Perilous Times
27 August 2010 Last updated at 10:59 ET
Ohio strippers stage picket outside church services
Supporters of Fox Hole strip club in Ohio Supporters of the Fox Hole
strip club have been picketing outside the church for three months
Several Ohio strippers are protesting outside a church whose members
want to put their strip club out of business.
The bikini-clad dancers are picketing a congregation that has
photographed customers' number plates and asked if their wives know
where they are.
The Fox Hole club's owner has told the pastor he will call off his
protest if the church ceases its demonstrations.
But the pastor has refused, saying, "as a Christian community, we
cannot share territory with the devil".
"Light and darkness cannot exist together," Pastor Bill Dunfee told the
Associated Press news agency, "so the Fox Hole has got to go."
The strippers have been sitting in deckchairs outside New Beginnings
Ministries church in Warsaw, Ohio, during Sunday services.
Some hold signs bearing Christian messages such as "Jesus loves the
children of the world" and citing Bible verses.
The strip club is about nine miles (14.5km) from the church.
"Everybody has sinned, and that doesn't mean I'm not going to get into
heaven," Fox Hole stripper Laura Meske, 42, told AP.
"I believe in Jesus. I don't believe what they preach. They preach
hate."
The confrontations between the two camps have reportedly been largely
friendly, with Mr Dunfee and congregants greeting and chatting to the
strippers outside the church.