Florida church that hosts naked paint parties loses tax-exempt status

A church in Panama City, Fla., that hosted naked paint parties and slumber parties with the “sexiest ladies on the beach” has lost its tax-exempt status after authorities were alerted to its activities.

The Life Center: A Spiritual Community has been hosting a daily party schedule called “Amnesia: The Tabernacle” since Feb. 28, the Panama City News Herald reported. The string of parties — including the pyjama-and-lingerie Sunday slumber party and an event called “Wet n Wild” described as “White Water meets Tabernacle PCB with a little twerkin'” — is reportedly sponsored by a company called iDrink, and caters to college students on spring break.

Partygoers must pay $20, a donation that a sign at the front says goes back to the church, to enter a room with walls bearing t-shirts of stick-figures performing oral sex and the words “I hate being sober.”

The property is owned by Markus Bishop, a former pastor of the Faith Christian Family Church, who could not be reached by the News Herald for comment.

“I’ve been in a lot of nightclubs and I’ve been in a lot of churches,” said Panama City Beach police chief Drew Whitman. “That isn’t a church.” 

Rishi Iyengar

Photo : Rebecca Smeyne