Spinning to a Christian beat derailed at Whitefish health club

By KRISTI ALBERTSON

The Daily Inter Lake

Following a ban on religious music in exercise classes, some Whitefish residents and Wave members are concerned they've been excluded by the community health club's policy of inclusiveness.

The hubbub began after the board of directors told a spinning instructor he could no longer play contemporary Christian music during his classes. Once religious music was banned, people stopped attending.

"That was the reason they were there, was for that type of music," instructor Bob Bouillon said.

Bouillon started the class after a group of people asked if he would teach it and play Christian music. Many of them wouldn't attend other spinning classes because they were offended by the lyrics in those classes' music.

Bouillon sympathized with this point of view.

"There's some pretty raunchy stuff in music out there today," he said. "I have kids and I would never let them go to a regular class because of the type of music that was played."

Bouillon also was concerned that a number of other spin classes were being canceled, so he agreed. He became a certified instructor and the class began meeting at 5:30 a.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

At first, the class was just an informal group of people who spun together twice a week. As more people joined, however, The Wave began to pay Bouillon for his work. Eventually, Tuesdays averaged nine spinners and people had to show up early on Thursdays to secure one of the 15 available bikes.

Caty Adams attended the class when she had time.

"When I would go to the class, the music was great," she said. "It was Christian praise music, very uplifting, very motivating."

Not everyone shared her opinion. Concerned the music might be offensive to some people, Wave director Art Krueger asked Bouillon to announce before each class that he would be playing contemporary Christian music. If anyone was offended, Bouillon would have to play something else.

No one ever spoke out against the music in class, said Joe Coco Jr., who attended it.

"Overwhelmingly, people were saying, 'No, I love this music,'" he said.

Eventually, though, The Wave's board of directors received a couple of letters complaining about the music. After some lengthy discussions, the board decided to ask Bouillon to stop playing Christian music altogether.

The decision by the seven-member board was nearly unanimous, said Dan Weinberg, board president, and apparently bans any religious music.

"It's our mission to be inclusive, to include the entire community," he said. "As we understood that, some people in the class were uncomfortable with religious music. In an effort to be inclusive for everybody, we asked them to stop.

"We did offer them the opportunity to do it in another way if they wanted to," he added, explaining that the group could rent the room and make the class private. "But as long as it's a community activity, then we're not going to encourage any single group that might exclude others."

It's because The Wave is a community facility, built with both tax dollars and public donations, that many people are upset by the board's decision to exclude a particular type of music. They're also concerned that they were denied the opportunity to address the board directly.

"I'm not a big spin guy. I just don't like a community organization that is soliciting my tax-deducted dollars to remodel and build a huge facility that there's nothing taxed on, and then saying, 'We're going to alienate a significant portion of the Whitefish community,'" Coco said. "If The Wave were to come out and say, 'We're private; we're a corporate entity,' I'd salute them with both hands."

Coco submitted a letter to the board containing names of 60 people challenging the Wave's decision on religious music.

Once religious music was banned, people stopped coming to Bouillon's class and it eventually was put on what Krueger calls "summer vacation." When warm weather arrives, more people want to exercise outside than inside.

"We put it on vacation, as we did several classes, because of summer," he said.

Bouillon decided he no longer wanted to teach, which Krueger said also contributed to the demise of the class.

Many people in the class, though, say they quit going because of the Christian music ban.

There is only one spin room at The Wave. That factored into the board's decision, Weinberg said: This was the only class available at that time, and the time was convenient for a lot of people.

"It was a Wave-sanctioned activity, and we don't want to exclude people," he said.

But the reason people were coming to the class in the first place was for the music, Coco said.

"It's not like there's a bunch of people trying to get in there," he said. "It's empty most of the time. There was no class being offered during that time, and Bob went and said, 'I'll do it for nothing.'"

Currently, The Wave offers spinning classes no earlier than 9 a.m. six days a week.

The ban affected more than just Bouillon's spinning class. People were talking about starting aerobics and water aerobics classes that played Christian music, he said.

"They really put the kibosh on the Christian community," he said. "It's not like we're having Bible studies there or anything.

"To me, it's a motif," he added. "You may like rap. I wouldn't like rap, but some people might want to spin to rap music."

The Wave's policy of inclusiveness means it tries to eliminate any music that people might find offensive, Weinberg said.

"We try to exclude music that would be upsetting for anybody," he said. "We try to exclude music that has obscene messages. We're trying to make the place comfortable for everybody."

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com