Group stays blind to temptation

Aricle from the Red & Black (Student Newspaper at The University of Georgia)

Group stays blind to temptation
Contributed By Julie RiggsPublished , April 20, 2006, 06:00:01 AM EDT

A small sign hangs on the prayer room door quoting Acts 9:6, which says “but rise and enter the city, and you will be told what to do.” Members of the group Pure Life gather together in the room to pray each Thursday night before hitting the streets to witness. (Kat Netzler - The Red & Black)
Fifteen University students gather in a downtown prayer room, five floors up from the strip club Toppers. The men are preparing to descend to the street, where they will cover their eyes with blindfolds that read “Pure Life” and begin their weekly protest. They pray that God renew their minds and protect them from temptation.
In the strip club below, a 27-year-old dancer leans close to a new customer and invites the middle-aged businessman into Toppers with her signature phrase: “I’m Harley, and I’m here to lead you into temptation.”
The protests have been going on for five months. It’s an example of what happens when sin and salvation bump up against each other in a college town.
“Condemnation is not the goal of the protest, salvation is.” said junior Jonathan Hansen, a protester.
Some students feel they are being judged. The protesters disagree.
“I am definitely no better than anyone else,” Hansen said. “We are all sinful and broken. By me standing here, all I’m saying is ‘Thank God I’ve found something that saves me from my sin, and I want to share it with you.’”
Protesters hope students will stop and talk when they see them on the wall.
“I see these people walking downtown thinking what they are doing is going to make them happy,” Hansen said. “But it’s so fleeting. You live for this moment you don’t remember, wake up with a headache and then do it again, and your life gets slowly wasted.”
One night in November, Mike Satterfield, campus minister and overseer of the downtown prayer room, stood alone outside Toppers and read from his bible. A week later, the first student joined Satterfield. Today, the weekly average is seven.


Zack Stepp stands outside Topper’s earlier this year as part of a group that meets outside the establishment to pray and read the Bible. (Kat Netzler - The Red & Black)
“Every great awakening and spiritual revival in this country has originated in the college age group,” Satterfield said.
On the street this evening, one man will stand with his eyes uncovered, scanning the chapters in Revelation, the last book of the Bible. He will read aloud to passersby. There is no shouting, just a voice that speaks passionately of the words that have changed his life.
The students do it out of gratitude as well as a desire for revival.
“We are out there because of the change that has happened in our own life, and we’ve seen God work in so many ways in our lives,” junior Zack Stepp said.
The reactions to their public displays vary.
“There is always a good mix of people who are extremely angry, cussing you out. Sometimes people start something physical, take the blindfolds off, slap you around. I’ve seen a guy get punched once,” Stepp said.
Hansen has been slapped around — and kissed.
“With the blindfold on, I had no way of knowing it was coming,” he said.
He realizes that opposition comes with any public protest.
“There are just as many people who are encouraged by us as there are people who are offended or discouraged by us,” he said. “You’re going to find that no matter what you do for Jesus.”

A different view
Inside the club, dancers counsel their customers between sets on stage. Although a few customers linger around the stage waiting for physical interaction, other men sit at the dimly lit tables and wait for a dancer to saunter over.
Despite the lounge atmosphere, Toppers owner Darnell Gardner said dancing is one of the most emotionally demanding jobs possible.
“The highs are too high, and the lows are too low,” he said. “You have to hear every guy’s best pick-up line and every guy’s problems. A lot of these girls have guys who come in and talk to them every week about problems they have outside.”
Gardner doesn’t disagree with the protesters’ intentions.
“I believe in the power of prayer,” he said. “I just don’t subscribe to it.”
Gardner’s main problem with the protesters is they only target his establishment and not the other alcohol-serving bars downtown.
He said he doesn’t have an adversarial relationship with the protesters, but he wishes they would move around.
The protesters feel no need to move on until their purpose has been fulfilled at Toppers.
“We long to see that space, which is a place of wounding and a stronghold of darkness and sin, to become a place of healing and restoration and ministry,” Satterfield said.
For Harley, the job has begun to take its toll.
She has thought about quitting for months, “But not today,” she said.
“I try to focus on the good things about this job,” she said, like power and money. “But I can’t do this forever because it’s exhausting. I want to do something that makes me happy. Deep down inside, this doesn’t make me happy.”
If the protesters prevailed, Harley would get to move on.
Although it is not their only goal, the protesters would like to see Toppers shut down.
However, it may not come from a decline in sales. Gardner said his revenue hasn’t changed much since the guys started standing outside.
“Looking at the numbers, some weeks are up, some weeks are down,” he said.
The prayer protesters know the result is not in their hands.
“If the strip club closes down, it won’t be because of our power. It’ll be of God’s power,” Stepp said.
Their passion to share seems to know no limits. When informed of Harley’s signature invitation to lead her guests into temptation the moment they enter the club, Hansen responds, “That just leads me to pray more.”

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