For two Sundays in January PCMK hosted the amazing posters of the "Humanize not Militarize" project. They were on loan from the American Friends Service Committee in Chicago where our daughter Debbie works. The posters were grouped under the themes of the important justice issues of our time, such as war, policing, borders and prisons. They were made by artists around the country and they could be beautiful or quite upsetting, but they always made you think, and that is obviously the goal.
The posters were part of our MLK weekend focus at PCMK which included the preaching of Rick Ufford-Chase in worship. Rick challenged us to reflect on our position of privilege and how that has gotten in the way of our message of God's justice. After the posters were up for two weekends at PCMK, we took them to Stony Point Conference Center and the meeting of the Hudson River Presbytery. There I led a "community conversation" based on the posters and the issues they speak to. Currently the posters are on display at the new Art Center at Stony Point as part of a Lenten exhibit.
I have my favorites from the collection, but it was fascinating to watch other people react to the various posters. Everyone I talked to thought they were amazing and provocative. I'm sure not everyone agreed with the perspective being shared, but no one objected to being exposed to such thought-provoking art.
If you are interested, you can check out the "Humanize not Militarize" project at AFSC by using the following link: http://allofus.afsc.org/posters.
Thank you to all the artists and the people of AFSC who work so hard to make us live up to our ideals of liberty and justice for all.
See you in church (or at the Art Center),
Pastor Dale
