Progressive Christian church goes viral for inclusive signs: 'End Islamophobia'
A Christian church is posting progressive marquee signs that are feminist and LGBTQ-positive.
Clackamas United Church of Christ (UCC) in Milwaukie, Oregon, has been displaying the messages for the past ten months so people know that “God loves you just as she created you,” as one sign read.
“It’s been a wild ride,” Rev. Adam Ericksen, 40, tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “People always write to me saying, ‘I wish I had a church like yours in my town,’ so I look online and I help them find a UCC nearby. People shouldn’t have to work so hard to find us.”
On Tuesday, a Facebook photo of Ericksen’s latest sign, “Harriet Tubman deserves to be on the $20. End white supremacy” was liked 1.6K times, posted after the Trump administration postponed the redesign of the new $20 bill to feature the historical abolitionist.
Ericksen wrote, “Harriet Tubman deserves to be on the $20. She is not because of the ideology of white supremacy that continues to suppress our black siblings. This is one more example in our long history of racism. Christian faith calls us to work for a world without white supremacy.”
Other church signs recently spelled out, “People without insurance have heartbeats. Healthcare for all,” and “Our transgender siblings have heartbeats,” both commentary on “heartbeat” abortion laws in Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, and Georgia.
Ericksen tells Yahoo Lifestyle that his messages are pretty traditional. “When Jesus was resurrected, he came to see Mary Magdalene first and Apostle Paul shared his Letter to the Romans with a woman named Phoebe — with some exceptions, women weren’t always silenced.”
A UCC sign once read, “To be clear, no woman should be called horseface” after President Trump used the word against his alleged mistress Stormy Daniels. That sign wasn’t anti-Trump, says Ericksen — it was pro-woman. “If my son called a woman horseface, he would be grounded.”
The reverend follows the news to understand “how the gospel speaks to current events,” telling Yahoo Lifestyle, “If we’re excluding and marginalizing people, that’s when I post a sign."
Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:
Cancer patient, 10, fulfills last wish to attend church service: 'He was just all smiles'
'Odds were against us, God was not': Bibles, crosses survive church fire
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