The ongoing battle between a Central Ohio church and a local strip club continues to escalate.
After four years of church-sponsored protests outside The Fox Hole strip club in Coshocton County, dancers and other club employees have turned the tables by launching a counter-protest outside the church.
"We're going to keep coming until they stop," said Laura Meske, a dancer at the club. "When they stop, we'll stop."
Pastor Bill Dunfee of the New Beginnings Ministries Church in Warsaw wants to shut down The Fox Hole out of concern for the dancers and the customers he believes are encouraged to be unfaithful to their spouse.
"It's not about a personal battle. It's about a battle between two seeds: right and wrong, good and evil, light and darkness," Dunfee said. "These girls are the victims of the sexual industry ... These individuals are going to parish unless somebody goes and rescues them."
Fox Hole owner Tommy George has a different outlook.
"These people just need to go away," George said. "They need to learn to mind their own damn business."
Fox Hole employees said the church protestors have held signs outside the facility, nine miles west of the church, labeling dancers as "whores" and "prostitutes."
Church members also videotape customers and, for a time, posted customer license plate numbers online. The church has stopped posting the plates online, but George said the continued protests have kept customers away, preventing staff members from earning a living.
"These people are not our judge," Meske said. "They don't choose where we work. This is America, we choose where we work."
Earlier this summer, George had the idea to bring his dancers to the church to counter-protest. Three months later, both sides appear to have grown accustomed to each other.
"I'm not trying to hurt anybody," said "Veronica," a Fox Hole employee who declined to give her real name. "I just want them to know I'm not going to sit back and let them come to my place of business and harass me, harass my customers."
Dunfee said he and his followers have no intention of stopping their protests.
"I am glad that they are here, and our congregation is seizing this opportunity," Dunfee said. "Keep on coming, keep growing the crowd."
At times, the dancers have appeared outside the church in bikinis, though they dressed in typical summer apparel on Sunday. Dunfee said the protestors did not offend churchgoers.
Dunfee and fellow church members traveled outside Coshocton County for the first time on Sunday afternoon to Zanesville in order to protest what he said was billed as a 'Hot Body' car wash.
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