“Message of love”: Church holds community service in response to vandalism

Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette Good Shepherd Lutheran Church board president Jenny Deephouse cleans a vandalized church sign during a community service outside the church Sunday morning.

HOUGHTON — The need to respond to an act of vandalism brought people to the lawn of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Houghton Sunday morning. But Pastor Sarah Semmler Smith made it clear: It was a celebration.

“This is a time when we are relearning what our mission to the community is and reclaiming what it means to be a welcoming community for all.” she says.

Five days after the sign outside the church was defaced, more than 60 people helped clean the sign and update its message during a community service Sunday morning.

Well before Mother’s Day, the sign carried the message “God loves you the way He created you.”

On Tuesday, someone painted an addition: “Screw tape” preceded by a hyphen to indicate authorship. This was an apparent reference to the action of CS Lewis. “Screw letters” a satirical novel written in the form of a demonic bureaucrat in hell advising how to tempt someone to damn them.

When Smith saw the sign Tuesday morning, his first reaction was that of “sadness and humiliation”. As his friends and clergy responded, that sadness transformed into a sense of solidarity.

She was able to refocus, finding humor in the idea of “educated vandals”. His creativity returned, which led to the idea of the Sunday service.

“When we are so grounded in the grace of God and in the theology of grace, that openness to others and that openness to dialogue, that becomes our superpower,” she says. “So today I just wanted to pause and invite anyone who wanted to come help us erase hate from our sign, and even just ask, ‘What kind of community do we want to be?’ … Do we want to talk about ignorance or openness? Do we want to talk about actions done at night or conversations we have during the day? Do we want to settle for a judgment of others based on fear, or a grace that gives us the benefit of the doubt over and over again?

As many spectators sang songs, people erased the last remnants of the painted message.

People also came to exchange letters to receive the latest message from the Church.

The top line — “God loves you” – remains the same. But a succession of people helped add the letters of the new addition — “Happy Pride!” »

“As we enter this Pride month, I hope we can find ways to continue to stand up for others, especially those who may have been historically marginalized. » Smith said.

She also encouraged participation in the Pride Parade taking place on the Michigan Technological University campus, starting at Gateway Arch at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Jenny Deephouse, president of the Good Shepherd board, said Sunday’s service was important to let people know they are welcome. She was grateful for the participation.

“I know when Pastor Sarah and the board and I first heard about this, there was a lot of emotion, and then we were reminded that we love and we accept, and we can’t fight hatred with hatred”, she says. “We must fight fear with love. We won’t even call it hatred, we’ll just call it fear. »

Emily Falker of Houghton came to support people in the community and because she wanted to know how the church would respond to Tuesday’s vandalism.

“I think it was lovely.” she says. “I think spreading this message of love rather than retaliation is the way a lot of things should be approached in this world, so it was really nice to see the community come together like that.”

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