Strip Church: Former Stripper Brings Jesus into Strip Clubs

Jaime Hindman, a former stripper, considers herself a missionary. But instead of serving in slums like Mother Teresa, Hindman enters strip clubs with a message for the dancers: Jesus loves you.

A California woman says Jesus rescued her from life as a stripper. Now, she’s determined to pull other girls out of the business.
35-year-old Jaime Hindman frequents strip clubs in Orange County with the urge to spread the gospel. Her volunteer group “Divine” hands out pink gift bags filled with candy, makeup, and Christian tracts, hoping that the gifts will encourage other women to start thinking about leaving the industry.
She says it’s what Jesus would do.
“Where did Jesus hang out?” she asked during an interview with our correspondent. “Who is going to go back and love these girls? Someone’s gotta do it.”

Hindman founded ‘Divine’, a volunteer group that visits strip clubs to hand out these pink goodie bags.
Leaving the industry is harder than it may appear. Hindman started working as a stripper when she was 19 years old and kept at it for three years. When she first started dancing, she loved it.
“It was a party every night,” Hindman told R.E. “I got a lot of attention.”
But more than the attention, Hindman craved the power that came from stripping. She grew up in a broken home and she wanted a way to feel in control.
“I thought I was able to control men,” Hindman explained. “Because men had always hurt me in the past.”

Hindman places Christian tracts inside her pink bags.
Her breaking point came six months into the job, when she was raped by one of her customers. The experience shattered her and sent her spinning toward depression, drugs, and abusive boyfriends. She felt guilty about what she was doing for a living, but she kept stripping for two more years. She needed the money and felt as if she had no choice. But she spent most of the time hating herself and hating men.
“I was this empty shell of anger, and directed [it] at every man that came in front of me. So if any man touched me, or grabbed me, which happened often, I would kick them with my heel,” Hindman told R.E. “I just became so angry, and I became this person that just, I didn’t recognize anymore, but felt completely trapped.”
On a recent Saturday night, Hindman and a group of volunteers from “Divine” entered a topless sports bar in Anaheim. The experience brought up reminders of her life on the stage.

Hindman and her volunteers pray for their night’s mission.
Hindman said she spoke with a dancer who was pining to get out.
“She just told us a horrific story about how a guy was basically ejaculated over her, and she basically had to pour alcohol over her body to feel clean again,” Hindman said. “She’s just trying to get out, but she has a family to support. She’s been in it for 10 years.”
Hindman claims that “100%” of the women who work in strip clubs are sexually abused or raped while on the job.
But not all strippers think they need Jesus to be saved.

The ‘Divine’ volunteers leave a strip club in Anaheim.
Crystal, a stripper who works at The Library Gentlemen’s Club in Westminster, Calif., said that she still finds that stripping is a source of empowerment. It helps her pay for law school and keeps food on the table for her two kids.
She’s now studying to pass the bar and stripping on the side.
“I think you only are degraded if you allow somebody to degrade you,” the woman told our correspondence. What a lesson.