God Loves Sex Workers and Doesn't Require Them to Repent
Posted at 7:02 PM Apr 14, 2008
This is part two in a four-part series called Sexiness, Next to Godliness, which will run on Mondays through the end of April.
Part 1: Sexiness, Next to Godliness: Religion and the Sex Industry
One of the most powerful things that religious organizations offer to their constituents is community. But for people who work in the sex industry, community is sometimes a difficult thing to come by. Many sex workers work in isolation or in competition with each other, while others feel camaraderie with other people in the business but are ostracized from people outside of it because of the awkwardness presented by answering the question, “what do you do?”
For this installment of my four-part series Sexiness, Next to Godliness, I interviewed two women, Bowie Snodgrass and Lia Scholl, who are allies of sex workers and have created community-building projects for people who work within the sex industry. But despite being devoted to their causes, neither woman is overly focused on bringing the word of God to sex workers. Instead, community building takes precedence.
Bowie Snodgrass and her colleague Isaac Everett are the founders of Transmission, an emerging liturgical community in New York City that meets every other week in its members’ homes. Participants gather to eat a vegetarian meal, socialize, and participate in a ritual that is created collaboratively by the group. Though they identify as Christian, there is no specific dogma; Transmission believes that by creating a ritual participants create community, and by being part of it they become part of the community.
It was with this foundation that eight members of Transmission, along with an equal number of sex workers and local artists, conceived of the idea of Easter at Avalon, a service that explored the Mary Magdelene story and was an open forum for sex workers and their allies. The event took place on Easter Sunday 2007 at Club Avalon, famous as both the former Limelight club and as a church founded by William Augustus Muhlenberg, whose radical ministry assisted brothel workers and abandoned mistresses in forging new paths. Bowie believes that sex workers should be wholly welcomed into houses of worship and not shamed, not least of all because, “We’re in NYC and this is the twenty-first century, so let’s push this conversation as far as we can.” She urges that in order for religious groups to stay in tune with people, “We really need talk about and acknowledge the fact that people have complicated lives.”
While Bowie saw an opportunity to create a stand-alone event for sex workers and their allies, Lia Scholl has built her career around building a supportive community for exotic dancers. After attending seminary and becoming a Baptist minister, Lia and some colleagues began to visit strip clubs in the south to provide emotional, career, and spiritual support to dancers. Star Light Ministries was founded in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama. Though many churches that visit strip clubs do so with the purpose of proselytizing, Lia says, “We don’t do any stealth preaching or drop off literature.” Instead, Lia and the people she trains try to enforce a positive message about who the dancers are. She observes that, “Everyone tells them they’re bad, that they are sinners. They’ve already gotten that message, and they need to know they are loved and respected.” 
Lia spoke effusively about this point, and throughout our conversation she stressed that one of the major things that sets her ministry aside from others is that, “Many ministers don’t believe people can be right with God and be a dancer, but I don’t buy that. I don’t try to get women to quit, but I think women should all have choices – women should have free agency.”
Echoing what Bowie said to me a few days earlier, Lia asserts that, “We’re in the midst of changes at the core of what our society is, and the message of God’s love needs to change with everything else.”
Listen to Lia Scholl on NPR's Faith Matters, in a segment called Getting Dancers from Poles to Pulpits. Originally aired December 21, 2007.
Watch an artsy flash video about East at Avalon. With sound, autoplays.
Just thinking on the title of this post, I have the perfect Biblical passage to prove the point:
John 8:1-11 is the tale of "a woman caught in the act of adultery" - and Christ Jesus does not condemn her, but speaks out to defend her. it's the passage from which we get "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". Jesus says, "Woman, has no one condemned you?" and she replies, "No one, sir". Jesus says "Then neither do I condemn you."
Posted by: SnowdropExplodes at April 15, 2008 8:46 PM
Way to go Lia! You ARE making a difference. Rome wasn't built in a day!
Posted by: Avalon at April 15, 2008 11:38 PM
