This past Monday, at the weekly docent lecture at the Portland Art Museum, we got to hear from the amazing leadership of the museum about their vision for the future. It was incredibly empowering and exciting to hear bold leaders casting a way forward for the organization.
The head of the education department, Mike Murawski, talked about how he has been working with other museum professionals around the country to think about museums as places of transformation. He talked about how museums need to embrace the active role they play as agents of change in their communities. In the past people had seen museums as neutral spaces, places where art was appreciated in a vacuum. Museums are about engaging their communities, creating spaces for big ideas and diverse voices. Visitors are engaging in social action and developing empathy in museums. Mike and his friend, LaTanya Autry, who is the Curator of Art and Civil Rights at Mississippi Museum of Art and Tougaloo College, developed a t-shirt which proclaims “Museums Are Not Neutral” as a reminder of this important reality for museum visitors. All profits from the sale of the shirts go to important causes, the latest one being food empowerment for Puerto Rico. You can learn more and order your own shirt or hoodie here!
I felt so much connection to what Mike was talking about because I have heard time and time again over the years that churches should be neutral. We believe in the separation of church and state in the USA. I can’t advocate for a candidate in my role as a pastor. This is all true, and yet churches are not neutral. Churches are agents of change in our communities. We are organizations that are about the justice of God. We are places where people should be experiencing transformation and having a positive impact on their neighbors. Too often we have let ourselves be neutral. We do not want to offend anyone or alienate people with the radical nature of the gospel so we water it down to a neutral faith of feel good affirmations.
Church is a place where we are changed so we might go out and change the world through love, through hope, through justice. The church I know advocates refuge for the immigrant, mercy for the poor, accountability for the powerful, inclusion of all people, release for the captives, healing for the ill, and justice for the oppressed. None of that is neutral. Maybe someone out there needs to make us all a “Church is Not Neutral” shirt to remind us when we begin to be complacent and comfortable that we are about something so much bigger than ourselves.
I’m proud to be part of the art museum, a place that understands the power of community and joyfully takes on the responsibility of helping make our community and our world a much better place. And I’m proud to say the same about the churches I serve as part of the Southeast Portland Parish.
-Eilidh
Can’t wait for my sweet new hoodie to arrive!
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