and post them online, and they try to save the souls of anyone who comes and goes.

Now, the dancers have turned the tables, so to speak. Fed up with the tactics of Dunfee and his flock, they say they have finally accepted his constant invitation to come to church.

It's just that they've come wearing see-through shorts and toting Super Soakers.

...

George said the protest has been a long time coming. He sued the church in federal court several years ago, claiming a violation of his constitutional rights, but he lost. Now, he said, turnabout is fair play.

"When these morons go away, we'll go away," George said. "The great thing about this country is that everyone has a right to believe what they want."

The targetting being done by the church is very familiar to anyone who knows much about clinic defense for abortion providers.  The intimidation tactics of writing down license plate numbers of clients, protesting, praying loudly, and offering redemption and support (both emotional and financial) are typical of any religiously charged protest. 

What is wonderful here is that the strippers have brought the fight back to the protesters, in their own personal space.  And how to deal with that befuddles the church.

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

These women are refusing to be harassed, intimidated, or in any other way bullied.  They have tried to remind people that this is the work they do, and how they support their own families.

Is it good that women should have to resort to stripping to feed their children?  Of course not.  But to try to bully them out of their jobs is even worse, and it is good that the women are standing up for themselves.