Gay nativity scene vandalized at Claremont church

[n2doc]

An unusual nativity display at a Claremont church that portrayed gay couples was vandalized over the weekend in an incident authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

Claremont United Methodist Church has a Christmas tradition of unusual nativity displays, intended to carry a social or political message.

Despite some of the controversial topics, the scenes had never been vandalized or defaced, according to church officials and John Zachary, the artist who created the scenes.

But this year, suspects vandalized a nativity scene that included wooden light boxes with three couples holding hands -- a man and a woman, two women and two men -- under a star of Bethlehem and a sign that said "Christ is Born."

more
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/12/lgbt-nativity-scene-vandalized-claremont.html

[Scuba]

1. No one could have predicted that. n/t

[Irishonly]

2. Much better article than what was written in the local paper

I have been ill and not reading or getting out and just heard about it. It makes me sick. It was a beautiful nativity. People sometimes forget that even in so-called liberal places hate exists. You go less than 100 miles east from Claremont and you can find yourself in neocon haven. Our local paper had an article that stated the police were treating it as a hate crime but the article has disappeared.

[Fearless]

3. Doesn't any nativity scene carry a social or political message? n/t

[laconicsax]

4. I find it interesting that a Methodist church would have such a display.

The UMC is rather anti-gay:

While persons set apart by the Church for ordained ministry are subject to all the frailties of the human condition and the pressures of society, they are required to maintain the highest standards of holy living in the world. The practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Therefore self-avowed practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.

...

Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.

...

The General Council on Finance and Administration shall be responsible for ensuring that no board, agency, committee, commission, or council shall give United Methodist funds to any gay caucus or group, or otherwise use such funds to promote the acceptance of homosexuality or violate the expressed commitment of The United Methodist Church "not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends" . The council shall have the right to stop such expenditures. This restriction shall not limit the Church’s ministry in response to the HIV epidemic.

[jumptheshadow]

5. Yet there are exceptions...

This is the creed of our local United Methodist church, which is a real light in our community:

"Hand in Hand, we the people of Park Slope United Methodist Church - black and white, straight and gay, old and young, rich and poor - unite as a loving community in covenant with God and the Creation. Summoned by our faith in Jesus Christ, we commit ourselves to the humanization of urban life and to physical and spiritual growth."

They also will allow no marriages at all inside the church until everybody can marry.

[beyurslf]

6. One of the larger UMC churches here is one of the most accepting of the gay community.