Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA (ANS) -- A contemporary interpretation of the nativity scene featuring homosexual couples holding hands was struck by vandals early Christmas morning in Southern California, an attack police are labeling a hate crime.
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Light box with two gay men holding hands |
“Our congregation is a reconciling congregation,” says Rev. Dan Lewis, one of the appointed clergy staff at Claremont United Methodist Church. In 1993, after a “difficult” debate, the church decided to welcome homosexuals into the fold. “Gay and lesbians are not a large portion of our congregation, but we have a very public welcome.”
For the last several years, the church’s “creative peacemaking task force” has developed contemporary interpretations of the nativity, led by artist John Zachary. The first year the task force met they decided on a homeless theme, which featured the holy family in an alley laden with trash and shopping carts. “The original family was homeless,” Rev. Lewis notes.
In response to the display, people began to drop bags of groceries at the front of the nativity, which led to the birth of a Christmas homeless outreach.
Another nativity scene depicted the holy family in the hub of Middle East warfare, surrounded by soldiers in combat fatigues. Last year, Mary appeared as an African-American woman in a prison cell, without Joseph. “There are a great number of African-American women in prison compared to other ethnic groups,” Rev. Lewis notes.
The church receives a wide range of comment in response to their creative license. “It’s an interpretive art,” Rev. Lewis observes. “It’s to raise the consciousness of people going about their busy Christmas stuff,” he says. “What if Christ were to come today? Where might it be?”
The display that evoked controversy this year included a lighted tree with a “diversity statement” below it. Surrounding the tree were light boxes with three couples displayed. One box featured a male-female couple, another portrayed two women, and another two men – under the star of Bethlehem and a sign that declared “Christ is born.”
Mark Ellis is a senior correspondent for ASSIST News Service and the founder ofwww.Godreports.com. He is available to speak to groups about the plight of the church in restricted countries, to share stories and testimonies from the mission field, and to preach the gospel. mark@Godreports.com |
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