So while strip clubs might impede on the moral fabric of Detroit that religious leaders like Winans are touting, saying it sets bad examples for children, it will not stop Detroit patrons from traveling to other places in search of their sexual fantasies.
More importantly, Detroit is not a theocratic state, a crucial distinction that we need to remind ourselves of.
Detroit is not governed by the church, but by the City Charter that the electorate approved. Faith is a personal relationship that must not be mixed with politics. But because of the history of slavery and how the early church used Christianity to justify slavery and oppression of African Americans in this country for so long, all which helped to codify the protest notion of Black theology, it is always difficult to separate religion from politics.
Yet we cannot impose on everyone in the city our Judeo- Christian traditions and Black theological principles. While those religious injunctions are significant because they helped to form, in part, the bedrock for African-American survival today, not everyone subscribes to those beliefs.
Hence Charles Pugh’s argument, that strip clubs are businesses that must be allowed to operate without any stringent restrictions that could hamper those businesses, is valid for many reasons.
The reality is that those businesses hire African Americans. This was evidenced at the Monday night public hearing before the City Council, where we saw the demographic of some of the dancers: Black single mothers who are stripping to take care of their children. Others are students who have no means of obtaining an income to meet their academic fees other than to strip.
While some of us are getting emotionally entangled, moralistically beating our chests, have we considered the economic impact forcing strip clubs out of business will have on those single mothers and their children? That means adding still more people to the unemployment lines in Detroit and bolstering the crime syndicate.
One of the young women, Ashley Dunn, 26, at the hearing reminded council that to impose the tough rules on the strip clubs would be tantamount to removing food from her table.
Dunn is speaking for many young women whose economic conditions are so dire that they have been relegated to working as strippers, which is still better than carjacking our senior citizens at gunpoint, robbing and generally terrorizing the city. So her voice should not be drowned out in this debate because she represents the many invisible faces who may not come out because of the scorn and stigma attached to this kind of business.
At the same time we cannot dismiss the tears of 59-year-old Betty Little, who lost her nephew in a strip club where he worked as a bouncer. Her testimony is a challenge to the faith community to step up on crime that goes beyond the strip clubs. Some of the night clubs in this city have become hubs for violence and unwanted gun salutes at night.
If Detroit is morally sick, as the campaign to impose stricter rules on strip clubs suggests, there must be a holistic approach to dealing with the many problems the city is facing.
We cannot isolate one problem at the expense of other major ones.
Given his love for the city and history of fighting for the interest of residents, Winans has mounted a crusade, but it is one that should be enlarged to include issues such as crime, homelessness, unemployment, foreclosures and failing schools. I would like to see our ministers demonstrate the same zest, zeal and energy in addressing issues that are forcing people to think twice about Detroit.
If we can have more agitation and activism by the Black clergy before the council table on a number of
bread and butter issues, we can solve a lot of problems.
The calling from Winans to tackle strip clubs is pregnant with possibilities. The clergy now has an opportunity — and indeed a duty — to help the rest of us address the socio-economic issues facing Detroit.
