They'll know we're Christians by our exotic dancing
A single mother condemned by her church for her job is holier than it is.
By Jennifer Foote Sweeney
May 17, 2002 | There is a God.
As last I have the proof I need. While so many others have been satisfied with faith and a personal knowledge of his/her mysterious ways, I have waited in vain for a sign. And now, at last, it has come. I have finally joined the fold, led to its comforting embrace by a nude dancer.
Her name is Christina Silvas, a 24-year-old single mother of a 5-year-old in Rancho Cordova, Calif. And as is often the case with vessels of divine intervention, these last few days have not been easy for her. Less than a month before the end of school, Silvas was told by her pastor -- Rick Cole of the Capital Christian Center -- that her daughter could no longer attend the church kindergarten and that she and her daughter were no longer welcome at the Assembly of God church where they have been loyal parishioners. The problem? Silvas' job as a dancer at Gold Club Centerfolds.
"If you choose to do the wrong thing willfully, then God's word instructs me as to what my responsibility is," Cole told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. "I need to be faithful to my calling."
But instruction and calling in this case appeared to come not from God but from Capital Christian Center gossips who circulated rumors about Silvas' employment, downloaded pictures of her from the Gold Club Web site, and brandished them at the school, leading Cole to expel Silvas' daughter and turn the pair out into the cold. How does that hymn go? "They'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we're Christians by our love." It happens that even the most cynical heathen can spot Satan's hand at work in this one.
More:
http://dir.salon.com/story/mwt/feature/2002/05/17/nude_dancer/Stripping mom posing for Playboy
Ray Delgado, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, May 31, 2002
Within days after giving up her job as a stripper so that her 5-year-old daughter could finish kindergarten at her Christian school, Christina Silvas of Rancho Cordova pocketed an undisclosed sum to pose nude for Playboy's Web site.
Officials at Capital Christian School in Sacramento were stunned and disappointed when they found out Wednesday that Silvas once again violated the standards of the agreement she had signed. Only this time, they are not going to expel her daughter, with only a week left in the school year.
<snip>
She is a
former Sunday school teacher at her daughter's school, which is part of the 4,000-member Capital Christian Center, one of the largest Assemblies of God churches in the country.
Members are not supposed to dance, drink or smoke, and watching movies and television is discouraged. More:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/a/2002/05/31/MN77750.DTL