Christians
in Sexwork
A Forum for Strippers & All sexworkers
At
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christianstrippersandothers/
Background
Christian Sexworkers?
From Dave's E-mail (from DZ)
if you know a Christian prostitute, perhaps we could put up her testimony
on a website or at your site. A lot of people would be interested in that,
I think.
at your page http://www.sexwork.com/coalition/christian.html would you consider
doing the following:
inviting any Christian prostitutes, strippers, sex workers, erotic massage
practitioners, etc to share their testimonies for a page of testimonies and
letting any prostitutes, strippers, sex workers, erotic massage practitioners,
etc know that you will take their prayer requests and be praying for them?
I'd like to read that and I'd be happy to pray for those who have prayer requests.
If they share their testimonies, it would be interesting to read how and when
they came to know God, if they attend church now, if so, what kind, and how
they personally reconcile their work with their understanding of God.
Dave replied that I am supportive of the idea but not sure how much response
there would be other than just attract tons of guys. I suggested a private
board as to not expose to LE risk and where they could be anonymous and share
issues more privately.
DZ started a public Yahoo group and brought in lots of new guys in a few days
and one Christian stripper.
I suggested using Christian prostitutes and strippers as the group name was
a bit offense since prostitution is illegal and narrow usually meaning the
street hooker vs the private professional "sexworker". DZ changed the group
to
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Christianstrippersandothers/
The intro DZ wrote:
This group is for Christians who are entertainers, prostitutes, escorts, erotic
massage practitioners, noode (that is a yahoo peculiarity. They say you can't
have any profane or vulgar language in a group description and "nude" is a
prohibited word.) models, adult models and strippers to share their testimonies,
prayer requests and needs, if any. This group is allow for nonChristians of
the same types or others to ask questions, if they wish, or to share prayer
requests and needs, if they wish. The home page photo is of Christina Silvas,
who was a Christian attending an Assembly of God church and a Sunday School
teacher. She was also working as a stripper, and then posed for Playboy. When
the church found out she was working as a stripper, they threatened to expel
her daughter from kindergarten. I don't know if Christina has found another
church, but we'd welcome her! We'd also note that Kathy Ireland and Britney
Spears are Christian. This group will be moderated to prevent flame-throwing
or other hurtful and abusive posts against those who share some of their lives.
Christian edification in the way of testimonies, Bible explanation or other
discussion is appropriate. For the sake of personal privacy of any females
who may post, some may wish to create a new yahoo ID with a fictitious name
and location. I wouldn't want anyone to be snared by vice cops because one
such saw your name, location and story of any "illegal" work. Of course, others
may be happy to post with a real name and location. Either is fine with us!
God bless you!
Dave comments: I discussed the idea with Bill, my co-founder of Liberated
Christians (http;//www.libchrist.com). He has no interest but is supportive
of my interest in sexwork but we have agreed nothing would be said about sexwork
on www.libchrist.com since it might offend some folks there and detracts from
the main purpose of libchrist.com.
Below are some of Bill's comments which I very much agree with:
... it would seem to me that any Christian sexworkers or strippers would be
laboring under a lot of spiritual and emotional conflict regarding their faith,
since virtually any opinions about their professions they would have encountered
in the church would be extremely negative. This state of affairs would lead
me to doubt they would open up to any inquiries. On the other hand, this could
be the very reason to try and reach them, if a means could be devised to do
it.
As far as sexworkers are concerned, I think that the women you interact with
on your sexwork site and in person probably know about Liberated Christians.
Maybe you could put up something on the sexwork site inquiring as to whether
any sexworkers have Christian backgrounds, without implying that you're trying
to evangelize or something. It would be interesting to see if you get any
response. If you did, you (we?) could go from there as to how to follow this
with further discussion.
As for strippers, one of the things that is obvious is that the majority of
these women are quite young. While I have never done any research into the
demographics of strippers, I would suppose that many of them have hit on this
work as bringing in bigger bucks than minimum wage jobs and that, at least
in some cities, Phoenix being among them, many are probably college students,
paying for tuition with their income. The point is that, because many (most?)
of them are stripping for what I assume is fairly good money, rather than
because of the thrill, it is at least statistically likely that some have
some sort of Christian background, something they are as likely to hide as
swingers hide their backgrounds.
It's also possible that a few have found the LC site because they may have
been trying to reconcile their Christian experience with their jobs.
So, I'm wondering if it would make any sense to write something on the site
about stripping and see if any strippers would respond. I have some doubts
about this being productive.
My thought is whether the goal is to be supportive of the Christian sexworker
or have a place zillions of men will come to lurk. If they are sincere Christians
that can be OK, but I question whether that will be the case.
------
Dave comments I am now setting up a link on sexwork.com both on the main page
and in article "Prostitution Is Not A Biblical Conflict" and on www.sexworktoronto.com
I invite anyone with Christian issues to come and both Bill and I as well
as DZ, are available for more private support.
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