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Reflection from your Pastors
Thursday, July 4, 2024
Take a Stand
Artist V.L. Cox installation, "End Hates Doors",
was exhibited in June on the West End Ave steps of St. Paul and St. Andrew church in New York City. St. Paul and St. Andrew is a progressive United Methodist Church that seeks to build a community of radical welcome that follows Jesus into the streets of the city to increase the amount of love and justice in the world. Yet, the United Methodist Church in America, has enforced a ban on lesbian and gay clergy and same sex marriage since 1972, when the church deemed homosexuality "compatible with Christian teaching.” Only as recently as May 2024 has the Church reversed their 50+ year ban forbidding LGBTQ+ clergy to serve.
The series of doors was initially created in response to Arkansas's HB1228 which made
it out of committee in March of 2015. This discriminatory bill would have brought back
Jim Crow days where hatred and repression were the law of the land. The installation
was installed twice on the steps of the Arkansas State Capitol as a First Amendment
protest of the reckless and unjust behavior by the 90th General Assembly. Through
social media and the Associated Press, the series helped bring world-wide attention to
the struggle which ended in the defeat of HB1228. With similar bills being considered
and passed across the country, the installation was then taken to the Lincoln Memorial
in Washington D.C. The power and simplicity of the historic content strongly resonated
through the crowd. It brought people that were visiting from all over the world together in conversation in peace and camaraderie. And that is where change begins.
Being clear that all forms of oppression, which are global and persistent, are interconnected and structural: white supremacy, racism, heterosexism, ableism, class
disparities, etc,” the artist brought the “Doors” to the front steps of the church. “All of
those systems of oppression are connected, and we experience them simultaneously.
We have to dismantle all of those structural systems and cannot prioritize one over the
other.” (Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall, referencing bell hooks)*
Ms. Cox says she’d come to realize the importance of standing up for what’s right, of
making a difference and using her art to engender change. She reminds others they can
stand up, too. Because, as she says, “It just takes one person to stand.”
Thank you to MoM for standing up to end the oppression of all!
Mother Rosean
*Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall is the founding director of the Women’s Research and
Resource Center
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