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| YOUR TOWN: Caroline | Culpeper | King George | Fredericksburg | Orange | Spotsylvania | Stafford | Westmoreland | |
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PASTOR CARES FOR EXOTIC DANCERS
Ministry reaches out to strippers; holds benefit concert in Fredericksburg tomorrow
Date published: 7/12/2008 By Flowers Umble BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE God finds strippers in mysterious ways. In religious pamphlets warning of sins, which miraculously show up in the bathrooms of strip clubs. In the glares of churchgoers who encounter exotic dancers. In the men who pay for lap dances on Saturday nights and slip into pews the next morning. In the missionary zeal of evangelists who tell the dancers that Jesus loves them, as long as they stop taking their clothes off for money. And in the Rev. Lia Scholl, who walks into Richmond clubs with gifts for the dancers, teaches them how to save their money, talks to them on the phone and ends every conversation by saying, "I love you, you're a star." Those words--and the attitude behind them--set Scholl apart, said a Philadelphia stripper who used the stage name Brooke and who met Scholl on the Internet. The club where Brooke works employs several churchgoers, she said. "God is present, and we really don't talk about it because so many people have been hurt by evangelicals, the pressure and the condemnation," said Brooke, who grew up Southern Baptist. "You feel almost dirty, and a lot churches do make you feel that way." But Scholl, an ordained Baptist minister who preaches Sunday mornings at a Richmond Mennonite fellowship, presents another side to religion. "She's of the attitude that Jesus loves strippers, too, and that Jesus is going to love you even if you dance and that he's going to care about you as a person, regardless," Brooke said. Scholl, who will preach in Fredericksburg on Sunday afternoon, formed Star Light Ministries in 2000 while attending seminary. She began in Birmingham, Ala., with a welfare-to-work program for women leaving the sex industry. Scholl met mothers who stripped at night so they could spend days with their children. Teachers who stripped because their jobs didn't pay enough. Women who stripped because they needed fast money. Brooke, for example, became a stripper nine years ago because she needed money for a car to visit her infant daughter. She had a college degree and worked as an editorial assistant, but couldn't make ends meet. Scholl thought the dancers were damaged by stigmas. Brooke said stripping had many other downsides: eight hours in 7-inch heels, $200 for a dress and getting solicited every night.
Date published: 7/12/2008
What a great story
(posted by
rikkirat
, July 12, 2008 7:25 pm)
From first glance I thought I'd write some smart aleck remark - but after reading it all thought otherwise. To me the work this woman does represents what a true Christian should be like. Non-judgmental, loving, caring and walking the walk, unlike many many other so called Christians some of who even post here. Let this woman serve as a lesson before you judge and call yourself a Christian. You're not fooling anyone but yourself.
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